Adam (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Adam is a fictional character in the fourth season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, serving as that season's primary antagonists (or "Big Bad"). Introduced in the episode "The I in Team," Adam is a cybernetic demonoid created from human, demon, and technological components by Dr. Maggie Walsh (Lindsay Crouse), head of The Initiative—a military organization studying demon behavior. After gaining consciousness, Adam kills Walsh and escapes containment. He then sets in motion plans to stage a demon and human massacre; Adam hopes that, in the aftermath of the battle, he will be able use the carnage to create an army of undead demonoids like himself. The character is ultimately defeated by Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), a Slayer with superhuman strength, and her friends in the season's penultimate episode "Primeval".

Adam was played by George Hertzberg, who series creator Joss Whedon tasked with finding the character's "stillness". In terms of thematic resonance and characterization, the character draws heavily from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and the show uses the character to question the morality of scientific advancement, highlighting the tension between technology and humanity. As a monster that begins life by killing his creator, Adam also serves as a way for the show to question tradition and authority, specifically institutional authority. Critical reception to Adam has been largely mixed. Some commentators felt his subplot was confusing and unconvincing, whereas others enjoyed the concept and praised the make-up and special effects used to create the character.