In 1992, a movie called Buffy the Vampire Slayer debuted in theaters. It parodied on the horror film cliché where young, helpless blonde women were almost always the first to die.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is about Buffy, a cheerleader, who enjoys her life as a teenager in High School. One day, a stranger tells her that she was chosen to hunt monsters. Buffy’s new role as the Slayer requires Merrick, her Watcher, to train her for battle. The vampire master Lothos threatens to take over Los Angeles, and it is up to Buffy to stop him.
The script, written by Joss Whedon, had a different interpretation than the movie itself. For instance, Buffy was supposed to burn the gym down at the end of the movie.
The film experienced moderate success, but the television series developed in 1997 became very popular. A comic called Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Origin was published in 1999 to replace the movie that wasn’t considered canon.
Title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Origin
Writers: Daniel Brereton, Christopher Golden
Penciled by: Joe Bennett
Inker: Rick Ketcham
Colorists: Jeromy Cox with Guy Major
Cover: #1-Joe Bennett; #2-Joe Bennett & Rene Micheletti; #3-Joe Bennett & Hector Gomez
Alternate Cover: #1; #2; #3
Additional Inks for Issue #3: Randy Emberlin & J. Jadsen
Issues: #1-3
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: September 15, 1999
Price: $2.95
Side Notes: The comic was based off of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie script. It was released in a trade paperback and later reprinted in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus Vol. 1. The comics tied to other titles like Viva Las Buffy!, that prequels the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Origin had a more accurate depiction of the original movie script, despite some changes. For example, the audience was introduced to Buffy who was watching a film with friends. In the movie script, she was on the cheerleading squad for her school’s football team.
I felt giddy and embarrassed reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Origin.
In the comic, one of the villains was a large vampire bat. Vampires in the Buffy-verse would develop demon-like features later on in their undead life.
I kept questioning the age of the large vampire bat in relation to older vampires like Kakistos and The Master from the television series. I had grown to like that large vampire bat, despite his questionable existence.
I had never seen vampires with green skin, so it hadn’t been something I was used to seeing in the story. It felt like their body features were caricatures exaggerating their villainous demeanor.
I felt joy reading an ironic death scene that was deleted from the film.
I was slightly disappointed that the nerd did not resemble the actor Seth Green, who depicted him in the film.
Joss Whedon’s idea of a woman chosen to hunt monsters always seemed interesting to me. She would always carry the burden of saving others from destruction, and become self-destructive as well.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Origin was a delightful story to read. Although it had a better interpretation of the original movie script, it hasn’t deterred me from watching the film.
“Into Each Generation a Slayer is born…”
Princess Powerful
princesspowerful@comicattack.net
It was the movie that deterred me from anything dealing with Buffy…until one day i was stuck in bed w/ the flu and watched the Buffy season 3 marathon…after that I was hooked lol
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Lol yea. The movie is a hit or miss. I wonder if I’m the few that were actually excited about the show because of the movie lol.
I have every season of Buffy on DVD, I loved that show. The movie was great I loved Pee-Wee Herman’s death scene!
so the book is just an adaptation of the original script? hmmm…maybe i’ll take a look just to see if it’s better than the movie was. I did laugh at Paul Ruben’s death scene though lol
Lol Paul Ruben’s death always felt like it had an essence of Joss in it. I would love for him to be involved in one of Joss’s movie. I say that they’d be great together 🙂
Very informative Princess!