Calvin Ramirez
Professor Hatfield
ENG495
27 April, 2015
A Slayer Among Heroes: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Recently, my niece has been seeking a hero to satisfy her highly imaginative and energetic interests. I recommended Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Joss Whedon and, to my surprise, faced much criticism from the residents in my household: my mother claims that Buffy is too graphic for a child, believing the show has themes far too suggestive for a young girl, and my brother dismisses the brand altogether, diminishing her status to simply a ‘girl show’ that holds no resonance in the role of super heroes. This denouncement of Buffy caused me to be dumbstruck, for, even though I have been an avid fan of the show and am aware of my bias towards its' mastery, the show as well as the comics series has been widely recognized in both academic studies and fandoms. To see that Buffy is denounced because of its main protagonist being a female is disappointing, for she has been a huge part of my personal growth and offers great ethical values that are applicable to all genders. Furthermore, her denouncement as something less than a super hero in relations to someone like Superman is even more dumbfounding. Buffy Summers, among other male and female characters within the universe created by Joss Whedon, is well deserving of a place both on the young adult, adult, show-watcher and comic-reader shelf because the positive empowerment and graceful growth in the TV series, the super-hero tropes and commentary used in the comic series, and the global expansion that the brand as a whole has experienced.
Beginning from the first episode in season one, “Welcome to the Hellmouth”, the Buffy television series created a type of childish, Goosebump-type show that allowed each episode to serve on its own, molding out the personality traits of each character and putting them in whimsical, fantastic adventures involving vampires and demons. In these battles, various events that occur can be seen as metaphors for real life horrors that young adults can face. In the episode “I Robot, You Jane”, Willow is infatuated with a boy she has met online. Dismissing numerous warnings from both Buffy and Xander on the dangers of online dating, Willow meets the boy she has been chatting with and discovers that he is a demon trapped inside of a computer due to an accidental computer scan of ancient magic text. Almost holding a kind of foresight to today’s youth obsession with online media, Buffy makes a statement about online dating that is seemingly even more important a decade later. Furthermore, episodes such as “The Harvest” include Willow, among other teenage girls, wandering off with boys in dark places. A boy who escorts Willow through the cemetery corners her in a mausoleum and attempts to bite her. As well as serving as a warning to not talk to strangers, this can also be seen as a metaphor for rape. Whedon often uses various fantasy elements in his works to represent larger subjects, such as Willow’s magic obsession being seen as a metaphor for drug addiction, which we see in later seasons.
Even though the show ventures into dangerous metaphoric topics that can be translated into magical ‘drug’ addictions and sex with vampires as a representation of girls ‘always falling for the bad boys’, early episodes of the series and the graceful transition into mature topics shows how the series is not only a show, but a set of moral values that remain applicable through a young adult’s aging process. For example, it isn’t until the middle of season two that the series explores the idea of sex, when Buffy loses her virginity to her love interest, Angel, who has turned evil because of a spell cast on him. Buffy is saddened and must face the fact that Angel is not who she previously thought she was, and inevitably has to kill him to stop a portal from opening that will swallow the world. Buffy is now a junior in high school, and has had sex for the first time. However, the sex scene is done with little explicit nature and the word ‘sex’ itself is only mentioned one or two times throughout the whole season (they replace it with phrases such as ‘slept with’). It isn’t until season 4 that Buffy actually has casual sex, when Buffy goes to college.
The graceful growth of Buffy Summers in the series is valuable for young adults, and in a world where young adults have access to information on the internet and chatting apps are becoming common, a character such as Buffy Summers may be a viable option to show to a young adult that may be exposed to ‘stranger danger’ or are getting over the heartbreak of a boy that’s not the same. And because Buffy Summers does not remain the same, such as children show characters like Kim Possible, the viewer themselves can grow and allow Buffy to experience things with them, allowing her to be applicable to a young girl with season one of Buffy, and allowing more mature audiences to partake in the adventures of Buffy’s adulthood (later seasons and comic series). As mentioned in “Bibliographic Good vs. Evil”, even a show centered around a bubble-gum chewing high school cheerleader can lend value to the adult viewer, claiming that the presence of Rupert Giles, Buffy’s librarian and Watcher, has defeminized the stereotypical role of a librarian and has relabeled the adult in a predominantly young cast something other than boring and overly demanding of hierarchal respect. Even in a spectrum beyond the characters in the show, the cast itself holds a respect influential to young adults. According to “Power Girl/ Girl Power: The female action hero goes to high school”, youth responses were overly positive upon learning that Sarah Michelle Gellar, that actress who plays Buffy, has a black belt in Tai Kwan Do. Even the actors themselves have something to admire.
Even though the growth of Buffy Summers and the moral lessons of the show are bold enough to make a pure argument in defense of the series, it is rather the comic series that sets Buffy in an area not exclusive to Kim Possible and Xena, but instead next to Superman and Batman himself. According to “The Superhero Reader”, “the superhero is defined by three core constituent elements: mission, powers, and identity.” (Hatfield, Heer, Worcester 1) To put Buffy next to Superman, we must acknowledge all of her similarities, both in and out of the text. In the early Buffy comics published by Dark Horse, now compiled in seven different omnibuses, Buffy Summers is given an origin story: she is the latest in a long line of girls given super abilities from higher powers to act as a protector of the balance, the defender of humans against the constant fight against vampires. She was a high school freshman and burned down her school gym in order to save everyone from vampires that planned to massacre the prom. Buffy is kicked out and all of the witnesses claimed Buffy burned down the gym and people on drugs broke in. Nobody believed the truth, regardless of Buffy’s constant claims, and she was forced to relocate to the only school that would accept her, Sunnydale High, of which conveniently sits atop a massive source of dark energy, the Hellmouth. This story is also explained in the 1992 film “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, starring Kristy Swanson.
This, in itself, is in close relation to Superman, the grand representative of all that can be seen as comics and heroes. Buffy has a backstory that started small and, today, may seem silly or too campy. However, it was these early comics that created the Buffy origin, and, like Superman, it was the globalization and multi-media representations of Buffy that molded the series into what it is today.
After experiencing multiple video games, comic series, a spin-off of the vampire love interest Angel, action figures and a potential animated series (which sadly didn’t get picked up from any network), Buffy was then elevated to true comic acknowledgement in the season 8 comic series. In these series, Buffy is now surrounded by over 2000 slayers, a result of the giant spell she cast on the last episode of the show causing all potential slayers to receive their powers without the previous slayer dying. Because of this, some slayers chose to use their powers to overthrow government control and to act as dictators. This act was seen in a smaller scale through the evil character Faith in the television show, of whom earns forgiveness through acts of redemption and even gets a comic spin-off with Angel, of whom both make amends for their sins by doing good.
Because of the massive slayer numbers and the few that choose to be villains with the power, the government has labeled the slayers as a global threat and works with former show villains to bring Buffy and her team of slayers down. Buffy must assume a secret identity and hide away, having two girls pretend to be her in an attempt to divide her enemies. The slayer powers are explained scientifically in the season eight series, claiming that Buffy’s existence is to maintain a balance, a fight always fought and always lost. The example they used was a bat and a fly, claiming that the fight is never a fair one, for the bat will always be stronger and larger than the fly. Buffy is the fly that is given bat-strength, and by giving all of the ‘flies’ the power of the slayer, she tipped the scales. Because of this, the universe began to end because Buffy had transcended to a new level of existence, where alternate dimensions would leak into the world and overcome it, and Buffy’s superior breed would create new life. Like Superman and other super heroes, Buffy assumes a secret identity, faces government interference, has super powers (of which grow to flying, Flash-like speed and Hulk-like strength by the end of the comics), and a mission to save the world.
However, differing from Batman, Buffy Summers does not necessarily do what is always good and instead beats to her own drum, deciding what is good and bad and at times dismissing judgment altogether in order to save a friend. To Buffy, friendship is everything. When characters with super human abilities reach a higher calling, they usually choose to explore it (All-Star Superman creates a universe, Dr. Manhattan leaves earth to create life). However, Buffy is “compelled to exhibit compassion regardless of exhaustion and discouragement… Buffy’s acts of love and compassion are relatively unique not only in the world of superheroes, but also in the world of slayers. She breaks the mold in her own mythos, rejecting the patriarchal Watcher’s council and trusting her own knowledge and skill, as well as consulting her loved ones in order to make informed and just decisions.” (Stuller 230) Unlike Superman and Batman who work in solidarity, Buffy utilizes her friendships to succeed. Previous slayers were also told to work in solidarity because the life of a slayer or ‘hero’ is a lonely one. However, Buffy defies that, and manages to change the entire history of slayers by doing so.
Buffy’s globalization in comics, media, games, and toys can be seen as successful as other super heroes, but it is the comic and hero tropes that the series comments on that truly puts Buffy in the right place. If the story was about a young girl fighting vampires, the argument against the slayer might be valid. However, the show contains elements mirroring that of historical heroes, following the formulas and techniques taken to create such a figure, and manages to have a character that everyone can relate to. Not only Buffy suitable for the young girl, it is suitable for the comics reader, and if the avid comic reader should decide to pick up an issue, they may decide that the hero they previously seen in a ‘girly show’ may be the one that defeats Superman. If Dark Horse ever got the rights, Buffy is in more than a perfect place to be the Wonderwoman that came from high school instead of Amazonia, just like us.
Works Cited
Hatfield, Charles, Jeet Heer, and Kent Worcester. The Superhero Reader. N.p.:
n.p., n.d. Print.
Reid-Walsh, Jacqueline, and Krista Walsh. "Power Girl/Girl Power: The Female
Action Hero Goes to High School (A Review of the Television Show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer")." Wiley on Behalf of the International Reading Association, 1999. Web. 2015 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/40014068>.
Decandido, Grace Anne A. "Bibliographic Good vs. Evil in Buffy the
Vampire Slayer." American Library Association, 1999. Web. 2015.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25637287
Siegel, Jerry. Shuster, Joe. Sikela, John. The Superman Chronicles. New York: DC
Comics, 2011. Print.
Professor Hatfield
ENG495
27 April, 2015
A Slayer Among Heroes: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Recently, my niece has been seeking a hero to satisfy her highly imaginative and energetic interests. I recommended Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Joss Whedon and, to my surprise, faced much criticism from the residents in my household: my mother claims that Buffy is too graphic for a child, believing the show has themes far too suggestive for a young girl, and my brother dismisses the brand altogether, diminishing her status to simply a ‘girl show’ that holds no resonance in the role of super heroes. This denouncement of Buffy caused me to be dumbstruck, for, even though I have been an avid fan of the show and am aware of my bias towards its' mastery, the show as well as the comics series has been widely recognized in both academic studies and fandoms. To see that Buffy is denounced because of its main protagonist being a female is disappointing, for she has been a huge part of my personal growth and offers great ethical values that are applicable to all genders. Furthermore, her denouncement as something less than a super hero in relations to someone like Superman is even more dumbfounding. Buffy Summers, among other male and female characters within the universe created by Joss Whedon, is well deserving of a place both on the young adult, adult, show-watcher and comic-reader shelf because the positive empowerment and graceful growth in the TV series, the super-hero tropes and commentary used in the comic series, and the global expansion that the brand as a whole has experienced.
Beginning from the first episode in season one, “Welcome to the Hellmouth”, the Buffy television series created a type of childish, Goosebump-type show that allowed each episode to serve on its own, molding out the personality traits of each character and putting them in whimsical, fantastic adventures involving vampires and demons. In these battles, various events that occur can be seen as metaphors for real life horrors that young adults can face. In the episode “I Robot, You Jane”, Willow is infatuated with a boy she has met online. Dismissing numerous warnings from both Buffy and Xander on the dangers of online dating, Willow meets the boy she has been chatting with and discovers that he is a demon trapped inside of a computer due to an accidental computer scan of ancient magic text. Almost holding a kind of foresight to today’s youth obsession with online media, Buffy makes a statement about online dating that is seemingly even more important a decade later. Furthermore, episodes such as “The Harvest” include Willow, among other teenage girls, wandering off with boys in dark places. A boy who escorts Willow through the cemetery corners her in a mausoleum and attempts to bite her. As well as serving as a warning to not talk to strangers, this can also be seen as a metaphor for rape. Whedon often uses various fantasy elements in his works to represent larger subjects, such as Willow’s magic obsession being seen as a metaphor for drug addiction, which we see in later seasons.
Even though the show ventures into dangerous metaphoric topics that can be translated into magical ‘drug’ addictions and sex with vampires as a representation of girls ‘always falling for the bad boys’, early episodes of the series and the graceful transition into mature topics shows how the series is not only a show, but a set of moral values that remain applicable through a young adult’s aging process. For example, it isn’t until the middle of season two that the series explores the idea of sex, when Buffy loses her virginity to her love interest, Angel, who has turned evil because of a spell cast on him. Buffy is saddened and must face the fact that Angel is not who she previously thought she was, and inevitably has to kill him to stop a portal from opening that will swallow the world. Buffy is now a junior in high school, and has had sex for the first time. However, the sex scene is done with little explicit nature and the word ‘sex’ itself is only mentioned one or two times throughout the whole season (they replace it with phrases such as ‘slept with’). It isn’t until season 4 that Buffy actually has casual sex, when Buffy goes to college.
The graceful growth of Buffy Summers in the series is valuable for young adults, and in a world where young adults have access to information on the internet and chatting apps are becoming common, a character such as Buffy Summers may be a viable option to show to a young adult that may be exposed to ‘stranger danger’ or are getting over the heartbreak of a boy that’s not the same. And because Buffy Summers does not remain the same, such as children show characters like Kim Possible, the viewer themselves can grow and allow Buffy to experience things with them, allowing her to be applicable to a young girl with season one of Buffy, and allowing more mature audiences to partake in the adventures of Buffy’s adulthood (later seasons and comic series). As mentioned in “Bibliographic Good vs. Evil”, even a show centered around a bubble-gum chewing high school cheerleader can lend value to the adult viewer, claiming that the presence of Rupert Giles, Buffy’s librarian and Watcher, has defeminized the stereotypical role of a librarian and has relabeled the adult in a predominantly young cast something other than boring and overly demanding of hierarchal respect. Even in a spectrum beyond the characters in the show, the cast itself holds a respect influential to young adults. According to “Power Girl/ Girl Power: The female action hero goes to high school”, youth responses were overly positive upon learning that Sarah Michelle Gellar, that actress who plays Buffy, has a black belt in Tai Kwan Do. Even the actors themselves have something to admire.
Even though the growth of Buffy Summers and the moral lessons of the show are bold enough to make a pure argument in defense of the series, it is rather the comic series that sets Buffy in an area not exclusive to Kim Possible and Xena, but instead next to Superman and Batman himself. According to “The Superhero Reader”, “the superhero is defined by three core constituent elements: mission, powers, and identity.” (Hatfield, Heer, Worcester 1) To put Buffy next to Superman, we must acknowledge all of her similarities, both in and out of the text. In the early Buffy comics published by Dark Horse, now compiled in seven different omnibuses, Buffy Summers is given an origin story: she is the latest in a long line of girls given super abilities from higher powers to act as a protector of the balance, the defender of humans against the constant fight against vampires. She was a high school freshman and burned down her school gym in order to save everyone from vampires that planned to massacre the prom. Buffy is kicked out and all of the witnesses claimed Buffy burned down the gym and people on drugs broke in. Nobody believed the truth, regardless of Buffy’s constant claims, and she was forced to relocate to the only school that would accept her, Sunnydale High, of which conveniently sits atop a massive source of dark energy, the Hellmouth. This story is also explained in the 1992 film “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, starring Kristy Swanson.
This, in itself, is in close relation to Superman, the grand representative of all that can be seen as comics and heroes. Buffy has a backstory that started small and, today, may seem silly or too campy. However, it was these early comics that created the Buffy origin, and, like Superman, it was the globalization and multi-media representations of Buffy that molded the series into what it is today.
After experiencing multiple video games, comic series, a spin-off of the vampire love interest Angel, action figures and a potential animated series (which sadly didn’t get picked up from any network), Buffy was then elevated to true comic acknowledgement in the season 8 comic series. In these series, Buffy is now surrounded by over 2000 slayers, a result of the giant spell she cast on the last episode of the show causing all potential slayers to receive their powers without the previous slayer dying. Because of this, some slayers chose to use their powers to overthrow government control and to act as dictators. This act was seen in a smaller scale through the evil character Faith in the television show, of whom earns forgiveness through acts of redemption and even gets a comic spin-off with Angel, of whom both make amends for their sins by doing good.
Because of the massive slayer numbers and the few that choose to be villains with the power, the government has labeled the slayers as a global threat and works with former show villains to bring Buffy and her team of slayers down. Buffy must assume a secret identity and hide away, having two girls pretend to be her in an attempt to divide her enemies. The slayer powers are explained scientifically in the season eight series, claiming that Buffy’s existence is to maintain a balance, a fight always fought and always lost. The example they used was a bat and a fly, claiming that the fight is never a fair one, for the bat will always be stronger and larger than the fly. Buffy is the fly that is given bat-strength, and by giving all of the ‘flies’ the power of the slayer, she tipped the scales. Because of this, the universe began to end because Buffy had transcended to a new level of existence, where alternate dimensions would leak into the world and overcome it, and Buffy’s superior breed would create new life. Like Superman and other super heroes, Buffy assumes a secret identity, faces government interference, has super powers (of which grow to flying, Flash-like speed and Hulk-like strength by the end of the comics), and a mission to save the world.
However, differing from Batman, Buffy Summers does not necessarily do what is always good and instead beats to her own drum, deciding what is good and bad and at times dismissing judgment altogether in order to save a friend. To Buffy, friendship is everything. When characters with super human abilities reach a higher calling, they usually choose to explore it (All-Star Superman creates a universe, Dr. Manhattan leaves earth to create life). However, Buffy is “compelled to exhibit compassion regardless of exhaustion and discouragement… Buffy’s acts of love and compassion are relatively unique not only in the world of superheroes, but also in the world of slayers. She breaks the mold in her own mythos, rejecting the patriarchal Watcher’s council and trusting her own knowledge and skill, as well as consulting her loved ones in order to make informed and just decisions.” (Stuller 230) Unlike Superman and Batman who work in solidarity, Buffy utilizes her friendships to succeed. Previous slayers were also told to work in solidarity because the life of a slayer or ‘hero’ is a lonely one. However, Buffy defies that, and manages to change the entire history of slayers by doing so.
Buffy’s globalization in comics, media, games, and toys can be seen as successful as other super heroes, but it is the comic and hero tropes that the series comments on that truly puts Buffy in the right place. If the story was about a young girl fighting vampires, the argument against the slayer might be valid. However, the show contains elements mirroring that of historical heroes, following the formulas and techniques taken to create such a figure, and manages to have a character that everyone can relate to. Not only Buffy suitable for the young girl, it is suitable for the comics reader, and if the avid comic reader should decide to pick up an issue, they may decide that the hero they previously seen in a ‘girly show’ may be the one that defeats Superman. If Dark Horse ever got the rights, Buffy is in more than a perfect place to be the Wonderwoman that came from high school instead of Amazonia, just like us.
Works Cited
Hatfield, Charles, Jeet Heer, and Kent Worcester. The Superhero Reader. N.p.:
n.p., n.d. Print.
Reid-Walsh, Jacqueline, and Krista Walsh. "Power Girl/Girl Power: The Female
Action Hero Goes to High School (A Review of the Television Show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer")." Wiley on Behalf of the International Reading Association, 1999. Web. 2015 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/40014068>.
Decandido, Grace Anne A. "Bibliographic Good vs. Evil in Buffy the
Vampire Slayer." American Library Association, 1999. Web. 2015.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25637287
Siegel, Jerry. Shuster, Joe. Sikela, John. The Superman Chronicles. New York: DC
Comics, 2011. Print.