Buffy, as others have said, really was basically a good superhero show.  Instead of channeling Batman, however, it channeled Spider-Man (as have many good comics since Spidey's debut).  The angsty teen hero, the yearning for a normal life, generous admixture of humor, secret identity issues, exploration of growing up,…

Little-known fact:  Every single Aquaman supporting character has died horribly.  Some have died more than once, those Atlantean bubble cities have been destroyed and enslaved innumerable times . . . Orin's family and the Marvel Universe's Summers family have to be the most hard-luck broods in comics.  

I just read through many of the comments, and my completely unsolicited two cents:

Dear Mr. Phipps and Mr. Sava: