Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Gay comics ‘a reflection on how we want to see ourselves’

“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 as a lesbian in the popular DC “52” series.

Andy Mangels, an award-winning comic book anthology editor who runs the website www.andymangels.com, has been in the business as a journalist and comic writer for 14 years. He has written for just about every comic company. In June 1988, he wrote an article titled, “Out of the Closet and Into the Comics.”

“At that time there were no openly gay creators in mainstream comics,” he says. “At the end of the article, I became that.”

Some considered Mangels’ article the “Stonewall movement” for gay comics. Since that time, homophobia has been frowned upon in most comics.

“In any other form of medium — like ‘Will & Grace,’ ‘Ellen,’ ‘Queer Eye’ — gays are all over TV and film. But in the comic world, they are still relegated to minor supporting roles,” Mangels says. “Or used as titillating female hot lipstick lesbians to turn on heterosexual fans and bring in sales.”

So was Buffy just being titillating to bring in new fans?

“No,” Mangels answers. “[The comic] is following the template of the TV series. [The TV show] explored all characters’ sexuality. Many questioned their sexuality, experimented.”

Still, lesbians in comics are much more visible sexually than gay men, Mangels says.

“Gay male characters exist as political statements, a victim, or sexless. There are the rare exceptions,” he says. “Lesbians are allowed to be sexy, ultraconfident, emasculating or be in a relationship.”

And, yes, there are transgender characters, but often they are tokens and exist to make a statement, according to Mangels. Rarely intrinsic to the story, trans characters “are an unusual addition to the storyline,” he says.

Allie, the Dark Horse editor, says comics like his exist on the fringe, which allows a certain freedom.

“We can do what you can’t do with Superman or Wonder Woman,” he says. “They gotta sell lunchboxes.”

Ramirez says he wishes for more sexual gay male characters. He remembers picking up comics again after learning Marvel Comics made Northstar, a member of Alpha Flight, gay.

“The first thing I thought of was, ‘Oh, that’s great’ and then ‘I don’t think they could have picked a bigger douche,’” he says.

The comic industry has experimented with gay characters but there still is no popular gay character that you can expect to see every month, Ramirez says.

“I feel that the inclusion of the gay characters lately has been more about publicity with some exceptions. So this means — the lesbians are everywhere!” Ramirez says. “I do feel however that in many cases the lesbian relationships are oversexualized as if the publisher is saying ‘It’s OK, girl-on-girl sex is hot! Look at them touch each other naked!’”

And, this, frankly, leads many gay male comic fans unsatisfied.

“Where’s my naked guy with only a tiny puff of smoke covering his naughty bits?” Ramirez asks.

Marvel’s Young Avengers series had a teenage gay couple, Wiccan and Hulkling, and the duo had a whole issue devoted to them coming out as superheroes but getting confused that they were being outed as a couple, Ramirez says.

“It was very cute and very real,” he says. “I literally teared up when they held each other.”

Joe Palmer, who runs the website gayleague.com, admits being a bit shocked by Buffy in bed with another woman, but he’s interested to see how the experience impacts the character.

“The awkwardness Buffy experiences seems very natural to me, and I trust Whedon to intelligently explore Buffy’s sexuality in a way that makes sense for the character,” Palmer says.

Even as recent gay characters are relegated to supporting roles that come and go, Palmer adds that there are a few that received more attention. Apollo and Midnighter (from DC/Wildstorm) are a married couple on their fictional Earth.

Midnighter is the only gay character to date with a continuing series, though how well his sexuality is depicted is arguable, according to Palmer.

But stories of heroes and superheroes hiding their identities resonate deeply with gay fans, he says.

“Comics sparked my imagination and they also became the primary means that stories were conveyed to me,” he says. “I was also beginning to understand I was very different from the other boys at school and church.”

And keeping people informed on their storylines is a passion.

“I didn’t want these characters and their stories to be forgotten,” Palmer says. “Despite being pop culture, they’re an important reflection on how others have viewed homosexuals and also how we want to see ourselves.”

Rob Beck contributed to this report.