Joss Whedon is returning to his beloved creation, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Whedon will co-write Buffy the Vampire Slayer's twelfth season. The new Dark Horse Comics series is titled Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 12: The Reckoning. Whedon is co-writing with Christos Gage, who penned the last two seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and wrote the first season of Angel & Faith. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 artist Georges Jeanty also returns to the series for Season 12.

While Whedon has maintained an “executive producer” role on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics, this will be his first time writing one since early in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 in 2011.

The new season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer picks up a year after the world-changing events of the finale to Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 11. Buffy and the Scoobies have had an unusually quiet year, with little to no vanquishing of evil. However, things pick back up again when Xander and Dawn’s housewarming party is crashed by unwanted guests: demons, Wolfram and Hart, and a vampire from the future named Harth. This encounter leads to Buffy being trapped in a time warp that could put an end to the line of Slayers for good.

Buffy the Vampire Season 12: The Reckoning’s foray into time travel means that Fray, the future Slayer, will also be making a return. Whedon created Fray in 2001. The Fray miniseries was meant to be set so far in the future that it could be considered canon without having a real bearing on where the Buffy television series went, but since Buffy moved into comics, Whedon has been able to bring Buffy and Fray together. It seems another team-up may be in store.

Faith, Angel, and Illyria – all characters who have been appearing in Dark Horse’s Faith & Angel and Angel titles – will also make the move over to Buffy the Vampire Slayer in Season 12.

Whedon is also co-writing a spinoff Giles miniseries that begins next week. The series sees Buffy’s longtime mentor – currently inhabiting a teenager’s body – attending high school to investigate a magical mystery.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 12: The Reckoning #1 goes on sale June 20.

Source: CBR.