I really wanted to love this. I consider Buffy to be one of my all-time favorite TV series, so I was interested in a modern reboot and what it would do. There are some things that really work in it, and others that really don't.
I love the art, for the most part. While I love the cringey 90s fashion of the show, it was nice to see the characters styled differently. I loved seeing all of the cover variants at the back. For the most part, the characters look like the actors that portrayed them, but a few of them don't and I didn't immediately understand who I was supposed to be looking at, which made scenes confusing. I'm thinking specifically of Anya and Drucilla. I wonder if this series would work better or worse for people that don't have the same familiarity with the show.
I also liked some of the changes they made to characters and relationships, but some of them didn't work as well for me. I liked that Buffy has a part-time job, although that essentially disappeared after the beginning of the first issue. I like that Joyce and Giles have romantic partners. But there was too much Xander, and he seems a lot like he did in the show, and I feel like they could have evolved him to be way less annoying. He can be a lot more than just a nerd who pines after Buffy, and the show improved significantly once they let that plot thread die. I also am split on how they portray Willow. I like that she is out, but it doesn't seem like there's a lot of room for her to grow, since she's already into magic and has a girlfriend by the end of the first volume.
I also think the dialogue is very forced, trying to echo the Joss Whedonisms that just feel really clunky on the page. I think part of makes his quips work is delivery, which obviously doesn't happen in a graphic novel format. There were too many cheeky easter eggs for the fans, it felt like pandering without substance. I am willing to give this another volume, but overall I felt more annoyed than delighted by this revival.