Multi-verses seem to be more popular these days, especially thanks to recent Marvel projects like Multiverse of Madness and What If?

Now the Buffy franchise is having its own version by posing the question of what if Buffy Summers is the Big Bad….according to a demon town. There’s also a new comic series which casts someone else as the Slayer.

Lily Anderson appeared at the Hellmouth Con in Los Angeles to preview her new book, Big Bad, coming in late September.
It’s set in Demondale (formerly Sunnydale) in an alternate world where Mayor Wilkins turned the town into a literal Hell on Earth back in 1999. While the humans have left, several demons including Anyaka are having a good life. Even the nerd trio of Jonathan, Warren and Andrew are enjoying themselves.
Suddenly, a mysterious girl is knocking off the demons, hoping to “save” the city. The demons don’t see it that way, and gather to defend themselves. It’s not official yet, but it might include Spike, Drusilla and who knows who else.
Of course, the girl is a version of Buffy, traveling through multi-verses to wipe out evil.
Anderson was happy to get the assignment to make a “Buffy Suicide Squad”. She admits she was surprised so many of her ideas were approved. “I’m gonna open with Warren dying? What do you feel about that,” she asked Disney Publishing. “They said ‘yeah, great, here you go.’ I didn’t think they’d let me and I got to sit down and write it.”

She was joined by comic author Sarah Gailey, who’s involved in The Vampire Slayer for Boom! Studios. Here, someone else is the Slayer, and Buffy is just a girl. Gailey says it sets up  different development arc for the familiar characters. “Now these characters are more adult and are facing different kinds of problems,” she says. “The monster of the week isn’t always the focus as much as it has been in the past. I think that taking advantage of that turning point in a character’s development is the perfect way to alter their ongoing story.”

Both ladies also commented on how the show’s characters developed on the show, and compared that to their projects. They also explained why they chose 1999 as the year both the book and comic series were set.

Whedonopolis will present the video of this panel later this summer.
In the meantime, here’s some pictures from the 1999 Prom that was part of the convention.