Boom! Studios’ new Buffy the Vampire Slayer Slayerverse has introduced a variant of her friend Xander Harris who’s LGBTQ. It’s hard to believe that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is 25 years old. The franchise was a popular phenomenon, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as the teenage Vampire Slayer who dared to subvert all the classic horror tropes. Buffy was no damsel in distress; instead, she was the kick-ass heroine who saved the guys when they were in distress.
Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer may be phenomenal, but its legacy is troubled – and not just because of Whedon. Looking back, one of the most problematic characters in the show is Xander Harris, played by Nicholas Brendon. Although he was ostensibly Buffy’s best friend, there was a clear shallowness to their relationship; he spent much of the first season trying to get out of the friendzone. He moped and sulked when he realized Buffy wasn’t interested, and desperately tried to find ill-thought-through ways to impress her. Xander primarily viewed women as sex objects, while his constant insecurity led him to become incredibly manipulative.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics have recently embraced the “Slayerverse,” Buffy’s answer to the multiverse, and the concept has unlocked bold new iterations of the classic characters. The newest version of Xander is very different to the classic one, with his most problematic elements removed for a simple reason; he’s interested in guys instead. This is openly acknowledged in a short story in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer 25th Anniversary special, written by Sarah Gailey and featuring art by Carlos Olivares. The story then continues in the new series The Vampire Slayer, which is expanding on this by exploring a world in which dark magic has transformed Willow into the Vampire Slayer in Buffy’s stead.
It’s delightful to see a version of Xander who’s been stripped of the effect of all this toxic masculinity, and whose relationships with Willow and Buffy are frankly so much purer as a result. What is most striking about the comic, however, is that this latest iteration of Buffy the Vampire Slayer doesn’t make a big deal out of Xander’s sexuality. It’s simply a part of his character, and readers are expected to roll with it.
In a way Buffy’s new Slayerverse feels as though it is serving as a proof of concept for countless different iterations of Buffy and her Scooby Gang. It’s surely only a matter of time before Disney take advantage of the concept, lifting the best bits from the various Slayerverse timelines to create a new Buffy reboot. Disney would be smart to draw inspiration from this version of Xander in particular, continuing the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise’s history of diversity and avoiding all the harmful tropes associated with the original Xander Harris.
