Perhaps this is unfair of me to say, but well...I care more about Xander's reaction and how this affects him than what happened to Renee. I don't know if it's because she was a lesser-developed character stuck in the comic medium (doesn't seem as real as if she were a character brought over from the TV show nor was she around long to become very three-dimensional) or if it's because Xander is one of the main characters. But ultimately, Xander is my main focus for Renee's role in the plot. It's like how Marti Noxon would say the writers would be pitching a plot story and they'd keep this question in mind: 'how does this make Buffy feel?' That was always the focus for the show - how everything affects Buffy. And in this case, I feel the focus is how does Renee's death affect Xander.

Renee's opening scene with her internal monologue was beautiful and near perfect. Perhaps there is a strong argument to be made for the brevity of the latter moment between Xander and Buffy, that brevity doing justice to Renee's death. But ultimately, I would have liked to be keyed in to Xander's grieving process like we saw with Buffy after losing Angel or her mother, with Willow after losing Oz and Tara, etc. Maybe if it didn't happen in #15, that would have given it enough space to not detract from Renee's death scene. But the momentum of the comics means there was no opportunity to pause and see Xander's intense emotions. By #16 when we check back in with him, he's telling Buffy and Willow that he's dealing and doesn't want to dwell on it and urging Willow to fill him in on all the kinky details. Moving on full speed ahead.