Charmed Lives

Charmed Lives, is the first issue of the Charmed Comics series, published by Zenescope. The issue picks up 18 months after the end of the series.

Introduced

 * Neena, a demoness
 * Hogan, a warlock
 * An Angel of Destiny
 * Weasel, a little guy, presumably a demon.
 * Baby Prue
 * Jessalyn, a female Magic School student

Summary
The Girls are back in town! The Charmed ones return in this brand new fantasy series from Zenescope that picks up where the series left off. Claiming their victory in the battle against evil, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige were free to settle into the future with their husbands and children, destined to live out the happily ever after they had so rightfully earned...or so they thought.

Plot


Eighteen months after the events of Forever Charmed, the Halliwell sisters are trying to live in their world of happily ever after but, alas, that is never going to be their lives. The Charmed Ones attract trouble and, starting off the story, it looks like trouble’s about to come to them.

Neena and Hogan, a demon and a warlock, are waiting in a club on a certain someone. As an Angel of Destiny comes to tell the two demons that what they plan on doing is not part of the Grand Design, whoever they scheme against have fulfilled their role in the battle. Hogan says he controls his own destiny and Neena sends her away through a white energy portal. She claims never to know where exactly she sends her victims to, but she hopes it is somewhere nasty.

Finally, a little man, Weasel arrives. He hands Hogan a little piece of paper. As Weasel makes his move on Neena, she blasts him down to the lower part of the club. Meanwhile, the people in the club starting figthing, all because of the two evils.

The next day, Paige is lecturing the new students of Magic School. The Magic School seems to have been placed into a new building, probably since they still have to finish restoring the old school. The students gather in the library and Paige shows them the Book of Shadows of the Warren/Halliwell line.

Jessalyn, one of the students, is bored and complains that instead of lectures given by middle aged, retired witches she wants to practice magic. Paige is offended and quickly responds that they are certainly not middle aged and that they are not retired but on a break since there haven't been many demons lately.



Paige wants to teach Jessalyn a lesson and hands her the Book of Shadows, saying that if she wants to practice magic, that she can. Jessalyn reads the glamouring spell, but as soon as she finished casting the spell she changes into a seven story tall, monstrous demon. Leo and Paige are both surprised. She quickly orbs the Book of Shadows to a safe place. Although Paige knew it would backfire, it wasn't exactly what she thought would happen.

Meanwhile, somewhere at the Golden Gate Bridge, Neena and Hogan found an entrance to what can be assumed, the Underworld.

At Phoebe and Coop's place, Phoebe is looking for her keys. She's already late for work and fears that Elise might fire her if she's even later. Coop finds her keys and hands them over. As Phoebe leaves for work, Coop stands at the front door, watching her walk to work as suddenly she is beamed back to him. Phoebe kisses Coop on the cheek, telling him that he didn't have to beam her back just because she forgot her kiss.

Coop tells her he didn't do a thing, but that it was all the work of their baby girl, Prue. Phoebe is troubled. She does not want to leave her baby girl and she is a bit jealous that even her child has a better power, even if she is half Cupid. Coop suggest to call in sick but Phoebe refuses. She has got to go to work. But just as she closes the front door and leaves again, she is beamed right back to Coop and her daughter Prue. Phoebe sighs, telling herself and Coop that this might become a problem.

Back at the Manor, Piper is cooking whist holding her daughter, Melinda with the other arm. She grabs another pan, but when she goes back to cooking she notices that some potion bottles, that came out of nowhere, are knocked over her cooking pot. Suddenly, big vines appear from inside the cooking pot. They grow longer and begin to attack Piper.

Melinda seems to enjoy the spectacle but Piper doesn't. She tries to freeze the vines, but fails to and grabs a big knife. She starts to cut the vines when all of a sudden she is disarmed.

The vines wrap around her legs and arms and now hangs mid air of the kitchen. Wyatt and Chris run in the kitchen, wondering what is going on. Both are surprised by the giant beanstalk and see their mother hanging upside, asking for a little help.

Later that day. Phoebe walks into the living room of the Manor. She sees Piper enjoying some pizza and wonders what happened to the Food Tasting. Piper jokingly says that the meal didn't agree with her. She tells that Melinda is coming into her powers. Phoebe says she knows the feeling and says baby Prue kept teleporting her repeatedly.

She wonders what Melinda did to her older sister. Piper replies she was attacked by a giant salad. Paige joins her sisters on the couch and puts the Book of Shadows on the table. She starts complaining about the students of Magic School and how they are going to be the death of all of them.

She thought this was going to be easier after everything that had happened. Piper says she'd rather worry about the students then fight Zankou any day. Phoebe says to Paige she'll just have to wait until the twins grow into their powers, then she'll know how easy it'll be.

Then we are back to Neena and Hogan. They are still in the cave, climbing upwards. They finally arrive at the place they were looking for. A huge lair with gates made of bone, dinosaur like birds and a big pool of lava. On the walls hang dying men and women and rats are running over skulls and bones. This does not seem like your usual Underworld lair.


 * TO BE CONTINUED.

Powers Used

 * Unknown, firelike power - Neena (on AoD and Weasel)
 * Portal Creation - Neena
 * Rage Projection - Hogan (caused conflict between the people in the club)
 * Telekinesis - Magic School Student
 * Pyrokinesis - Magic School Student
 * Telekinetic Orbing - Paige
 * Hearting - Baby Prue
 * Telekinetic Orbing - Melinda
 * Molecular Immobilization - Piper (failed)

Spells

 * To Change One's Appearance
 * Used by Jessalyn

Trivia

 * This is the first time since the 4th season DVD box-sets, that Piper is featured in the middle of a cover, between Phoebe and Paige.
 * The official cover, seconds after being put online, caused Charmed fans to theorize on the new, possible storylines such as a new power for Piper (due to the glow on her hands on the cover), Magic School being reclaimed back for Good, a Vine demon, etc...
 * The first issue has sold out of its initial 17,000 copy print run in under three weeks.
 * Paul Ruditis explained that the title "Charmed Lives" means both that their lives are Charmed and the show lives on.
 * A few drawings from this issue were previously used in The Sourcebook.
 * This is the second time that Piper has problems with cooking in a storyline by Paul Ruditis. The first time was in the novel, The Brewing Storm, in which Piper's recipes were destroyed by a demon attack.
 * Dave Hoover commented on his unused cover:
 * Here's the rough and finished inked art that I did for an unused cover for Charmed issue #1. Before I had actually started working on the first issue the guys at Zenescope told me to start thinking about the cover art for the first issue. I hadn't even done any sketches and then I got an email from Zenescope giving me a description of what they wanted to see on the cover, a description showing the scene pictured in the art. I thought it was a little odd that they didn't want all three girls to be on the cover to issue one, but hey, they were calling the shots. I did a rough, which was approved, and then I pencilled and inked the finished art, changing the angle a bit so that the audience was a bit closer to the characters. Then to my surprise, I see a cover image to issue one popping up on internet comic sites, the cover featuring a photo of all three girls. I was actually a bit releived; I liked the art and how David Seidman used the photo, and I was releived not to have to do another likness. But again I thought it odd that they didn't tell me of their decision to use photos. The art is currently for sale on Ebay!

Previews

 * Newsarama
 * Major Spoilers

Reviews

 * It should be noted that some reviewers have no knowledge of the show and the prequel issue. This affects the reviews.


 * Fandomania
 * Kitty's Pride
 * ComicImpact
 * Popculturenetwork
 * Newsarama (scroll down)
 * AdamReisinger
 * Major Spoilers
 * Jill Reyburn
 * Tfaw.com video review (charmed #1 review starts at 3.05)
 * LifeontheHellmouth