Characters / Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Boom! Studios)

Buffyverse Character Index
Sunnydale: The Scooby Gang (Buffy Summers / Willow Rosenberg / Spike / Angel) | Big Bads | Sunnydale Residents | Sunnydale High | Vampires | Demons and Monsters | Watchers and Slayers (Faith Lehane) | Other Characters
Los Angeles: Angel Investigations (Angel / Wesley Wyndam-Pryce / Spike) | Wolfram and Hart | Recurring Los Angeles Residents | One-Shot Los Angeles Residents | Big Bads | Other Characters
Comics: The Twilight Group | Fray | Comic Characters | Boom! Studios

Sunnydale

Buffy Summers

• Action Girl: She's Buffy Summers. Of course she's this.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: It's second nature to her, usually combined with You Fight Like a Cow towards vampires and demons.
• Deadpan Snarker: Again, Buffy Summers. Hinted to be her way of coping with her out-of-control life.
• Drama Queen: Downplayed, but she seems to like to pretend she's this, in that much of her snark does involve over-dramatic reactions to trivial things.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: As per usual. To quote the first issue's official description:
  Buffy Summers wants what every average teenager wants: friends at her new school, decent grades, and to escape her imposed destiny as the next in a long line of vampire slayers tasked with defeating the forces of evil.

Willow Rosenberg

• Adaptational Personality Change: Willow is much more outgoing and confident than she started out in the original show.
• Adaptational Sexuality: In a sense. Her original counterpart spent three seasons being into boys before she discovered she was into girls and began identifying as a lesbian. Here, she's openly gay and has a girlfriend from the start.
• Adaptational Skimpiness: In the original show, she dressed quite conservatively as a teen then moved into a more witchy, boho style in her adulthood. Here, she dresses rather punk-like, favouring ripped crop-tops, short-shorts and fishnet stockings.
• Locked into Strangeness: Giving up half her soul to make a soul tie for Xander dyes a lock of her hair black.
• Only Sane Man: Though she has her quirks, even to the point of telling Xander that she can't "normal" without him, she often plays this trope to both him and Buffy; she's more grounded and sensible than either of them and will comment when they're getting too ridiculous.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Xander. Unlike her original counterpart she never has any romantic interest in him, but they're still best friends who do practically everything together and have totally mastered the art of the Seinfeldian Conversation.
• Superpowered Evil Side: In this canon the concept of Dark Willow shows up much earlier, as her magical potential is established before splitting her soul and creating a void where her dark side can fester into existence.
• Tomboyness Upgrade: In the show, she was prone to conservative dresses and Mary Janes. Here, she wears a lot of ripped jeans, shorts, and combat boots.

Xander Harris

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: This incarnation of Xander is much less of a Deadpan Snarker than the original, and is hinted to be suffering from depression, admitting he has trouble feeling happy.
• Adaptational Personality Change: Xander is much more reserved in this version of the Scoobies.
• Affably Evil: His Superpowered Evil Side may be temperamental, sadistic and quick to give into resentfulness, but can also be genuinely amiable. It's even clearer after he loses his soul completely and becomes the Master; while vampire Xander is very much a ruthless villain who thinks nothing of using people for his own gain, he seems to be a pretty benevolent boss to his minions and converses with Willow in a pretty friendly way.
• Daywalking Vampire: After being granted a soul tie he can go out in the sun without burning.
• Deadpan Snarker: Downplayed. He'll still act goofy and get in the occasional zinger, but overall, this Xander is much less snarky than his original counterpart. He ups his snarking game quite a bit after losing his soul and becoming a true vampire.
• Composite Character: In a strange way, with Angel. Even though Angel is still very much around here, he's much more removed from Buffy and generally has his own thing going for the most part... so Xander seems to have taken up part of his role in Buffy's life. Not the romantic part of it, but after being half-sired by Dru and being stuck between vampire and human, he takes on the "vampiric ally with a soul" role. The parallels get extra blatant after his Heroic Sacrifice turned out not to stick; now a soulless and villainous vampire he takes on Angelus's role as the villain with a personal connection to Buffy. He even goes after Jenny Calendar, just like Angelus did in the original continuity. More deliberately, he becomes this continuity's incarnation of the Master.
• Death by Adaptation: Slightly, he lets Drusilla bite him in the fourth issue and undergoes vampirism. But Dru, likely in a sick sense of humor, didn't finish the job and left him in a between state of human and vampire. Now the group have to deal with his vampire side and try to find a way to restore his humanity.
  • Played straight in issue #24, when Faith stakes him from behind, killing him.
• Resist the Beast: With his soul tie he can resist his vampire bloodlust easier, but it's still very much there and he'll have to fight it everyday.
• Superpowered Evil Side: After Drusilla half-turned him, he has a much stronger, but also more evil and sadistic, vampiric side to him that he sometimes struggles to control.
• Sad Clown: Much more apparent in this universe than the original one. Xander seems to be suffering from depression, but hides it behind a goofy mask.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Willow. They've been best friends since kindergarten and have many a Seinfeldian Conversation.

Rupert Giles

• Adaptational Personality Change: His British Stuffiness has been toned down considerably. He's also more nihilistic.
• British Stuffiness: Not as much as his counterpart on the television show, but it's still there.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: Giles is almost identical in dress and look to his television counterpart. He is also the main source of information for Buffy.
• The Handler: As Buffy's Watcher he is more or less this, although she is already seeming to chafe under his guidance.
• The Needs of the Many: According to him, "success does not come without sacrifice".
• What the Hell, Hero?: Is on the receiving end of this by Jenny after being willing to let Joyce die to stop Drusilla.

Cordelia Chase

• Adaptational Badass: She takes an active effort in helping take out baddies far sooner than she had in the original series.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: The original Cordelia was a stereotypical Alpha Bitch until Character Development set in. Perhaps because the ideal modern conception of a popular person has moved away from being mean, this version is a lot friendlier and more accepting. Her sweet nature may not be totally sincere, though; she clearly plays herself up as a nice and sympathetic person who always has a friendly smile to everyone, but in times of stress (or when dealing with too much "weirdness") she sometimes slips and gets a whole lot more impatient and sarcastic.
• Adaptational Personality Change: She's much kinder from the get-go, seeing her relationship with Willow as more of a friendly rivalry and going out of her way to befriend Buffy and even Spike. She's also no longer a Rich Bitch, as she's seen holding down a part-time job in a fast-food chain restaurant.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Despite acknowledging that he's pretty shady, she develops a small infatuation for Spike.
• Attention Whore: Cordelia loves being the center of attention. She's far less bitchy about it than her original counterpart, but she still prefers it if all eyes are on her. She's so active on social media that Willow and Xander begin suspecting something might have happened to her when a few hours have passed and she hasn't posted anything online at all.
• The Bus Came Back: Cordelia disappears without explanation in the middle arcs of the series, but eventually returns nearer the end, now working as an intern at Mayor Wilkins's office (and more than willing to spy on him for the good guys).
• Character Blog: Not on the Internet, but in the comic; her blog posts are posted at the beginning of each issue to function as a sort of "previously on." Since these blog posts recap the events of the previous comic from Cordelia's point of view, and she's not in on most of the secret plots, the blog posts contain a lot of misunderstandings about what's actually going on.
• Condescending Compassion: A lot of her blog posts have this tone, especially when talking about Xander.

Robin Wood

• Adaptational Early Appearance: In the original series , he didn't appear until the final season of the show . Here he appears early on as the track team leader at Sunnydale .
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: With the Watcher's Council, and with Kendra, of all people. In the original series, he had nothing to do with either of them; he knew about vampires and Slayers because his mother was a Slayer and he was raised by her Watcher, but he wasn't officially aligned with the Council, and he and Kendra never met. Here, he's closely tied to the Council, and even ends up as Kendra's Watcher — despite actually being younger than she.
• Age Lift: He's one of the students at Sunnydale High, rather than a principal.
• Hidden Depths: There's more going on with him than is apparent at first glance.
• Younger and Hipper: He's in Buffy's age group and a fellow high school student, whereas the original Robin was at least a decade older than Buffy and the other Scoobies.

Kendra Young

• Action Girl: It comes with being a Slayer.
• Adaptational Personality Change: While most of the characters in this comic have some differences compared to their portrayal in the original TV show, this Kendra is almost nothing like her original counterpart. Where the original Kendra was repressed, socially awkward, a stickler for rules and not comfortable around boys, this Kendra is assertive, strong-willed, confident and a lot more sociable.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Starts up a relationship with Willow's ex-girlfriend Rose.
• Composite Character: Borrows a number of traits from Faith, including impatience, recklessness and a fierce independence. The result is kind of like a less hedonistic and more dutiful, hard-working Faith.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She can be abrasive and stubborn, and isn't always the nicest of people around, but she's ultimately a decent person who always tries to do the right thing.
• Named by the Adaptation: Kendra specifies herself not to have a last name in the TV show.

Rose Martinez

• Action Survivor: She has no fighting skills, no superpowers and no magical abilities, and at first is completely oblivious to anything supernatural going on. She still manages to save Cordelia from a powered-up kidnapper, and joins in on the quest to help Buffy in the Hellmouth crossover.
• Canon Foreigner: Didn't appear in the original Buffyverse, but has a fairly central role here as Willow's first girlfriend and later Kendra's girlfriend.
• Twofer Token Minority: Latina and lesbian.

Spike

• Age Lift : In the original series, Spike is over 100 years old. Here he appears to be over 200 years old, according to a conversation he had with Lilith.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In the original series, he didn't appear until season two of the show. Here, he's one of Buffy's earliest rogues. He Spike also moves over to the Angel comic a lot faster; during the Hellmouth crossover event Spike splits off from Drusilla and becomes a main character in Angel six issues in, in comparison to the four seasons it took in the original series (not counting flashbacks).
• Adaptational Heroism: Far less malicious and sadistic than his original counterpart, even without a soul or a violence-hindering chip in his head. His "good side" is additionally less firmly tied to romantic love, as he pities Xander and sees himself in him enough to finish siring him when Dru was going to let him die. In the Angel comic he becomes an ally of Gunn and Fred fairly easily, with just a little prompting by Lilith. He even Lampshades it at the end of issue #8:
  "Somehow I've become a good guy. Will wonders never cease?"
• Adaptational Personality Change: He's notably less violent and amoral, being more Affably Evil than his classic counterpart (though he retains his Pragmatic Villainy and Deadpan Snarker nature). The Angel comic in particular shows that Spike is not particularly malicious for a vampire and while he's not a good guy, he has the potential to be one. He's also more of a Cold Ham, rather than his original Large Ham characterization.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: His relationship with Drusilla is very different. While he's still quite devoted to her and they're still a couple in the beginning, he is no longer fulfilling the role of a caretaker to a fully-lucid and healthy Dru. He additionally is the one who ends up leaving her, having viewed her using his "loyal" blood to open the Hellmouth as a betrayal.
• Age Lift: Played with, as he seems to have been vampire for longer than he was in the original series. In the original series, he was turned in his mid-twenties in the 1880s, placing him at about 140. This time around, it's implied he's over 200.
• Affably Evil: Even before the start of his Heel–Face Turn, he's fairly easygoing and personable... when he's not thinking up creative insults to describe how stupid he thinks you're being, that is.
• Cold Ham: He's no less dramatic than his show counterpart, he just demonstrates so in a more stoic manner. Exemplified perfectly in his first appearance in the Angel comic, in which he throws himself off a building and smashes into a car below in an attempt to recover from a broken heart.
• Deadpan Snarker: While Xander is decidedly less snarky in this incarnation, Spike most definitely is not.
• The Dragon: He is this to Drusilla; until he leaves her, that is.
• Gallows Humor: His bread and butter once he moves to the Angel comic. At one point, when Angel is having a brooding session, he suggests that they should kill Gunn and Fred, sell everything Angel owns and rob banks until they can buy their way into Heaven. When Angel asks what exactly was supposed to be funny about that, Spike responds that the idea of either of them ever making it into Heaven was the joke.
• Iconic Item: Subverted; his trademark black leather duster is nowhere to be seen.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He helps Gunn save Fred, but not without a long string of complaints and insults.
• Noble Top Enforcer: While originally her Number Two, he's much less evil than Drusilla, as he ends up growing pretty regretful upon seeing the effect opening the seal has on the world. He actually ends up leaving Drusilla because he views her using his blood to open the seal as a betrayal on her part, and helps out Angel's group in LA while Angel and Buffy are busy in the Hellmouth.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Gunn and Fred convince Angel to let him stick around as part of their group by pointing out that he and Angel have A Shared Suffering. Spike's expression upon overhearing the exchanges suggests they're probably correct.

Drusilla

• Adaptational Badass: In the original series, she was a Cloud Cuckoolander often played for laughs, and not even considered dangerous enough to put down permanently. Here, she's seemingly sane (as evil vampires go), fully intelligent and the Big Bad.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In the original series, she didn't appear until season two of the show. Here, she's one of Buffy's earliest rogues.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Not like she was a saint in the TV series, but at the least she did show genuine affection to Spike when they were first introduced. Here, she treats him as little more than an elite toady.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: While still technically a couple, Drusilla is far more openly dominant over Spike and often treats him like her underling rather than her boyfriend. How much Dru loved Spike tended to be Depending on the Writer in the original show, but overall she showed him at least a bit of genuine affection most of the time. This time around she unambiguously views him as a disposable toy and holds no real respect for him.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: This version of Drusilla wears a suit, as opposed to the dresses she was known for in the original show.
• Composite Character: This version of Drusilla, nicknamed "The Mistress" is seemingly a composite of the TV show's Drusilla with the first season's villain The Master.
• Domestic Abuse: She's pretty openly awful to Spike, frequently insulting him and pointedly using his original name "William" when it's clear he prefers his nickname. She stabs him in order to open the Hellmouth, as it required the "blood of the loyal" to open, and holds no remorse for doing so.
• Mythology Gag:
  • She mocks Spike's nickname, claiming it "hardly played well in the 90s".
  • Upon finding Spike and Buffy having their first interaction, she sarcastically asks if she should be jealous.
• Tomboyness Upgrade: She wears sleek pantsuits as opposed to the eccentric gowns she'd worn originally, though she is still shown to wear dresses in a few scenes, and clearly likes her hair done up.
• Vampire's Harem: Female example. Essentially, her main plan is to make the males of Sunnydale her own personal army to take over the Hellmouth.

Anya

• Adaptational Early Appearance: In the original series, she didn't appear until season three of the show. Here, she appears in the first issue as a "neutral party."
• Adaptational Heroism: Despite claiming to be neutral, and doing business with both the good guys and the bad guys, she's more consistently on the side of the heroes. She used to be a Watcher, but quit the job to focus on being an entrepreneur a couple of centuries ago.
• Adaptational Personality Change: She's an amoral Friend in the Black Market who sells dangerous magical devices to good and evil alike. She's somewhat more mature and less prone to childishness, though she's not above a little petty revenge and evildoing. Also, she does not have her classic counterpart's fear of rabbits.
• Big Damn Heroes: Twice in the Hellmouth crossover; once in the Buffy comic to save Xander, Willow and Kendra, and once in the Hellmouth miniseries when she along with several other allies shows up to help Buffy.
• Friend in the Black Market: This universe's version of Anya is an amoral businesswoman who runs the Magic Box and sells dangerous magical items to anyone who can pay for them. She's implied to do business with the Watcher's Council and Wolfram & Hart alike, and both Drusilla, Spike and Buffy have visited her to get magic items they needed. She also apparently has a history with both Giles and Angel.
• Odd Friendship: She and Angel go way back.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: During the Hellmouth crossover. When the Hellmouth opens, she packs up to leave Sunnydale... but then has a Changed My Mind, Kid moment when she shows up to save Xander, Willow, and Kendra from an angry crowd possessed by the Hellmother.
• Team Switzerland: She claims to be this. Well, actually, she claims she's "Sweden, I don't take sides!" and doesn't appreciate Spike telling her that she means Switzerland.
  • Subverted, she's actually been plotting with a rogue Slayer to kill all the Watchers as revenge for how badly they've treated Slayers as a whole.

Faith Lehane

• Action Girl: It's Faith. It's a given.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: She's introduced asking a group of vampires if they know "Any good places where a girl can get a little wild?"
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Initially, she has an easier time believing in aliens than vampires.

Los Angeles

Angel

• Age Lift: Played With. While he is still a centuries-old vampire, it is explicitly stated that he was turned at (and therefore, frozen at) the age of 18, while in the original continuity he was turned at the age of 26. This change was possibly made to get rid of the perception of him being an Old Man Marrying a Child with the teenaged Buffy in this continuity.
• The Atoner: He carries heavy remorse for his many murders as a vampire, and now fights to protect lives; instead of destroying them.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: In the original show, he was introduced in the very first episode. Here, he doesn't make an appearance until the fourth issue.
• Be All My Sins Remembered: Even though he now fights for good, his guilt for his previous crimes makes him believe that he is still beyond redemption, and deserves to suffer.
• Experienced Protagonist: He's been active as a demon hunter for a while in L.A., and even trained a girl named Helen Chou in vampire hunting.
• Hero of Another Story: This version of Angel has been an active demon hunter in Los Angeles for some time before moving to Sunnydale.
• I Work Alone: He vows to work alone after the death of his partner/student Helen. Doesn't last, as both Fred and Gunn later join him.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Angel usually comes across as cold and aloof, a lot more ready to dish out insults than compliments... but when he drops his guard he's actually a very caring and compassionate guy.

Lilith

• All-Powerful Bystander: She's an ancient being said to be the "mother of all demons," and she's got more power than just about anyone else in the 'verse, but she limits herself to just providing guidance and occasional assistance to the heroes. She's not always as helpful as they might wish, either.
  Lilith: I used to believe in you, poet. I did warn you about Drusilla.
  Spike: In a dream! Two hundred years ago! How —
  Lilith: Still a warning, Spike.
• Brutal Honesty: Much of her role in the series consists of telling people truths they aren't comfortable with, but which will help them in the long run.
• Canon Foreigner: Original to this comic, but based on the religious figure Lilith.
• Deadpan Snarker: Extremely deadpan, especially when dealing with Angel and Spike. More often than not, they're on the receiving end of her snark.
• Pet the Dog: She doesn't have much patience for people like Angel or Spike, but she's far kinder and more understanding towards humans. She's downright sweet towards Fred and Gunn.
• What the Hell, Hero?: She's good at delivering these speeches, again particularly towards Angel and Spike.

Winnifred "Fred" Burkle

• Adaptational Early Appearance: In the series, she wasn't introduced until late into the second season of Angel, and after the other core characters such as Wesley, Gunn, and Lorne were all added to the cast. Here, she appears as early as issue 2, before any of those characters.
• Adaptational Personality Change: She's less cheery and, while she seems to be as intelligent as her original counterpart, she's not as educated. She also seems to have taken on some of Cordelia's role from the original Angel, as the "oracle" of the group.
• Broken Bird: She's introduced as a near-catatonic inmate of a mental hospital, driven to insanity by visions from the demon Baphomet. Later on, Lilith helps restore her sanity, so she's a lot more coherent, but still with obvious trauma.

Charles Gunn

• Adaptational Early Appearance: He wasn't introduced until very late into the show's first season, while he's glimpsed as early as issue four in the comic.
• Adaptational Personality Change: He's more even-tempered and less angry. He's still introduced as a man who goes out fighting demons as way of revenge, but here he does so while livestreaming messages of hope and positivity to a surprisingly appreciative audience.
• Affectionate Nickname: "Gunny." He calls himself this in his livestreams, and Spike is all too willing to follow his lead.
• Gratuitous Rap: Invoked but justified in-universe. Lorne needs Spike and Gunn to sing in order for him to read their souls... but Gunn doesn't sing. He raps. A rap titled "Gunny the Stunner," which it's heavily implied that Gunn wrote himself, and put up on Soundcloud.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:

Lorne

• Adaptational Early Appearance: He didn't appear until Angel's second season, while he's introduced less than ten issues in here.
• Adaptational Personality Change: Seems to be the only character in this reboot universe to completely avert this. The Lorne of this continuity is almost exactly the same as his classic counterpart.
• The Empath: He retains his ability to read people's souls when they're singing, and uses this to determine whether or not they actually need/deserve his help.
• Everyone Has Standards: Caritas is neutral ground and everyone, good or evil, is welcome — but Lorne blatantly states that he doesn't help those who just want to destroy.
• Knowledge Broker: Lorne usually knows everything that's going on, and is quite willing to share information with the right people.
• Team Switzerland: Like Anya, he claims to be this. Unlike Anya, he gets the name of the country right without having to be told.
  Lorne: Hell is at war, now. But this place is removed from all that. Like Switzerland. Strategic style and neutrality. Even evil knows better than to spike the punch — Spike.

Kate Lockley

• Action Survivor: She doesn't have any supernatural powers and her gun is useless against demons, but she's got a knack for getting out of supernatural confrontations alive.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In this series, she's the reincarnation of a demon hunter named Mara, who was sired by Angelus and spent some time as his partner and lover.

Oz

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the show he was introduced as a normal high schooler without many hangups, before he became a werewolf. Here, he's already a werewolf and homeless in LA.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Not Oz himself per se; he's about the same level of friendliness as his show counterpart (if notably more open and talkative), but his wolf form definitely counts. In the show, his wolf form was savage and almost mindlessly dangerous to friend and foe alike, but here the wolf is more lucid and less threatening. He's still a wild beast prone to fits of savagery, but seems capable of telling friend from foe; even calming down when Spike feeds him a hamburger.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Seems to be the most drastically uprooted character in the franchise. Since he's in LA and not in Sunnydale (having graduated and left town before the series), it means that all the characters that he had meaningful relationships with on the TV show — Willow, Xander, Buffy, Giles — he doesn't even meet here. Instead he teams up with Angel, Spike and Kate.

England

Wesley

• Badass Bookworm: Seems pretty meek and unassuming, but is able to stake an attacking vampire, despite said vampire being much taller and stronger.
• Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": Wesley's hobby is to write fantasy stories about an elven Warrior Poet named "Weslarion." Ethan finds it hilarious, and often calls him "Weslarion" just to mock him.

Ethan Rayne

• Adaptational Personality Change: In the reboot universe he died young, and now appears to Wesley as a ghostly mentor. His animosity with Giles still remains, though, as he believes Giles had something to do with his death.
• Deadpan Snarker: Enjoys snarking with Wesley (and also at him).
• The Gadfly: He enjoys messing with Wesley in creative ways, such as possessing the computer where Wesley is writing his fantasy stories, and changing the words so that the Warrior Poet hero is suddenly described as pooping his pants in the middle of a battle. Wesley is not amused.