The Slayerverse from Boom! Studios' Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics is the best thing to happen to the franchise since the TV series ended. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of the most important and influential TV shows of all time. The series came to an end in 2003, with adventures set in that world continuing in the Angel TV show until 2004. Creator Joss Whedon initially chose to continue the story in comic book form - but recently, everything has changed.
In January 2019, Boom! Studios launched a new series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics. This reimagined Buffy and the Scoobies in the present day, and it proved to be a tremendously compelling tale. It didn't take long for Boom! to advance its story, however, unlocking an entire multiverse of Vampire Slayers. Multiverses are all the rage right now, and of course Buffy's is called the "Slayerverse."
The Slayerverse started out as simply an excuse to reboot Buffy's story in the twenty-first century, giving readers an opportunity to reimagine their heroes in the modern world. But more than that, it's also a chance to explore possible alternate timelines where things had played out very differently - a crazy funhouse mirror of the familiar world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. One of the most entertaining so far has been a dystopian future timeline in which the sun became dark, allowing vampires to step out of the shadows and forcing Buffy to retire - for a time. Buffy The Last Vampire Slayer twisted the entire story upside-down, leaving readers thrilled at this bold new interpretation.
Meanwhile, other spinoffs are exploring timelines in which Buffy is no longer a Vampire Slayer, or where the mantle has been passed on to someone else. One of the best to date is a miniseries in which Willow becomes a Vampire Slayer - the result of what seems to be a backfiring spell based on something called "chaos magic." The possibilities here are absolutely endless, with writers creating Slayers of every race, color and creed, set in the present day, many working in a post-Buffy world. Conceptually, it's similar to the approach Sony took with Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, where the film used Miles Morales to allow a whole new audience to imagine they could be Spider-Man; in the same way, the Slayerverse is a smart narrative concept meaning anyone can be a Slayer.
It will be fascinating to see the Slayerverse develop and evolve. Now that Disney owns the rights to Buffy, the best approach would be to use the comics as a proof of concept to see how different ideas resonate with readers ahead of the surely-inevitable relaunch of the TV series. Disney is effectively laying the perfect groundwork for its Buffy relaunch, and it's sure to be only a matter of time before some of the Slayerverse stories connect so well they become central to a new series extending on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.