The First Gay, Male Slayer Debuts in Buffy Season 9

Posted by Kevin Farrell on Sep 11, 2012 in Comics | 8 comments

Writers Jane Espenson and Drew Greenberg will introduce a game-changer into the Buffyverse with Buffy Season 9 issue #14 in the form of a gay, male slayer named Billy.

Billy the Vampire Slayer

“Billy actually predated the idea of doing a Husbands comic,” Espenson explains. “I already knew 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. 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.”

This changes everything.

But does it dilute the GRRL power core of Buffy?

And lest anyone toss about accusations that Greenberg and Espenson are mucking around in shark-jumping waters here, I’d like to remind everyone that Joss Whedon himself is said to co-plot the major beats of this series and handpick the writers.

Controversy is nothing new to the series, which follows the surviving Scoobies’ adventures from where the television show ended. Writes Andrew Chambliss and Whedon tackled abortion (and robots!) in a previous issue, and LGBT themes and characters are a staple of the shared media universe.

So what do you think? Can gay boys be slayers? Should the special quality that makes a slayer have been reserved for young women? Or is a trans (robot!) reveal just over the horizon?

(via CBR)

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1159735563 Andrew Kieffert

I think that if it is well written and explained within the Slayer Lore, maybe as a first but explained none-the-less, it’ll be great. I mean there are many speakers on these issues of Gay men being even less than women within the eyes of both genders. I think a Gay Slayer should maybe be part of a redundancy system. Remember Luke in season one of the show states that a male slayer got the jump on him because he was sleeping. Or maybe it was the dentures making it sound that way…lol I love Joss, and Buffy. Been entranced since the cheesy 90′s movie. A Gay Slayer could make sense…maybe he is part of another bloodline…I could see as a punishment maybe some elders made a Gay male tribal member fuse with the essence of a demon as penance or maybe a blessing…empowering him to be a protector of humankind, besides who says the first girl slayer was straight. Maybe the first slayers were Gay. Makes sense since in many times within societies Gays have been entrusted with varying things, why not fighting back the swell of the forces of evil. lol
http://www.facebook.com/celticdenefew Denise Atwood

Well I love Joss and the Buffy series, but I haven’t kept up with the comic at all, so I don’t know if it would make sense in the comic world. But seeing as how the Slayers were all women, I’d rather see a trans slayer than a gay male slayer – that to me would stay more with the TV series. But maybe it would make sense in the comic, I don’t know.
Also, I wouldn’t think a flamboyant, campy gay male would make a good slayer, though a bear would. But then that defeats the “weak” idea. So really it’s just a can of worms I don’t see the point in opening. But a trans MTF I would totally support. The idea that “he” really is a “she” trapped in a man’s body, and is seen that way by the “powers that be” would be cool.
As far as gay men being less than women, I’m not really sure if that’s true considering there are still hundreds of laws trying to be passed which limit the control a woman has over her own body. I guess it all depends on how you look at it.
Please forgive my lack of political correctness – not being insulting, just blunt.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Darrell-White/1449454205 Darrell White

I’ve seen a fanfiction like this before, the explanation was that the character was FTM trans.
beezlebub78

I fell in love with the show because it had a female hero and really did focus on female empowerment. I kinda feel like they are taking away from the true message they’ve had all this time if they allow a male slayer. I have no problem with a gay male fighter, but a male slayer just takes away what the show has been since 1997..and that is a world circled around Buffy a (FEMALE slayer) who’s powers continue on and on with female to female, not men. Not trying to be unfair, but I love it the way it is. I don’t even read the comics because I like to remember the show how it was when it ended. There are special reasons why I love this show.
http://twitter.com/PeteWMarshall Pete

Much like Alan Scott (green lantern) recently coming out, I hope that this is all done within established continuity to create a new, kickass character and not just to have a token gay slayer. If it’s all done well, it’ll be cool, if it’s done badly, it’ll be awful (see Marvel Comics Rawhide Kid series for details of how to REALLY screw it up)

http://www.facebook.com/KryptonianBaby Justin Castellano

I agree. I’m all for diversity in comics and general geekdom lore, but sometimes I feel like it’s being shoehorned in. My rage couldn’t be contained at the announcement that peter parker was being replaced by miles morales, not because of the race change, as I’m hispanic as well, but because I loved peter parker as the everyteen outcast, and I felt like it was done purely for the sake of race relations. I’d have been okay with it if PP had been losing popularity because of a series of bad writing choices that had turned the population against him (none intentional, because we all remember how the fans took it when they made hal jordan evil in emerald twilight), and this was just a perk of reintroducing a superhero, but it wasn’t the case. Thank god it took place in the ultimate universe, which has been derped since ultimatum anyway, leaving my earth 616 alone. Also, there are plenty of awesome characters that are gay, such as hulkling and Jamie Maddrox, and those character attributes were able to be smoothly added since those characters didn’t have an established identity nor had their sexuality been referenced, much less explored. Felt more organic, and felt like it was a writer adding a dynamic, as opposed to a company making a poster boy to draw in a demographic.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=887180542 Michael Blank

what is wrong with his mouth?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003194154215 Isabella Sophia Lenore LaVierg

It’s totally canon that all Slayers are girls. BUT, gay male Slayers are a possibilty.
Remember when they all kept saying “there’s ONE Slayer?” Buffy died, was revived, yet another Slayer was called. That one died, and Faith was called. Buffy and Willow made all the Potentials full Slayers. As long as Joss and co. explain it in a really creative, clever way, I don’t think we should get our knickers in a knot over it

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