After finding out there will be a live-action adaptation of the Winx Club I’ve been on a full nostalgic binge after reading the first 5 comics and re-watching most of the TV show. The following issues are all in addition to the show, where some aspects are touched upon but these give more context and depth to our characters.
The Swamp Monster
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Comic 6, The Swamp Monster, shows us that Bloom has got herself a job! A slight plot hole in the show is that all the girls can shop as often as they want, but Bloom’s family doesn’t have a lot of Earth money. Plus, even if they did is there a place to exchange it? But this is a nice in-universe explanation.
This story has less of a focus on the Winx, and more on the Specialists and the Trix. We get to see the specialists training to become heroes, and it includes the involvement of magic. This is different to the show where they are mostly shown to be fighters. It also shows the Trix aiming to get the Specialists on their side, reinforcing that witches don’t hate everyone else – but mainly fairies and the Trix’s own anger towards Stella and Bloom.
It also introduces the Darcy and Riven connection that is explored in the show. This shows Darcy as more humane, possibly actually having some feelings towards him at first.
We also see Musa watching them both and getting upset. At this stage, Riven hasn’t really show interest in either of them so I was annoyed that Musa was upset. At the end it’s even left on a bit of cliff-hanger that she’ll hear from another guy she’s met.
Carrying on with the relationships in this comic, we see more of Brandon and Bloom. In the comics they’re more antagonistic towards one another, often arguing and so just reading the comics you’d think they’re terrible for each other. In the show Musa and Riven have this argumentative behaviour, but with them not fully knowing each yet in the comics it feels like Bloom has been given that dynamic.
The School for Witches as its name suggests focuses more on the witches over at Cloud Tower. Like the previous comic where we saw classes for the specialists, in this one we see classes with the Trix and is a new storyline.
This focus gives more motivation exploration to the Trix, who have enrolled in Cloud Tower to learn and find more power but are annoyed by more immature classmates. When one of the teacher lets slip about some Forbidden Books, Icy creates a cunning plan to find them. This is also the first mention we have of the Dragon Flame and supreme power that they are after, as well as the link to target Bloom.
I loved the introduction of Stella’s backstory in this comic too. In the show there is a mention here and there about her parents’ separation, but this really shows how much it affects her. The Trix play on this to get their way, so we also get great scenes of Bloom being a great friend, and Stella growing as a person to be a good person to her mother too.
The School for Witches
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The plot of this comic is also interesting as it’s not a usual conflict, but more of a coincidence that Stella is the one that fits the criteria the Trix need. They’re just wondering about the Forbidden Books and what power they can get, and the power they unleash is more than they can control anyway. This shows they’re not as powerful as they think too.
Heart of a Fairy
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Comic number 8, Heart of Fairy focuses on the underlying message of what a fairy is which is to help others. Their power comes from positive emotion, so helping others in any way they can helps them improve too.
The story actually starts off focused on Musa as she is torn between Riven, the boy she’s not really spoken to, and Mitril, the boy she’s just met. When Mitril turns up at her window asking her to go travelling with him she adamantly says no, but is still pretty broken up about the decision throughout.
This is supposed to juxtapose with Madam Greta’s story which Bloom brings to a close. Greta dropped out of Alfea to be with her love, and then opened the café to make ends meet but her love never returned to her which makes her bitter and alone.
Bloom finds a magic spell to create a letter that give Greta closure so she’s a better person which is kind of lying but in a good way? It’s a strange resolution to the story, and it’s not the first time the fairies have what they call “witch-like” behaviours to get their way.
It feels like the story is meant to say something about Musa’s situation and show how much better off she is by staying in school. However, it doesn’t go back to that to hammer home the message which is frustrating. Madam Greta also isn’t doing awfully for herself as she owns her own business and seems to be doing well anyway so it feels a bit flat in general.
Other than the message being a bit off, I enjoy seeing more casual adventures for the teen girls as it’s what is more relatable. Plus, we get a lot of content around different relationships between the girls – such as Stella and Tecna acting like parents to Musa when a boy sneaks in. Plus, we get even more casual outfits for the girls!
A Job for Bloom is exactly what the title says as Bloom recounts how she found her job to her new digital diary, as well as explaining how she got the diary. Both of these elements were in the previous comic, so it does kind of backtrack, but the dear diary element makes it more understandable.
We get some good insight that both Bloom and Musa struggle financially compared to Tecna and Stella who have rich parents and Flora who is better off than them. I really enjoyed that this was touched upon as it shows they have very different upbringings – it also shows that Stella will offer to help, which cements that she would do anything for Bloom.
Musa manages to find a job quickly as the Library has a wall cave in that opens up multiple chambers and tunnels under the castle. The librarian hires help to sort the books found, and the specialists are recruited to help clear the tunnels of threats.
A Job for Bloom
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Timmy and Musa have a great friendship as he explains what they do, and Musa in turn explains why they need specialists if they have magic. I loved this little conversation as it shows character development outside of relationships between the boys and girls.
This section really loves Musa and Riven as we get another story where they are kind of the main focus. After Musa loses Timmy in the tunnels, it’s Riven who saves her from a monster and gets her back to safety. With some average communication which leads to misunderstanding as Riven doesn’t want to be friends. This is the very start of toxic behaviours that continue throughout the TV series too, which is unfortunate, but I believe and hope it does get better too.
The Revelation
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The Revelation recounts the aftermath of Season 1, Episode 17 “Secrets Within Secrets” with Bloom telling her diary the series of events and what happens after with Diaspro and Brandon. There isn’t much to add to this storyline, however Brandon and Bloom talk about the issue and seem to make up and agree to be friends which is omitted in the show.
We get continued story of both the Specialists and the Trix training at the relevant schools. When the Specialists are being trained to fight nightmares and fears in the field they come across a monster which has been made by the Trix and end up being split up with the fairies (where relationship talks have to happen more!).
The Trix use a language of the dead to bring a monster to life that is too overpowerful for them as well as the teachers at Cloud Tower and Alfea too. I enjoy the added world building of having dead languages which are hard to use, as well as the insinuation that they’ve accidentally found out how powerful Bloom is in this comic.
Overall, I found this comic to be strange as the artwork is all over the place. It feels like multiple people were working on it and not quality checking that the frames looked good together which was disappointing. Especially with it being so close to the show, I expected more but I assume they worked off storyboards and not the actual animation.
Throughou these 5 comics I found that there was so much more world building and character depth to the characters that arne’t focused on in the TV Show as much. We have a whole load of information about Musa, the Specialists and the Trix. I’m just hoping we have more Flora and Tecna comics coming up.
These comics also brought up multiple topics which showed class differences because of money, and how this affected the girls differently (and probably ties into The Revelation and Blooms feelings about it even more!). It does feel a lot more like casual adventures (think Sabrina the Teenage Witch… the original show!) than a big magical fight that the TV show has, but I enjoyed them for that reason. Short and sweet stories that give you added depth and context is great.
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Comments
2 responses to “Uptown Oracle Reads… Winx Club Comics (Issues 6-10)”
I e never heard of this comic before. It doesn’t seem to be my kind of thing but I’m sure the market is there for such a comic
I am not really a comic person lol but this sounds like a really interesting comic. I really like how you gave a brief summary of the comic. I will add this to my to-be-read list. Great post x!
Ruthiee loves Glamour