Those looking for an intelligent, well-written, fictional exploration of the issues of pre-emptive war and other aspects of the war on terror could do worse than checking out Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, the new comic book series by Joss Whedon, mastermind of the Buffy TV series.

Most LRC readers know Whedon through his libertarian-themed sci-fi show Firefly and its movie follow-up Serenity, but he first claimed a spot in cult-TV history with Buffy. During its seven-year run, Buffy was one of the rare shows that was consistently well written and never insulted its audience’s intelligence. The only show that rivaled (and sometimes suppressed) Buffy was its spin-off Angel.

Warning: Major spoilers after the jump

Joss’ new comic series picks up where the TV series left off, with Buffy and her “scobby gang” finding and training the army of slayers created in the last episode’s climatic battle with the “First Evil.” However, the US Government has deemed Buffy and a slayer army a threat to humanity. The Government is convinced that Buffy and her army will eventually grow dissatisfied merely using their powers to protect humanity from the vampires, demons, and other things that go bump in the night. At some point, the slayers will decide to use their powers to remake the human world to their liking, and thus go from being humanity’s protectors to humanity’s oppressors. The US army is prepared to use every means at their disposal–including alliances with a very evil witch and a wannabe warlock–to launch a pre-emptive strike on the slayers.

While the analogy with recent events seams obvious, readers should not expect a simple “Buffy good, government bad” morality play. Knowing Joss, the storyline will likely include more than a few instances where the audience will be lead to question whether Buffy and the rest of the slayers do pose a threat to humanity and whether Buffy is really all that different from her nemesis. My description hardly does this remarkable tale justice, take my word for it and buy these books. You won’t regret it, time spent with Joss Whedon is always time well spent.