Warning: Spoilers for The Vampire Slayer #14Fan-favorite Big Bad Drusilla has returned to speak on behalf of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s biggest baddies and voice what they really think of the Slayer. Recently in BOOM! Studios’ comic series The Vampire Slayer, the Scooby Gang has gained a new member of the team, a baby crab god, but that same all-powerful crab has gone missing. Even worse, it has stumbled its way into the home of one Drusilla, who has returned to Sunnydale, much to Spike’s chagrin. His chagrin worsens when Buffy and Faith convince him to tag along with them to confront Drusilla about getting their crab back.
While Buffy and Faith snoop around to find him, Drusilla and Spike take the time to catch up in The Vampire Slayer #14 by Sarah Gailey and Kath Lobo. Drusilla expresses that she’s returned upon hearing about the horrors of the new Slayer trio of Buffy, Willow and Faith. From Drusilla’s point of view, these Slayers together are nothing but menaces who have been terrorizing the monster community and killing off all of their friends. In the eyes of Drusilla, and seemingly all the monsters in the community, it is the Slayers who are the real monsters.
Slayers are the Real Monsters, According to the Monsters
There have been a countless array of vampires and monsters of that ilk across the history of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, none of these monsters have taken the time to express how they actually felt about the Slayer. If anything, most monsters, vampires especially, tend to lunge headfirst at Buffy with no fear, despite knowing she’s the Slayer. If any monsters feared her, no one had ever expressed or showed it.
Drusilla finds a way to actually humanize the monsters slain by the Slayers. She even finds time to mourn and humanize monsters introduced in this series, like a vampire therapist from last year’s Free Comic Book Day issue, as well as Hungrus the Slayer Eater. Granted, as she mourns her friends, Drusilla does dismiss the evil antics all of these creatures that put them on the Slayers’ radar, but that’s also what helps humanize the monsters in the first place.
From the human perspective, the actions committed by monsters and Big Bads look terrifying. However, there is a counter-argument that what they do is just in these monsters’ nature. It’s in the same way that some cultures may view the idea of cooking and eating animals as horrifying, but for other humans it’s perfectly natural. When that monster’s nature is disrupted, it’s Buffy and co. who look like the bad guys from the POV of the monsters. While it doesn’t necessarily justify their actions, it does give context to why monsters may fear Buffy the Vampire Slayer when she’s killing their friends and disrupting their lives, just like how those same monsters disrupt the lives of people.
The Vampire Slayer #14 is available now from BOOM! Studios.
