This is probably my favorite out of the three stories that make up the High School Years series, though I wish the idea of the demon compensating for that which Joyce feels she is missing would have been more accurately conveyed; perhaps the message would have been more precise if the demon had been more deliberate with its victims, as in, that the people picked as "parents" weren't chosen based on mere availability but on them being individuals who the demon knew needed to play a caretaker role—however, I'm not sure how the logistics in terms of Buffy actually finding out about the foe's existence would have worked out had that been the case.

I'm not an avid comic reader by any means so maybe my opinion re: artwork is foolish but I don't really see the problem with the style? I feel like it being "childish" as some have described it fits right in with the feel of most of S1 BtVS, which was quite light-hearted and campy most of the time. Yes, those of us who are familiar with the show know the tone ended up drifting from that but I still think these stories are quite faithful to what the beginning of the show was like.