Uptown Oracle Reads… Winx Club Comics (Issues 17-21)

The Ghost of Balmoral

The Ghost of Balmoral is the Winx Club going on holiday to Earth and then ghost hunting. Ghosts are real in this world, and there’s a spell to make them come alive – which is just a nice added piece of lore but does contest the lack of magic on Earth issue that comes up in the series a little bit.

I’ll be honest I was fully expecting Balmoral castle in Scotland and I was disapointed. This castle was re-built within America and overlooking the beach, but it’s just a general castle. It’s a natural and historical backdrop for a ghost story, which is alright.

I’m unsure in general about whether the version I read was an official English translation or not. The writing isn’t the best, some of the speech bubbles just don’t look or sound right for the girls which is disapointing.

There’s a sub-plot of Stella leading a guy on whilst Brandon isn’t around. This is so that the guy and his friends do things like put the tent up, and I felt like this behaviour wasn’t shown as bad as much as it could have been. I kind of wish this had been shown as a moral lesson somehow.

The Guardian of Dreams takes place right at the start of Season 2, and shows how they get Aisha better after she turns up at Alfea.

I really enjoyed the plotline of this comic, and found it to be one of the more original ideas so far. There’s Doctor Morrpheus, a Guardian of Dreams who looks after the dream realm for all people. There’s been a disturbance which keeps Aisha locked within her nightmare, but that disturbance also gave others in Magix nightmares too.

The power of nightmares and the dream realm was exciting to explore, I just wish this had been in the series as well. It shows off the girls biggest fears, Bloom not knowing the answer, Musa disapointing her father, Stella being left for a better version. These are all explored in other episodes later in the series, but I liked seeing how they reacted to this. I was disapointed that we didn’t see more of Tecna or Flora though.

This is the first look of Lord Darkar’s fortress, although it is the dream/nightmare version. I also loved that we saw the Winx helping Aisha before they even knew her, showing they are good fairies.

The Guardian of Dreams

Monsters on the Loose

Monsters on the Loose tells the story of being imprisoned in Lord Darkar’s fortress and the Winx saving them in Season 2, Episodes 3-6 ish + more from later episodes too. It’s told from the point of view of the Pixies, who are telling it to the Travelling Pixie.

The Pixies have actually created their own book with drawings of this story, and so the art style through a lot of this is not great. There’s apparently no pixie of drawing, because the book is focused on and looks like childrens drawings. So it’s canonically okay, but at the same time frustrating.

At the end we do get a half-story of the Winx girls. The specialists, witches and fairies must clear out the monsters after Darkar’s defeat. The story focuses on relationship drama as a witch shows interest in Brandon (which I believe comes up in a later episode).

I enjoyed the introduction of the Travelling Pixie, who comes to tell stories and news to the village. Plus she collects stories from the Pixies too. Overall, this comic was a bit of a filler and recap.

This comic is another one that deals with the aftermath of Darkar’s defeat. Darcy broke her leg and the Trix are trying to hide out and wait for her to heal. They have a plan to memory wipe everyone so they can stop hiding. I always like it when their plans are shown to us as a reader, because they do show them thinking.

Of course, things go wrong and the spell is overpowerful and makes everyone forgetful in general. I loved how they showed this through different characters and different levels of being affected because of different situations.

The Winx Club wear masks during an epidemic, so you should too. I did like how Stella was more forgetful because she’d breathed in more of the spell.

The ending was a bit typical, with the Trix ending up being victims of their own magic and have their memory wiped. I assume this will come back to them at some point, as they’re in the next season. But it was a fun and quick read.

An Evil Wind

The Shaab Stone

The Shaab Stone is the first comic in the series which has a recurring arc and also differs to the TV series. The titular stone is magic negating and hit Magix as a meteorite within the enclosed territory. This story is focused on how if falling into the wrong hands, it could ruin Magix.

The villain is also comic only, Belizarus is a non-magic businessman which deviates from the norm in this series a lot. He’s almost Trump-like in how dislikable from the start he is. Griffin gets to be a boss as she both tells him he can’t smoke in her office, or the school in general and then kicks him off the premises.

Belizarus being the villain, and the plot being against magic allows a joint force against it by fairies and witches. Griffin actually states that witches are against evil in the same way as the fairies, but they fight using black magic/the same magic as the evil-doers.

Overall I enjoyed the concept, the art style was consistent and it left me wanted to read more as there was a fuller storyline.