The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1214: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow, December 2009

Back to Buffy for a bit. This issue was published as part of the Season 8 revival, but is set just after the end of the television series. Willow is moving past the loss of Tara, finding some respite in Kennedy's arms, and is still trying to figure out what kind of a witch she actually is. Lots of people seem to be very scared of her, so she goes on a vision quest of sorts to find guidance.

What's great is that this is a predominantly female comic - I think there's only one male character, and he's solely in the background. The ethereal council of witches that Willow encounters are all women, and it's the sexy serpent lady on the cover who eventually becomes her guide. We've seen this character before, in flashback, but this is the first time we get to see the genesis of Willow's relationship with her. It's definitely a queer relationship, too, as you might guess from the cover.

As with the many of the mainstream comics I've looked at this month, Willow's affectional orientation is given about as much attention as a heterosexual orientation would be. We see some affectionate words exchanged between her and Kennedy, and the odd comment directing us away from heteronormativity. There's an interesting shift that appears to happen in the decade or so between the Vertigo titles I've looked at and the later stuff like this issue or Detective Comics - the stories move away from dealing with the fact of being queer, and into the world with queer as simply another way of being human. Which, in a fantasy or superhero setting, is an interesting conversation to be having.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1199: Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Willow & Tara: Wilderness #1, July 2002

I should admit, right off the bat, that I've never been a fan of the Buffy comics universe. It seems like a no-brainer for me. I love the show. Like, love love the show. But the comic has always simply left me cold. Even when the story was "officially" continued in Season 8, it was never at the top of my list. As I consider it now, I think that the comic never quite embraces the level of camp that the television show, as a result of effects technology, had to. The comic doesn't have to worry about its effects budget, and this would usually be a pro as far as adaptation goes. But Buffy the Vampire Slayer, right from the title, embraces its ridiculousness, its campiness. It's a similar problem that I see in contemporary superhero films, Deadpool and Ragnarok aside, perhaps, that refusal to embrace the silliness of the superhero.

But that's beside the point for our purposes today. Let's talk about the iconic relationship that is Willow and Tara. One of the first out and proud lesbian relationships I ever saw on television. Two badass women who took no shit from anyone, loved each other soooo much, and were imperfect, flawed, and human. Today's comic takes place, I think, just before Buffy returns in season six, and Willow and Tara are in their best Moms mode with Dawn. I have to say it's my favourite period for the couple. They've stopped being awkward, both with each other and to the rest of the world, they trust each other implicitly, and, Buffy's death aside, life seems to be going pretty well.

As with Batwoman's story, Willow and Tara's queerness is not central to the plot of today's comic, and really is only evident in a few panels. And the expression on Willow's face when the ladies decide to save their naked witch dancing for later, to save Dawn the embarrassment, is really all you need to see to understand their relationship. They just love each other. But the expression of that love is almost a throwaway moment - it's deployed to set up the punchline of the naked dancing later euphemism. Not that this is a bad thing. Really, it's the type of joke that any relationship can, and often is, used to set up. The knowing wink and the "We'll have dessert later" exchanged between husband and wife in a sitcom, for example. So having this kind of simple humour set up by a queer relationship is, in some ways, a wonderful example of mainstreaming or normalizing.

Willow and Tara. Leading the pack again.

More to come...