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.

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 arrives. He hands Hogan a little piece of paper. As the little demon 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 huge, monstrous demon. Leo and Paige are both surprised. Paige knew it would backfire, but not like that.

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 Halliwell 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 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.

Characters Introduced

 * Neena, a Demon
 * Hogan, a Warlock
 * An Angel of Destiny
 * A little demon
 * Baby Prue
 * Jessalyn, a female Magic School student

Returning Characters

 * Piper Halliwell
 * Phoebe Halliwell
 * Paige Mathiews
 * Leo Wyatt
 * Wyatt Halliwell
 * Chris Halliwell
 * Elise Rothman (mentioned)

Powers Used

 * Teleportation - Neena
 * ? - Hogan (caused conflict between the people in the club)
 * Telekinesis - Magic School Student
 * Fire Conjuring - Magic School Student


 * Telekinetic Orbing - Paige


 * Fading - Baby Prue


 * ? - Melinda


 * Molecular Immobilization - Piper (didnt work)


 * Balls of light - Neena

Spells Used

 * A Glamour To Change One's Appearance - Jessalyn

Previews

 * Comic Issue #1 Previews
 * More Previews

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)