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Buffy (right) in bed with fellow vampire slayer Satsu after a passionate night as revealed in the March 5 issue of Joss Whedon's Season Eight comic book based on the TV series ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ (Courtesy Darkhorse Comics)
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HOME > SOVO SCENE > FEATURE
By: DYANA BAGBY
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“Wow” was all she said.
Buffy Summers, also known as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, had that one simple comment after a steamy night of sex with fellow slayer Satsu in the comic book version of the popular television series.
And Satsu, that lesbian vixen who can convince even the toughest straight girl into the sack, responds similarly.
“‘That was ‘wow’’ pretty much covers it,” Satsu answered, beads of sweat dripping from her forehead.
The tryst is how the latest installment of Joss Whedon’s Season Eight, the comic book that follows Buffy’s post TV life, got even the New York Times to take notice in a story published March 5 — the same day the comic’s issue No. 12, titled “Wolves at the Gate Part I,” was released.
“I knew it would create not a ripple, but a wave,” says Georges Jeanty of Atlanta, who pencils the Buffy comic series by executive producer Whedon, the genius behind the wildly popular TV series that ran from 1997-2003. The comic book is put out by Dark Horse Comics.
“I had breakfast with Joss last year, and he was telling me what was going to happen. I’m thinking, that’s cool, that’s cool. And then he says Buffy sleeps with Satsu,” Jeanty says. “And then I’m thinking, ‘What?’”
She’s at that age where she’s experimenting and curious, Whedon explained to Jeanty, who became a true fan of the show after getting the gig to pencil the comic more than a year ago.
“I asked, ‘Are you serious? You’re going to have a lot of people upset, people who would not believe Buffy would do this,” Jeanty says he told Whedon.
But, as Whedon told him, we all have done something in our past, our youth, that was experimental. And, no, Buffy is not going to become a card-carrying Sapphic slayer because of this apparent one-night stand with Satsu.
“Buffy makes it very clear about her feelings and that she is not going to become gay, Jeanty says. “We’ll also see Willow [Buffy’s best friend and a lesbian] be inquisitive and even a bit jealous.”
Oscar Ramirez, 29, a gay man living in Fort Lauderdale and formerly of Atlanta, started reading comic books when he was 10, but stopped in high school. He decided to pick the hobby back up after Whedon started writing “Astonishing X-Men” in 2004.
The story about Buffy, Ramirez says, had a lot to do with the shock value and to do something different with Buffy.
“You could tell from how the panels were framed with the first panel focusing on them in bed right after sex that you were supposed to say, ‘Wait! … Hold on! … Is that? No … this is a dream … ohmygod, it’s not a dream … ohmygod they had sex … And she liked it!”
“I can see how a lot of fans might think this is out of character for Buffy,” he adds. “But she’s had sex with a formerly evil vampire in the middle of a packed nightclub. I feel like she’s always liked the nooky and is really just having fun.”
Jeanty promises fallout for the Buffy character will play out in future issues, but there is already plenty of backlash from Christian handwringers and hard-core Buffy buffs, acknowledges Season Eight Editor Scott Allie.
“All of Joss’ fans were freaking out,” he says.
Allie blames media coverage for some of the furor. The initial negative reaction was based on the New York Times article, he says. “But then people read the comic book and … moved on.”
An ABC News story looked at the story as a way for Dark Horse Comics to make money off a gimmick. “ABC News was looking for a way to stir up shit, provoke reaction,” Allie says.
The majority of protesters were “hardcore Christians” quoting scripture about how it was “hurting” young people reading the Buffy comic, he says. And fan mail has been a “mixed bag,” some saying, “Buffy wouldn’t have done this, totally out of character,” Allie admits.
But Buffy hasn’t grown up, he says, calling the story “natural and truthful.”
“This has everything to do with the points in their life they’re at,” Allie says.
Buffy joins a long line of lesbian and bisexual women in mainstream comics. Batwoman garnered headlines in 2006 when she was came out ...
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