WITCH: The Power of Five #1

Will gets to Sheffield Institute, a private school. (Will's mother recently got a divorce and they moved to escape her ex-husband's constant calling.) There she meets Taranee. In one of the classes a girl named Irma is suspected by another classmate of using some kinds of spells.

Another girl named Cornelia finds that she tends to space out sometimes, and it's possible her wishes are having effects on things around her. She can't accept the possibility that she is actually making things happen, though.

The school is socially divided into three groups; the infielders (the "in" group), the outfielders (rebels and misfits), and the snufilupigi, the "invisibles".

(That's something common to all schools, real and fantasy, but it's also interesting. There was an X-Files episode about a girl who became literally invisible because she was ignored by everyone. The girl went nuts and was starting to try and kill people when the government got hold of her and put her to work for them. )

Cornelia already knows Irma and Hay Lin who knows the types of things that Irma has been doing. She's distracted and goes to the bike rack, finding that the local group of bullies has been messing with the bikes, including Taranee's.

There's a special dance at the school that very night. Irma takes a bath and we learn that she has power over water, even if she doesn't understand it. After her bath she unintentionally turns all her clothes the same shade of blue.

Will encounters a bit of a problem when she looks in a window and sees a reflection of herself that's not herself; it's a much more mature, more physically developed self. It also happens to be herself with wings.

Cornelia has a strange thing happen, also. Her mother won't let her go to the dance without first cleaning her room. Moments later the door shuts in front of Cornelia's face and, when it opens, the room is spotlessly clean!

All five girls go to the Halloween party but there is some difficulty, especially when Will seems to have a dizzy spell.

The next chapter starts at the Temple of Candracar with someone called The Oracle. He is protecting some kind of veil separating evil, which is in some place called Metamoor, from good, which is on the earth, and the five girls seem to be the protectors of the earth.

More trouble occurs at the party with the Oracle watching things happen. It seems the girls must be united and succeed in their task or all life on earth will end up being destroyed.

More problems arise when a giant pumpkin is set on fire. It turns out it's been filled with fireworks which put the students in danger. Taranee stops one of them from hitting Irma while Will is in danger from one of the evil beings who came to the party.

Taranee, though, has no idea how she managed to control the fireworks and the fire from the giant pumpkin. One girl, Elyon, goes to a bookstore to meet Cedric, not knowing he's evil.

The five girls meet upstairs in Hay Lin's apartment. Her grandmother ends up explaining about what has been happening to the girls. She tells the girls that they are the Guardians of the Veil. She tells Irma she will have power over water. Cornelia is given power over earth and Taranee power over fire. Hay Lin is given power over air. Will is given the pendant that Hay Lin's grandmother had been carrying.

Eylon lures three of the girls into coming to the school's gym that night where they are attacked by Cedric and a blue monster.

This is an interesting, though well-worn storyline basically taken from Japanese anime. Assorted "normal" girls are suddenly given extraordinary powers and then are attacked by evil beings intent on taking over/destroying the earth. The powers can be based on elements (air, earth, fire, water), perhaps planets (such as in Sailor Moon, Sailor Jupiter, etc.), or other criteria. One or more of the girls is almost always reluctant to accept and use the power (Sailor Moon or, in this case, Cornelia), and all of this revolves around some ancient battle of good vs. evil.

Just because the basic plot is derivative, though, does not mean it is bad. Everything depends on how the story itself is told and, in this case, the story that is told is interesting. All of the characters are developed as much as possible in one volume, giving lots of room for growth in further volumes.

This is a good introduction to the series. The idea of having an introductory and a concluding section done in manga-style is not very common but seems to work well.

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