COMICS BLEND

  Buffy, The Vampire Slayer Season Nine #14 will introduce a new twist on the vampire killer. Jane Espenson and Drew Greenberg will introduce Billy: a gay male without “slayer” powers.

  The series went off the air in 2003 but adventures in “Buffyverse”continue in Dark Horse Comics. Joss Whedon (The Avengers) executive produces the continuing comic book series. In Buffy mythology only young girls are “chosen” to become slayers so why Billy?

  Espenson says she developed the character while working on her web series Husbands.

  “I already knew [the character] Cheeks, and he has a line in Season 1 of Husbands, that Brad [Bell] wrote, that really struck me about how Cheeks has an ‘exotic femininity’ that’s equated with weakness,” she told OUT.

  “I thought: ‘Gee, all the work we’ve done with Buffy is about being female, and how that doesn’t mean that you are lesser’. It suddenly struck me: If being feminine doesn’t mean that you’re lesser, then liking guys also doesn’t mean you’re lesser.”

“For very good reason, we’ve focused on the female empowerment part of Buffy, but I wondered, ‘Did we leave something out? What if someone in high school is looking up to Buffy as a role model, and we’re saying: You can’t be a slayer’.”

 Billy is a new character who trains himself to fight like a slayer.

 “He may not have the actual powers of the slayers, but he’s determined to be his own kind of hero, one who’s sort of modeled after those who do have the power, and he sets out to make due with what he has,” said Greenberg.

 “Batman doesn’t have super powers. He wasn’t gifted with an exotic foreign birth. So we take the Batman route; Billy is earning the Slayer mantle,” Espenson adds.

  Billy’s introduction is the latest chapter in GLBT characters (Willow and Tara)and storylines of the “Buffyverse.” 

  “We’re hardly pandering when we make a comic book,” Espenson said. “There’s always growing pains when making progress, but I think cynicism in the face of inclusion may not be a profitable route in making progress.”

   Here in Seattle, GeekGirlCon welcomed Espenson and the cast of Husbands earlier this year. Dark Horse Comics will bring Husbands to comic books later this year.

Thanks to OUT.

By Editor