Fri. October 19, 2012
By Danny Bernardo
Buffy has always made monsters and demons a metaphor for life's trials and tribulations. So it is fitting that the constant bullying normal gay teen Billy endures happens amidst an epidemic of zompires (zombie-vampire hybrids) plaguing his small town. When one of his main tormentors becomes a zompire, Billy teams up with ally and crush "Cute Devon" to begin training as a Slayer and make a difference in his town.
The beauty in this story is its simplicity. It has its ties to the epic mythos of the Buffyverse sure, but Season 9 leaves us in a world of no magic, a world where the Slayer legacy of super-strength is no longer passed on. In the series, it wasn't the powers that made Buffy a hero, it was how she used them. With Billy, it's not anything that makes him a hero other than that he chooses to be. I hope that every LGBT youth and ally reads this book. It is a huge inspiration of empowerment when the world tells you that you can't. Kudos to writer Jane Espenson on the start of an amazing story. I hope we see more Billy in BtVS Season 9 or (fingers crossed) his own series.
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