Adam (Buffyverse)

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Adam

George Hertzberg as Adam

First appearance The I in Team
Last appearance Primeval
Created by Joss Whedon

Statistics
Name Adam
Status Deceased
Species Biomechanical demonoid
Affiliation Himself, formerly agent of the Initiative
Notable powers Adam's abilities include:
Demon body parts grafts grant him superhuman strength, stamina and resistance.
Uranium power core allows him to surviving without eating, drinking or sleeping and renders him capable of healing from any wound, even decapitation.
Heightened self-awareness makes him immune to mind control spells and aware of reality alteration.
Polgara demon bone-skewer.
Absolute knowledge of the Initiative facilities, medical procedures, persuasion techniques and military tactics by "Mother".
Cybernetic grafts allow him to absorb power from electricity, mentally control behavior modifiers such as Riley's and link himself to computer networks and read data from hard data storage such as floppies.
Self-upgraded with implanted collapsable machine gun and grenade launcher.
Portrayed by George Hertzberg

Adam is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, played by George Hertzberg.

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Originally a fallen agent of the Initiative, Adam was a creation of Maggie Walsh of The Initiative. He was part human, part demon and part robot, and was to be the perfect organism, with the adaptability and intelligence of humans and the strength and lack of emotions of demons. He was created in Lab 314, and his first act was to kill Maggie with a retractable stabbing weapon inside one of his arms. He killed children and demons, in order to get an understanding of biology, and had a considerable intelligence.

Spike worked for Adam for a short period of time, to help Adam stop the Slayer with an idea he got from the Beatles. Luckily for the Scooby Gang, the plan failed. Adam does not need to eat, because he has a uranium-based power source in his chest. He is aware of every aspect of himself, and is immune to universe-changing spells, such as the one cast by Jonathan. Adam is also armed with a 3 footlong bone-spear from a Polgara Demon and a thick hide. He later upgrades himself to incorporate a minigun and grenade launcher.

He considers himself a brother to Riley Finn, because Maggie Walsh experimented on both of them to make them perfect lifeforms. Adam intended to make Riley just like him, so the two would command an army of other biomechanical demonoids. In order to obtain the large supplies of bodies required, Adam appears before the demons of Sunnydale, and persuades them to join forces against the Initiative. Demons and vampires, known for rejecting each other, begin to fight together, while others allow themselves to be captured by Initiative agents. Adam's plan was to fill the Initiative facilities with demons and then unleash them on the soldiers and agents. He also wanted Buffy trapped with the military, because she would be able to even the score before being killed.

To assist himself in the creation of his army, Adam created a second Biomechanical Demonoid using the body of the recently slain Forrest Gates, who Adam himself had killed. Adam also reanimated the corpses of Walsh and Doctor Francis Angleman, though only to use them as working drones.

Adam is defeated when Buffy, Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris, and Rupert Giles combine their essences in Buffy's body through a magic spell. The collective in Buffy invokes the strength of the First Slayer and uses magic to counter Adam's attacks. With the newfound strength of the First Slayer, she manages to rip out Adam's power source.

In the final episode of season four, "Restless", Buffy in a dream sees Adam in his human form, before Walsh's experiments. When Buffy asks for his name, the dream Adam replies "Before Adam? Not a man among us can remember".

The Haunted limited series states that Adam was originally an agent of the Initiative tasked with the protection of Maggie Walsh that was killed, or at least badly wounded, by the ghost of Mayor Richard Wilkins, when he possessed the corpse of a powerful demon and launched an escape from the Initiative to target Buffy. Being her favorite alongside Riley, Walsh swore to bring Adam back to life.

Like certain other characters in the show, Adam might be regarded as partly a salute to, and partly a satire of, other horror and science fiction characters; Frankenstein's monster and the Terminator in this case. Such inside jokes are part of creator Joss Whedon's and his writers' tongue-in-cheek approach to the horror and science fiction genres and to the popular culture of which their own show is a part.

Some fans have explored the fact that the name Adam and the room he is created in (314) could mean Genesis 3:14, which is part of the story of Adam and Eve. But, the passage doesn't say anything about Adam himself, so these theories have been dismissed.

Unlike other Big Bads of the show, Adam had no real personality to speak of, always acting with cold logic. For this reason, as well as his not appearing until more than halfway through the fourth season, he was largely seen as one of the weakest Big Bads by the fans.

Trivia

Adam shares many similarities with the Shadowfist Collectable Card Game (CCG) character Homo Omega. Both were created by mad scientists attempting to create super soldiers out of cybernetic human-demon hybrids. Both turned against their creators in order to destroy humanity and create a new race of hybrids. Both have magically morphing machinegun arms. Homo Omega was created in 1996.
Like many characters, themes, or situations on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Adam is inspired by other, earlier sources. His origin and nature can be traced both to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and to the cyborg in the film Terminator, starring Arnold Schwartzenegger.

Adam (Buffyverse)

Trivia

See also