Buffy #12: Slay gay

*SPOILERS, SWEET UNHOLY HELLMOUTH, SPOILERS!*

I don’t know how many more ways I can say this or if, at this point, I can even be more emphatic but, JOSS WHEDON ROCKS! Yes, that’s right, all caps ’cause I means business. You see, Joss and his masterful Buffy Season 8 comic book has gone where no Buffy the TV show has every gone before. Namely, Buffy sleeping with a girl. Or -- I should say -- decidedly not sleeping with a girl, but instead getting hot and sweaty in the sheets with a girl. That girl being fellow Slayer Satsu, who it was revealed last issue is also in love with Buffy. Yow to the Za. [Click any of the images to enlarge the hot, sweaty slayer action. Ahem.]And you know what rocks even more? This development is so “Yowza!” that even the venerable New York Times deemed it story-worthy. Oh, yeah, with art and everything. And in the article Joss explains why Buffy, who has heretofore been as straight as a stake to the heart, gets her Sapphic Slayer on now:

“We’re not going to make her gay, nor are we going to take the next 50 issues explaining that she’s not. She’s young and experimenting, and did I mention open-minded?”

Buffy the Heterosexuality Slayer? Well, maybe just this once. In issue No. 12, titled “Wolves at the Gate,” Buffy and Satsu are first seen in full post-coital glory. I’m not even going to get into the sheer mind-blowing possibilities of two slayers together. But, as any good Buffy/Faith-shipper can tell you, it’d be wow. Like, really, really wow.Of course, any good follower of the Buffyverse knows this way leads pain, heartbreak and possibly a fiery death. So, I can’t help but I feel for poor Satsu. And even she knows what she has gotten herself into. As Satsu tells Buffy:

“I know you didn’t just ... turn gay all of a sudden.”

To which Buffy replies:

“Right. Wait … How do you know that? Did I do something wrong?”

Ah, Joss. Bringing the sexy and the funny. Much more funny then ensues as every Scooby and his/her second cousin proceeds to walk in on their naked funtime. Note to Buffy: lock your door.

What I’ve always enjoyed about Buffy is that while it’s a fantastical show with vampires and werewolves and witches, at its heart it’s about our most basic human emotions. Love, desire, pain, anger, friendship, responsibility. And in this storyline, I feel like Joss and the issue’s scribe Drew Goddard have once again gone someplace very human. I mean, ladies, who among us doesn’t know a straight girl who one night in a fit of lust looked at the nearest, hottest lesbian and said, “Hell, why not?” And, conversely, who among us have been that lesbian who looked back at her and said, “OK, sure.” Hello, paging Molly and Shane, paging Molly and Shane.So, is Buffy gay? No. Is Buffy horny? Duh. And now we’ll get to see all the glorious, awkward, heartbreaking repercussions of the straight girl/gay girl in love with her relationship. Speaking of which, anyone think Willow will be jealous? Or Faith? Joss gave the NYT his take on what Willow might be thinking:

“Willow might be defensive about it: ‘Well, I didn’t want to sleep with you anyway.’”

As is, Willow’s immediate reaction is pretty priceless: