Oh. I know. There are a ton of interesting storylines that could be done with Spike losing his soul. It's just that given the overal 'qualilty' of the comics, I feel its a safe bet that this isn't one of those storylines.

And given the fact that this particular comic is already so full of absolutely terrible characterization, I don't think that it was a plot dreamed up based in exploring Spike's psyche or emotional landscape so much as to make him the butt of a joke (and if powerofthebook's speculation below proves true, for W to make Season 8 a butt of his joke with W shooting a metaphorical bird at Joss's equally lazy comic.)

And I'm back to wondering... how are these people professionals?