Mr. Maclay: What?
Buffy: You heard me. You wanna take Tara out of here against her will? You gotta come through me.
Dawn: And me! (Tara smiles.)
Mr. Maclay: Is this a joke? I’m not gonna be threatened by two little girls.
Dawn: You don’t wanna mess with us.
Buffy: She’s a hair-puller.
Giles: And … you’re not just dealing with, uh, two little girls. (Tara smiles even more.)
Xander You’re dealing with all of us.29
Tara’s father is furious and insists that “you people have no right to interfere with Tara’s affairs. We are her blood kin! Who the hell are you?”
Giles, Dawn, Buffy, Willow, Tara, Xander, and Anya stand in solidarity, even Spike is included in the background. Buffy states with resolute love, “We’re family.”30
Tara has no demon in her—the accusation was a misogynist ploy by the Maclay men to keep their women oppressed. But it wouldn’t have mattered to the Scooby family. As Jes Battis observes in his book, Blood Relations: Chosen Families in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, in Whedon’s created families,
You can be a werewolf, a vampire, an ex-vengeance-demon, a witch, a covert government agent—you can even be queer, which is still a stumbling block for most primetime offerings. Heredity, biology, genetics, appearance, class, gender, sexuality … none of these signifiers are crucially definitive within the Buffyverse. Your access to the Scooby Gang is based on your commitment to its mission, and your inherent sense of loyalty. Once you’re in, you’re loved—it’s that simple.31
According to Battis, this episode illustrates that for the Scoobies, “blood kin” will never be as powerful as “family.” Rather, in the Buffyverse, family is measured by emotional attachment, not heredity.32 He adds that Buffy reorders the definition of family so that it encompasses members based on compassion rather than genetics and is therefore a perfect example of caring community.33
Of heroic collaboration and community, Sharon Ross writes, “while traditional heroes of the past have been made tough via their individualism and their ability to confront obstacles by themselves, modern female heroes such as Buffy, Willow, Xena, and Gabrielle grow as heroes because of their friends.”34 She adds that they “are not heroes for other women so much as they are heroes with them” (emphasis in original).35 Of course, on Buffy, it’s necessary to add that women are also heroes with men. Instead of being the “one girl in all the world,” Buffy rejects the traditional solitary mission of the Slayer. She chooses to collaborate with her friends, women and men working on equal footing—spiritually and even occasionally physically—forming a symbiotic entity or “group” hero, as in the episode “Primeval” (4.21).36
In this final battle of Season 4, Buffy and the Scoobies join together to defeat the “Big Bad” of the season, an uber-enemy named Adam. The group discusses how to extract Adam’s power source, a uranium core embedded in his half-human, half-monster body. Willow suggests a magical solution:
Willow: What about magic? Some kind of, I don’t know … uranium-extracting spell? (Everyone looks at her in disbelief.) I know, I’m reaching. (Giles stands up.)
Giles: Perhaps a paralyzing spell. (He walks over to the bookshelf and pulls a book off) Only I can’t perform the incantation for this.
Willow: Right. Don’t you have to speak it in Sumerian or something?
Giles: I do speak Sumerian. It’s not that. Only an experienced witch can incant it, and you’d have to be within striking distance of this object.
Xander: See what you get for takin’ French instead of Sumerian?
Buffy: What was I thinking?
Xander So no problem, all we need is combo Buffy—her with Slayer strength, Giles’ multi-lingual know how, and Willow’s witchy power. (Giles looks at him.) Yeah, don’t tell me. I’m just full of helpful suggestions.
Giles: As a matter of fact, you are.37
The friends agree to do a “joining” spell so that each of the Scoobies’ individual strengths will be embodied in Buffy. In doing this, the Scoobies create the ultimate superhero—and not just on special occasions such as this particular episode, but throughout the series run, though in a more figurative sense. The joining spell in yet another metaphor indicative of the “high school is hell” based series that illustrates what we can do heroically with our lives when we have the strength, trust, support, and love of our friends. Buffy may be the heroic vessel, but her friends are her heroic source. As Jana Reiss notes in her book What Would Buffy Do? The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide:
In Buffy’s world the most powerful individuals are those with a strong support system—friends and family members who share responsibility and heartache and who encourage one another to fight the good fight. The show doesn’t preach about friendship … instead, Buffy shows us the power of friendship in action and prompts us to ask ourselves why friendship makes us so much stronger.38
The obvious question that follows is, “Why aren’t the X-Men and the Justice League of America also examples of this kind of ‘group’ hero?” The answer is that the JLA are solitary heroes who happen to periodically work together, and though the X-Men are something of a created family, they don’t always demonstrate the depth of connection the Scoobies share. These individualistic superheroes don’t play off each other’s talents and don’t seem to be inspired by one another, no matter how much respect they have for their colleagues. In contrast, the Scoobies have a familial love for one another that is fueled by their profound connectivity. Comparing the JLA to the Scooby Gang is like comparing co-workers to soul mates.
Through the Scoobies’ enlightened example of collaboration, our traditional understanding of heroic tropes is once again rocked by Whedon. Though old-standard Jungian archetypes are recognizable in the Buffyverse, in Whedon’s mythological world, the hero/ine, the sidekick, the lover, the sage, the trickster, and the great mother, all become champions whose unique capacities are of equal heroic importance. They are much more than a team—they are a heroic entity.
Max Guevara also has female friends, though unfortunately they are too often peripheral to the story. Her roommate Kendra disappears midway through the first season of Dark Angel when she moves in with her boyfriend, and interactions with Original Cindy are brief. As with Buffy Summers, Max’s family is a combination of choice and origin and includes her “Sister Girl” Original Cindy, the X-5s she trained (and escaped) with, their children, and Logan Cale. Max’s love for her family helps her evolve from a pouty, jaded, uber-sultry, and understandably self-protective girl to a courageous leader—a superwoman. This evolution is hinted at from the very beginning of the series, in Max’s initial encounter with Logan when his eye catches the statuette she was in the process of stealing:
Logan: You have good taste. French, 1920s, a tribute to Chitarus.
Max: Whoever that is.
Logan: Oh. So, what? You liked it ‘cause it was shiny?
Max: No. Because it’s the Egyptian goddess Bast—the goddess who comprehends all goddesses, eye of Ra, protector, avenger, destroyer; giver of life who lives forever.39
Bast is depicted as a woman with the head of a lion or in the full form of a domestic cat. It’s not a stretch to say that Max is an avatar of this goddess—especially as in Season 2 we see her fully come into her role as a compassionate leader, who protects her family and her communities.
In the beginning of Season 2, when Logan and Max have exposed the location of Manticore, the organization sets fire to the facility without evacuating its transgenic population. But Max arrives and releases her brothers and sisters from what would have been a fiery tomb. Many have never been outside the Manticore groups, most have been trained as soldiers, several have been tortured to madness, and some look so different from humans as a result of their animal DNA that they could only be called “freaks.” Survival for many will be difficult: as Max continually points out, people fear what’s different.
Contrary to her “
like I care” attitude expressed in the pilot, Max takes responsibility for releasing the transgenics into an unfamiliar and unfriendly world. Over the course of the season, she aids transgenics in need and stops those who abuse their power or jeopardize others with exposure. By season’s end, when the transgenics have been exposed to the public, and the public responds with bigotry, Max will fight for the rights of her “Freak Nation” to exist.
Max would not have done this, in fact could not have done this, without compassion and love, both her own capacity for it and the nurturing support of her family and friends. Echoing Max’s namesake, Guevara, who said that “the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love” and that a “love of living humanity will be transformed into actual deeds,” hooks has written that “All the great social movements for freedom and justice in our society have promoted a love ethic. Concern for the collective good of our nation, city, or neighbor rooted in the values of love makes us all seek to nurture and protect that good.”40
Max has become the protector/avenger.
Love is redemptive; it heals and inspires—but so does the ability to forgive and be forgiven, which is made possible by compassion. As bell hooks wrote in All about Love: New Visions: “Making amends both to ourselves and to others is the gift compassion and forgiveness offers us.”41 Xena’s story is a quest to make amends for the sins of her past, and though the theme is never explicitly called out on Dark Angel, Max continually encounters people in need who echo her past mistakes. Her assistance allows her to somewhat absolve her guilt over choices she wishes she’d made differently, if not, at least, to forgive herself for her own regrets.
Compassion is an act of selfless love often born out of empathy and an essential component of the love ethic that drives heroes to action without expectation of reward. Superman acts out of his love for his adopted homeworld, and as that great mantra from the Spider-Man mythos points out, there is an understanding that “with great power comes great responsibility,” which underscores that our gifts are to be used for the greater good. They protect because it is just, as do superwomen, but again, the latter take heroic themes to a higher level. Their compassionate actions not only save others, but also inspire them to find and perfect the heroic in themselves.
On Xena, Warrior Princess, Xena and Gabrielle’s long and tragic history with a woman named Callisto serves to show how a pivotal act of compassion can forever affect all lives involved.
When Callisto (Hudson Leick) was a child, her family was killed when Xena’s army ravaged her village. Orphaned and alone, she swore revenge on the warrior princess. As an adult she does this in a number of ways: she raids villages in Xena’s name to sully her reformed reputation, kills Gabrielle’s husband, steals Xena’s body, and influences events from beyond the grave that ultimately lead to Xena’s and Gabrielle’s crucifixion in “The Ides of March” (4.21).
In the Season 5 premier, “Fallen Angel,” the pair are on their way to Heaven when Callisto organizes an attack on them with an army of demons from hell. Xena makes it to Paradise, but Gabrielle is not so lucky. The archangel Michael allows Xena to undergo a purification process and become a higher angel in order to rescue her companion. But he warns her that her capacity for compassion is now heightened and that the suffering she’ll see in Hell will break her heart. He adds that if they can’t rescue Gabrielle, Xena might be tempted to save her from her pain, and there’s only one way to do that: “You would have to take on her guilt, and free her from her suffering—by giving her your light.” This sacrifice would release Gabrielle from Hell, but doom Xena to stay there for eternity.
The angels manage to save Gabrielle before she becomes a full demon, but when Xena sees Callisto—suffering, demonic, and full of rage—her heart does break. Callisto seethes and shouts, “I will never stop hating you, Xena, do you hear me?! Never! You killed my family! My soul! My reason to live and love! And I will spend eternity seeking revenge!” Xena, angelic with tears in her eyes, simply whispers, “No.”42
When Gabrielle arrives in heaven and her partner is nowhere to be found, Michael informs her that “Xena gave herself up—to save one of the damned.” When Gabrielle learns just who Xena sacrificed herself for, she’s horrified, turning to Michael and screaming, “This is insane. You call this justice?” Michael answers that “Xena called it justice” and encourages Gabrielle to respect Xena’s decision to suffer in Callisto’s place.
Callisto has no memory of who she was before she died, and in Heaven she’s the kind and gentle spirit she would have been had Xena not killed her family. Gabrielle forgives Callisto for her past misdeeds, and in doing so, becomes an archangel herself. Callisto waits in Paradise as Gabrielle and the archangels attempt to now rescue the warrior princess.
As the angelic Gabrielle battles the now demonic Xena, the Earthly Eli is distraught over his inability to protect his friends. Questioning his way, he receives a vision of Callisto, telling him that “Love is the way” and “go to them.” With Callisto’s heavenly aid, Eli brings Xena and Gabrielle back to life, healing them with both his and Callisto’s love. Xena’s act of selfless compassion will heal once more; Callisto will later choose to be reborn through Xena, which will bring them both back that which they caused each other to lose—family.
If Xena and Gabrielle are archangels, and Max Guevara is symbolic of Bast, then Wonder Woman and Buffy illustrate a Bodhisattva ideology, as embodied by the Bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara, best known by the name Kwan Yin.43
Bodhisattvas do not teach; rather they lead by example. Kwan Yin, in all her names, helps others to realize their potential through example and chooses to delay enlightenment in order to walk in the world helping others become the heroes of their own lives.44 William Moulton Marston created in Wonder Woman a warrior who fought for the greater good of humanity through an altruistic love. He’d felt that the “bloodcurdling masculinity” exhibited by men was detrimental to society, and his belief that women are fundamentally different from men led him to suggest that women should rule the world, precisely because they are women. With the character of Wonder Woman, he took the characteristics of love and compassion, which he believed to be natural to women, and made them heroic by giving women a superhero of their own.
Wonder Woman’s Bodhisattva nature is realized when she gives up her immortality to help America win the Second World War. Her initial motives for leaving Paradise Island may include an adolescent crush on Steve Trevor, but once in America she inspires women to lead successful lives regardless of whether or not they had men in them. In one issue of the comic book, the Holliday Girls thank Wonder Woman for helping them. They helped themselves, she replies: she only showed them how.45
Contemporary superwomen also have a Bodhisattva nature, but Buffy and her companions illustrate more complex notions about heroic example. Although they don’t always want to be the hero—a staple of the heroic archetype, according to Joseph Campbell’s oft-referenced model—they are compelled to continue down their heroic pathways. For example, even with Buffy’s occasional lack of faith in her sacred calling or in the merits of humanity, it is more often her Bodhisattva nature, than her duty as a Slayer, that compels her to continue to exhibit compassion regardless of exhaustion or discouragement.
Buffy’s acts of love and compassion are relatively unique not only in the world of superheroes, but also in the world of Slayers. She breaks the mold in her own mythos, rejecting the patriarchal Watchers’ Council and trusting her own knowledge and skill, as well as consulting her loved ones in order to make informed and just decisions. As the Slayer, ultimately the course of action is up to her, but she continually utilizes and nurtures the gifts of those around her—even when it may be easier for her to do the job alone. Therefore, it is because of her Bodhisattva, or compassion, example that individuals are inspired to make the choice to realize their full potential as well as to nurture the potential of others.
Yet Buffy is often unaware of the trickle-down
effect of her selfless acts. Fortunately, she is occasionally bolstered by profound expressions of sentiment as in the Season 3 episode, “The Prom,” when she is given a “Class Protector” award by her peers. They tell her:
We’re not good friends. Most of us never found the time to get to know you, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t noticed you. We don’t talk about it much, but it’s no secret that Sunnydale High isn’t really like other high schools. A lot of weird stuff happens here. But, whenever there was a problem or something creepy happened, you seemed to show up and stop it. Most of the people here have been saved by you, or helped by you at one time or another.46
This recognition of Buffy’s compassionate heroism inspires the students to recognize their own heroic nature two episodes later, when she asks them to risk their lives to save the world from yet another apocalyptic threat.47
The Bodhisattva of compassion is also useful for illustrating a gender-inclusive model of heroism. This particular Bodhisattva, Avalokiteshvara, is manifested in both female and male forms, just as heroic action born out of compassion is exhibited by both men and women in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series—and for that matter, in the Whedonverse (the tagline of Angel Investigations, the detective agency of Buffy spin-off Angel, was a humorous, and accurate, “We help the helpless”). Compassionate heroism and its ability to inspire is not a phenomenon specific to superwomen, or limited to the works of Joss Whedon. Kevin Sorbo’s Hercules goes from village to village helping those in need, while the late 1970s television version of The Incredible Hulk consistently showed David Bruce Banner (Bill Bixby) aiding everyday people. In another mid-1970s television series, Kung Fu, Kwai Chang Caine (David Carradine) was also compelled to help others, even if it jeopardized his own safety. In Lord of the Rings, the ultimate destruction of the One Ring was made possible by Sam Gangee’s love for Frodo Baggins.
But to illustrate the heroic values of loving compassion, friendship, and redemption as the values of a gender-inclusive form of heroism made possible by the modern superwoman, it’s useful to revisit Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the climatic scene from Season 6’s finale, “Grave” (6.22), Willow has gone on a murderous rampage after the death of Tara and intends to destroy the world to stop the pain and suffering of humanity. But Xander—who has no “mystic” or “super” powers—stops her and saves the world through an act of love.48
The Superhero Reader Page 34
