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Buffy the Vampire Slayer #21

By Zach Bowen
January 14, 2009 - 19:15

 “Hammonic Divergence” is a one shot issue scripted by formed “Buffy” TV writer. Jane Espenson. Issue #21 stars the vampire without a soul, Harmony. When “Buffy” was on TV, Espenson seemed to usually write the sillier episodes that had far more fluff than depth. She did have a few gems like “Conversations with Dead People” and “Story Teller”, but overall, whenever her name would pop up in the opening credits, it was almost a guarantee that viewers were going to be left unsatisfied. That being said, I went into this issue with a positive attitude and put all of my previous issues with this writer aside and hoped for silly, but witty writing. Unfortunately, this was the wrong approach as I did not properly brace myself for the atrocity to come.

 Harmony is a very hit or miss character when it comes to writing. She is either written hilariously, or with bad puns that make people groan. When I think of

Harmony, I think of the opposite of Buffy. Buffy is a strong, independent, and a realistic role model for women. Harmony is everything that Buffy is not. She is dumb, self absorbed, and a typical ditsy stereotype. A character like this opens up a world of great humor and acts as a wonderful contrast to Buffy. While not an overly complicated character, Harmony certainly has her place as an entertaining antagonist. With such an easy character to work from, it seems astounding that his issue could be screwed up so badly. As a warning, from this point on, there will be spoilers.

 The issue begins with Harmony doing what everyone would expect; killing Andy Dick and getting photographed during the act. This is followed by a newspaper headline saying “Hot Vamp Gets Taste of A. Dick.” If an Andy Dick cameo was not enough to get me worried about this issue, that joke made it impossible for it to come back to be anything worth reading, and that happened on the fifth page.

 So the obvious thing happens next and MTV creates a reality show for Harmony about being a vampire. During the filming of the show, an untrained Slayer comes after Harmony, only to be killed on camera. This is then aired on international TV and Harmony becomes a commercial success. Now I know that I just put most of the plot into two sentences, but that is all it needs. It makes no sense. Between the celebrity murder, and the FCC not cracking down on an on-screen murder, this is just implausible. I would also like to point out that one of Harmony’s biggest fights involved her slapping and pulling the hair of Xander. I know that later episodes showed her fighting to have improved, but seriously, killing a Slayer…not too likely.

 The issue ends with Harmony being interviewed on TV with the host talking about Slayers and what they are. As it turns out, the death of a Slayer was very popular and that is going to be the new focus of Harmony’s show. I was left with dumb founded. What just happened? Why is the world so accepting of vampires? How did Harmony get out of Los Angeles at the end of “Angel?” These and countless other questions are brought up at the end of this issue. Not only is this the worst of the “Buffy” comics to come out so far, it the worst canonical story ever told within the Buffyverse.

Rating: 1 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12