Joss Whedon is once again returning to the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, albeit in comic book form. Although he has been serving in an executive producer type role for the Buffy comics since the beginning with season eight, he has not written any actual Buffy issues since about season nine. The current Buffy season of comics is 11 and is expected to wrap soon.

But Whedon isn’t returning to Buffy the Vampire Slayer proper. Instead, as just announced at AV Club, he’s writing a four issue Dark Horse Comics mini-series based around her former Watcher, Rupert Giles, as he begins life in an inner-city high school–not as a teacher, as a fifteen year old student.

For anyone who hasn’t been paying attention to the Buffy comics since the TV series ended, Giles died in the climax of season eight, killed by the season’s Big Bad. Eventually he was resurrected by Angel, but in a new pre-teen body with all of his middle-aged man memories intact. Now, little Rupert is 15, and about to enter high school in America for the first time. Check out a preview of the cover art:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Giles will be a four-issue miniseries debuting on February 28 that sees Ripper, as Giles was once nicknamed, enrolling in an inner-city public school to investigate the mysterious disappearance of teachers. Whedon isn’t tackling this storyline alone; he’s teaming up with writer Erika Alexander, artist Jon Lam, and colorist Dan Jackson to chronicle “Giles the awkward years,” take two.

About Giles’ return to high school, Whedon told AV Club, “Sunnydale was, apart from being on a hellmouth, a pretty privileged place. Giles has never really dealt with the public school system as it exists for most kids. He’s never been to the city. Giles has always had the advantage of being a part of the system that educated him. He was taught to be a watcher in a family of watchers. His education was, in the grand British public school tradition, both expansive and parochial.”

All that sounds great, but will teenage Giles take off and clean his glasses with the same regularity that middle-aged Giles did??

Are you stoked for Whedon’s return to the Buffyverse? Let us know your thoughts below in the comments.

Images: Dark Horse Comics / Twentieth Century Fox

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