After the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show ended, Buffy Summers’s story continued with Dark Horse comics. While the TV show never had to deal with a world full of Slayers created by the series finale, the comic continuation, which ran from 2007 to 2018, continued Buffy's story in all sorts of crazy directions.
A lot can happen in 11 years of monthly comics. Some of the comic's narrative content was based off of Joss Whedon's plans for Buffy spin-offs, and generally the sequel series remains faithful to the spirit of the original — even in the Buffy comics' craziest storylines. While Buffy remained recognizably herself, she ended the series in a very different place than she was at the end of the TV series.
Season 8 starts with Buffy operating a team of Slayers in Scotland. She goes through a whirlwind of smaller events, including Buffy traveling to the future to meet Fray and starting a conflict with rogue Slayer Simone. The big conflict with Buffy comes from the villain Twilight, who turns out to be Angel under mind control. Before the mind control can be broken by smashing the Seed of Wonder (the source of almost all magic on Earth), Angel kills Giles. Following this, Buffy runs away to San Francisco to avoid her responsibilities.
In season 9, Buffy is adjusting to the world without magic. She helps the local police fight “zompires”, the new type of vampire caused by the lack of magic. She’s pulled back into big conflicts when the Slayer's sister, Dawn Summer, starts dying due to the lack of magic. Rogue Slayer Simone comes back into the story with Severin, a human who drains demons of their energy. Buffy eventually uses Willow and Severin’s power to recreate the Seed of Wonder, bringing magic back to Earth, but changing magic in the process.
Season 10 sees Buffy still in San Francisco. She has Giles to help her now, having been resurrected in the body of a child. Buffy restarts her relationship with Spike, but he’s committing murders under the control of Archaeus, the ancient vampire who sired the Master. Archaeus is using the Restless Door, a portal to hell dimensions, to try and take over the Earth. Buffy eventually saves the day using the Vampyr book to rewrite the rules of magic, and subsequently takes a place on the new Magical Council.
Buffy's story is less grandiose in season 11. She is living with Spike in San Francisco when a dragon attacks. This leads to all supernatural beings being rounded up in the “Safe Zone”. Although she isn’t required to go, Buffy voluntarily enters the camp, just to discover how much is wrong with it. She helps lead an escape from the prison and discovers its role in Project Pandora, a government conspiracy to build a machine to suck the magic out of supernatural beings. This goes all the way up to Joanna Wise, an official in the White House who wants to be the only being in the world who can use magic. Buffy and Willow cast a spell to imbue Buffy with the power of all the Slayers, which she uses to overcome Wise’s magical abilities and defeat her.
Season 12 sees Buffy breaking up with Spike and living a more quiet life. It’s interrupted by an attack on Wolfram & Hart, Attorneys at Law (introduced in Angel), which Harth Fray, from Wheddon's Fray comic, is involved in. Buffy travels to the future of the Fray comic again, learning she’s doomed to fight in a hell dimension for the rest of her life. Undeterred, Buffy travels back to the past and defeats Harth. The story ends with all of the surviving Scoobies together, celebrating her and Faith’s graduation from the San Francisco Police Academy.
This marks the end of Buffy's story, as the Buffy comics moved to Boom! Studios after season 12. The current Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic is a reboot of the series, telling Buffy’s story from the beginning, but set in the modern day.