Twilight (Buffy Comic) - Spoiler Leak

Spoiler Leak

Twilight's identity was not revealed in the comic itself, but rather via comic book cover solicitations and subsequent interviews with Comic Book Resources. Prior to the release, Season Eight artist Georges Jeanty had mocked up a spoof cover depicting the revelation that Twilight was US President Barack Obama. Due to the April solicitations releasing covers by Jo Chen and Georges Jeanty which clearly show Twilight to be Angel, and of actor David Boreanaz' likeness, Scott Allie was interviewed by Comic Book Resources. Allie stated that he had known of Twilight's true identity "from the get-go" and had struggled to keep it a secret all this time; four years ago, Whedon wrote out a "Buffy Manifesto" which included the identity of Twilight which was circulated under strictest confidence to Dark Horse editorial and the various comic and TV writers who would be contributing to the series.

Allie also spoke to Chris Ryall, editor of IDW Publishing, to assure and "make clear" to him that that their parallel narratives would "jibe", so as to prevent "some big conflict with IDW continuity". Allie also stresses that for readers, the big reveal should not be who Twilight is, but rather why Angel is Twilight and how Buffy will react to this, commenting:

'The Big Bad' is a phrase that originated from Joss in 'Buffy' – this idea that in a season you might have a whole lot of people to fight, but there's one Big Bad, one major villain that you have to defeat at the end. But this is not like that. Right now it feels to everybody on the outside like, 'Oh, the cat's out of the bag! Twilight is Angel!' but the question all the fans are asking is not really the right question. If this was any other book and Twilight was any other villain, that would be the question to ask. But the question right now is 'How does Buffy react to the fact that Twilight is Angel?' It's not as simple anymore as 'Now we've got to deal with the bad guy.' 'It's all about relationships.' I remembered that, and it's been a guiding principal in my career. That line jumped back at me this morning thinking about this spoiler being out there. Because it is all about relationships – if it was any other villain, it'd just be a question of who kills who, but it's a much bigger question than that. Who's going to ally themselves with Angel and Twilight? There are still some big surprises in store. It's not as clear as it appears to be with those covers slipped out. —Scott Allie on storytelling and the Twilight reveal.

The reveal led to the trending of the #twilightisangel hashtag on the popular microblogging site Twitter. Subsequently, Dark Horse Comics posted on their Twitter, "Readers, we mean not to offend you. Knowing what you do will not spoil the great ending of Joss's Season 8. Trust us." IDW editor Chris Ryall posted a related teaser poster for the upcoming Spike ongoing, a spin-off from the Angel series which will focus on the heroic vampire Spike. The image, drawn by artist Franco Urru, is in the format of a comic book cover headed "Spike", and depicts Spike burning Twilight's mask with the tagline "He definitely isn't Twilight." Brian Lynch, writer of IDW Publishing's own canonical Angel: After the Fall and an upcoming Spike series came up with the idea on the night of the announcement. Franco drew it to completion the very next day, and it posted to Chris Ryall's blog shortly after.