User:Triple J/Sandbox/Charmed (comic book)

Charmed is comic book that is an officially licensed continuation of the popular The WB television series of the same name, which ended its eight year run in 2006. The series is published monthly by Zenescope Entertainment. The comic book serves as a canonical continuation set eighteen months after the events of the televised show's final episode. The first issue was released on June 16, 2010.

Development
Rumors of a comic series began long before Zenescope made the news official in March 2010. Speculation had started to appear online about the possibility of a comic series much earlier however, largely due to test sketches appearing on the deviantART account of Dave Hoover which featured Holly Marie Combs, Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan. Speaking on his deviantART page, Hoover said "If everything goes according to plan I'll be working on a "Charmed" comic book based on the hit TV series published by Zenescope Entertainment. To get the job I had to compete with others vying for the same gig, and our task was to do model sheets of the girls showing how we would draw them. The art would be approved by the studio.

The odd thing about this was that they supplied no photo reference, so I searched the internet high and low looking for the best possible pictures. Of the three girls, I thought Alyssa Milano would be the easiest to draw, but she turned out to be the hardest. She sort of changed her look more often than the other two, Rose McGowan and Holly Marie Combs."

- Dave Hoover, deviantART, March 13, 2009 However Zenescope did not announce the title until the company had successfully been granted the rights from Fox Consumer Products. Despite this however, the first advertisement for the series featuring the famous triquetra symbol and the tag line "The Girls are Back" written in the series font, appeared in the December 16, 2009 issue of Zenescope comic book Escape From Wonderland #3 months before the title had officially been announced.

The first press release from Zenecope Entertainment indicated that Charmed, based on the "ultra-popular" media franchise, would be a natural addition to the publisher's pre-existing "sultry and strong female characters". Editor-in-Chief, Ralph Tedesco, also announced that "the key to this series success is to strike a nice balance in creating a brand new, intriguing storyline for fans of the television show while also not alienating Zenescope and comic book readers who haven't really followed it before". It was further announced that while the TV series had a difficult time due to casting and budget limitations, the comic creators won’t have those problems, thus fans may finally see the return of popular characters like Prue and Cole.

Writing and format
Author Paul Ruditis was hired as lead writer of the series with Zenescope veteran Raven Gregory joining him for the first three issues. Ruditis is familiar with the Charmed universe having already published three tie-in novels, two official episode guides which he co-authored with Diana G. Gallagher and the Charmed Book of Love Spells. Ruditis and Gregory also co-authored a special Issue 0, which acted as a prequel to the story recapping the events of the television series in a style reminiscent to the Book of Shadows as seen on the show.

Artist Dave Hoover was eventually hired to do the interior artwork while David Seidman was hired to design the covers for the comics, although various guest artists have contributed variant covers for each issue thus far including Greg Horn, Al Rio, Tony Shasteen and Mark Sparacio. Dave Hoover left the comic after completing Issue 3. Since then various artists have been hired to do the interior artwork such as Marcio Abreu (4, 5 and 7), Carlos Granda (8), Tess Fowler (6 and 11), Dean Kotz (9, 12, 14 and 15), and Reno Maniquis (10 and 13).

Although the process of writing and receiving studio clearance is much the same as for Charmed novels, Ruditis explains "The big difference now, as you noted, is that with original episodes no longer airing, we have a lot more freedom than we did on the novels". With the Charmed novels, nothing outrageous could happen to fly in the face of established continuity, and stories had to take place 'between' episodes, usually in the first half of a given season; though "The studio still has to approve the direction we take", no longer does "everything ...have to reset by the end. That alone means that nothing is entirely safe." Raven and Ruditis claim they want the series to "grow and evolve" in the new medium, "expand[ing] upon what worked and what didn't work [in order to make it work]". The creators believe it stands out from the Buffy, Angel and Pushing Daisies TV-to-comic adaptations is Charmed ' s unique focus on family drama dynamics.

The first issue premiered during San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2010. It is believed that initially 12 issues have been planned by Zenescope, with around five issues comprising one story arc which will be reprinted in graphic novel form. A one-shot issue has also been announced for Issue #6, and another is followed when Issue #13 comes to start the new story arch. In June 2011 Zenescope ordered 12 more issues after issue 14, which increased the total number of contracted Issues from 13 to 26.

Arc One (Issues 1-5)
Set eighteen-months after "Forever Charmed", the sisters are now living happy demon free lives and have each entered into motherhood. Piper has had a third child, a girl named Prudence Melinda and is planning on opening her own restaurant. Phoebe has had her first daughter with Coop named Prue and is preparing to return to work. Paige has had twin girls with Henry Mitchell and is also working as a whitelighter and is seen helping Leo at Magic School with his students. Meanwhile two new warlocks named Neena and Hogan begin implementing a plan to revive one of the sisters' greatest foes. The first arc begins with Piper and Phoebe attending the funeral of Brittany, the first innocent that they ever saved. Meanwhile Paige visits her latest charge, a high school bully named Brent who is a witch, who is later targeted and murdered by the warlocks Neena and Hogan. While searching the Book of Shadows for clues to Brittany's death, Phoebe receives a powerful premonition which shows her that every single innocent and charge saved by the sisters over the past nine and a half years is in grave danger.

While Piper and Paige attempt to gather as much information about their past innocents current whereabouts, Phoebe finds her empathy power has returned as she conducts the wedding of Romeo & Juliet. Piper and Paige arrive at the home of Tyler Michaels, a teenage firestarter whom they saved from The Source many years ago. They find him under attack from demons who want his blood in order to perform a ritual which involves using the blood of the innocent and the soil of the ancient burial ground in order to revive The Source. Meanwhile Paige receives a new power in the form of an orb shield. The Charmed Ones later gather at the manor where they realize that they must protect their past innocents and go back to fighting evil, however they are unaware that Neena and Hogan's plan to resurrect The Source has been successful. Later in the first arc, Neena and Hogan watch as The Source prepares to take his vengeance on the sisters, before discussing their own plans in secret. When The Source makes himself known to the sisters and attacks them on the street outside the manor with a huge fireball Piper attempts to attack him and discovers that she has a new power, which causes the street to melt while binding onto The Source causing him to get stuck. The sisters escape for Magic School where they are greeted by their husbands. After pondering how The Source has returned, Leo explains that there must always be a "source of evil" as long as evil exists in the world. Piper dismisses that fact saying that they are going to put an end to The Source once and for all. Gathering magic from all of their supernatural allies and using it in tandem with the "Power of Three", The Charmed Ones effectively vanquish The Source once again.

Arc Two (Issues 6-12)
The second arc from the comic series picks up with the one-shot, "Morality Bites...Back". In the issue, after Cal Greene begins dating her assistant Miyka, Phoebe deals with the potential threat of the baseball player based off a premonition she received nearly 10 years ago. When her empathy powers advance, Phoebe subsequently learns that she used her empath powers to murder Cal in a previously visited future of February 26, 2009 by reflecting his emotions back onto him which caused his brain to overload. After Cal attacks her editor Elise, Phoebe fears she will fulfill her premonition. Instead, she confides her secret identity as witch to Elise and together they use magic to scare Cal into a confession. Later in the arc, Piper is startled to learn that her daughter Melinda is half-whitelighter, despite Leo being mortal during her conception. New Elder Kyle Brody reveals that the previous Elders activated Leo's latent whitelighter genes to make Melinda half-whitelighter in the hopes of making a more powerful "Power of Three" with Melinda and her half-whitelighter brothers, Wyatt and Chris. Meanwhile, now that The Source has been vanquished by The Charmed Ones, Neena, who has killed Hogan, has taken control of the Underworld and sets her sights on taking control of the Upper Regions and home to The Elders.

In the eighth issue "Oh, Henry", during a battle with an ally of Neena's and former rival of Leo's, Paige rescues a baby from the womb of a dying and homeless teenage mother. She and Henry later adopt the infant boy and name him Henry, Jr. Later in the second arc, in an altercation with Neena, Piper is sent into an alternate dimension and separated from her sisters. While trying to rescue her, Phoebe and Paige discover that Neena is no ordinary warlock. They learn that she is in fact the First Witch, and has been waiting many millennia to enact revenge against The Elders and Angels of Destiny for separating her from her mate and controlling their lives and destiny. Meanwhile, Piper realizes she is not alone in her alternate world where she talks with an Angel of Destiny, who informs her of Neena's origins. Piper also interacts with Cole Turner, who provides her with an escape from the alternate world created by Neena. After Piper is reunited with her sisters, The Charmed Ones, as well as the spirit forms of their entire ancestral line, battle Neena and her demon army in the Upper Regions in an all out war. With the help of the Angels of Destiny and Leo, who gains mysterious powers after picking up an artifact protected by The Elders, The Charmed Ones soothe Neena's anger and banish her to the alternate world where Piper was previously imprisoned. While detained there she would be reunited with her lost love for six months out of every year. Realizing that meddling with Neena's destiny nearly resulted in her destroying the world, the Angels of Destiny also revoke the meddling The Elders performed on the powers and destiny of The Charmed Ones' children; promising that should a new "Power of Three" emerge it would be natural and not through outside influence.

Arc Three (Issues 13-19)
The third arc begins with the thirteenth issue, "Piper's Place" and features the grand opening of Piper's very own restaurant named "Halliwell's". Also this arc features the long-awaited return of Prue Halliwell. After Cole is tasked to locate the missing spirit of Prue in exchange for helping him find peace in the afterlife by Penny and Patty Halliwell, he locates her in Issue 16 in the form of a blonde witch named Patience who resides in Salem, Massachusetts. When confronted by Cole about her true identity, Prue (as Patience) explains that she was never truly allowed to move on into the afterlife due to the prophecy of the Charmed Ones keeping her tied to her sisters. With the prophecy unfulfilled, she couldn't entirely move on. As long as Prue still had a connection to the Warren line, she would always be tied to her sisters, stopping them from realizing their full power. She had to go someplace to be alone and chose a quiet corner of the Astral Plane. She found a witch that Charon the soul collector had gone after, who was in a coma with no chance of recovery and took over her body. To not interfere with the new "Power of Three", Prue chose to stay away from her sisters and instead use her powers the way they were meant to be used; to protect innocents. She then asks Cole to keep her secret.

Meanwhile, Paige later finds herself with a new charge, a telekinetic witch named Sarah, who happens to be Patience's co-worker at an Salem tour house. Paige shows up and looks for Sarah at the Salem house; however, she meets Cole who won't let her in. Despite his pleas, she orbs into the house where she meets Patience (Prue) and the two touch causing their powers to send them away. After recovering, Patience tells Paige that she is Prue. At first, Paige doesn't believe her, but they go to the manor where after seven years, Prue (as Patience), Piper, and Phoebe are finally reunited with a hug. In spite of the reunion, the presence of Prue causes the sisters powers to go haywire. Because the Charmed prophecy never spoke of a "Power of Four", the reunion of the four sisters causes their individual and collective powers to go out of control. To diffuse the chaos brought upon by the presence of the four sisters, Paige volunteer's to strip her powers away so that Prue can rejoin her sisters in the "Power of Three". Cole, however, steps in and informs Prue that the real reason she remained tied to the "Power of Three" and unable to move on in the afterlife was because she refused to truly let ago of her destiny with her sisters. Realizing that her time as a Charmed One has passed, as she no longer inhabits the body of a true Warren witch, Prue instead strips herself of her Warren powers so that Paige will be the only sister with the power to move things with her mind. After being stripped of her active powers, Prue retains her status as witch and keeps the basic witch powers that allow her to cast spells and brew potions. Prue later returns to Salem, Massachusetts with Cole, who will help her train new witches to atone for his evil past.

Arc Four (Issues 20-26)
The fourth arc will begin with the twentieth issue, "The Old Witcheroo", which is set for a March 21, 2012 release date.

Collected editions
The issues are collected into trade paperback by Zenescope Entertainment after each story arc is complete.

Reception
Critical reaction was initially mixed for the first issue, with many reviewers complaining about the lack of story. Reviews for Issue #2 in relation to the story have been much more positive with Fandomania awarding the issue 3/5. However some noted that the issue does a good job at exposing the series to newcomers. The artwork however has received the most criticism both for the characters likeness' and the colouring which is deemed distracting by a Newsarama reviewer. Christina Flores of ComicImpact.com goes on to say that the interior art is inconsistent with the character drawings not being as good as those of locations and backgrounds. However, she goes on to say that Ruditis and Gregory open with a strong story and says that Charmed fans will enjoy the issue. Fan response however has been promising with the first issue selling out of its initial 17,000 copies in the first three weeks, which prompted Zenescope to release a second printing in time for the release of Issue #2.

Cast reaction

 * Alyssa Milano has touched upon the comic series in interviews, talking about how she gave Zenescope her permission to use her likeness for her character.
 * Rose McGowan and Holly Marie Combs have discussed the comics on Twitter, most notably joking about the cover for Issue #2 which pictures the Charmed Ones naked covered only in leaves.
 * Rose McGowan tweeted that she hasn't read the comics yet.