This time, they're discovering their new mission and that there's a new big bad out there.
FIRST ISSUE: We meet Takeda, who's the new bad guy. The company he works for (owns?) does stuff with technology involving the cold. Somehow in the recent past, he used the cold to open a portal into another world. A being from that world fell in love with his daughter, who is now in some sort of "endless sleep." Takeda keeps her in stasis there in the company until he can figure out how to help her. He's angry with everything magical, which of course includes W.I.T.C.H. The frozen being who loves the girl is also there and is given a human form thanks to some sort of formula Takeda created. They seem to be assessing the girls and looking for a weakness.
Meanwhile, Hay has taken up babysitting, only the second client she meets turns out to be a magical kid. The girls think helping magical children might be their new mission and they consult Yan about this. She gives them a guy named Kandor who will help them with their new magical school.
Takeda sends a naiad after the girls and she finds Will. The naiad looks like a snake but it's a parasite that takes over the body of her host and drains all their magic and other energies. At home, Takeda ignores his other daughter.
SECOND ISSUE: Will is feeling ill thanks to the naiad, while Hay finds a boy in her closet. How did he get in her closet? Who knows? But it's the human form of the frozen guy and he calls himself Liam. Hay brings Liam to meet the other girls and he helps them with the naiad. She's drawn out of Will's body by the presence of the strong magic of the other girls. They try to fight, but Liam says only Will's best friend can do it. Thanks to a little flashback at the beginning of the issue, we know this is Taranee. She defeats the naiad and Will is saved, then there's an amusing scene where the girls all bring her gifts to prove they're her friends, too. After this, Hay visits Yan, who gives her the key to the magic school, but doesn't tell her where it is.
THIRD ISSUE: The girls are on vacation with Taranee's family. They've got their own bungalow, as do Peter and his friends, while Taranee's parents are in a third. So they're in a beachy resort place. I'd forgotten the girls were given new magical weapons to go with their new powers. Cornelia practices with her ribbon, while Taranee's magical volleyball is found by a beach dude. She and Hay are forced to play volleyball with it. Then Hay accidentally uses her fan weapon as a fan and instead it creates a huge wind, which causes a wave that knocks Cornelia and Peter underwater, interrupting their surf lesson. Underwater, they kiss. Will keeps trying to fit the magic school key into everything, gets into some trouble, and then tries out her magic clackers, which have some weird magical effect on the world nearby. At lunch, the girls decide they need to practice with their objects. Irma's is a tambourine. They sound silly, but there's a training sequence that shows what they can actually do as weapons and it's pretty cool. Later, the girls are hiding behind a van and Will tries the key out...and it works. Kandor is inside and he shows them their new magic school, which is a huge pink tour bus that's got all sorts of cool shit inside.
FOURTH ISSUE: The one has Matt meeting both Liam (he doesn't trust him) and Kandor (apparently Matt was his captain back on Kandrakar). Matt still won't say much about who he really is. A lot of the issue is taken up by Kandor showing the girls their individual classrooms, then Matt fights Liam in the gym, wanting to prove to the girls that he can't be trusted. Instead, Will gets annoyed with Matt. We the magical creature also makes an appearance and he's going to live on the bus with Kandor, much to Kandor's displeasure. He's allergic.
At Cornelia's house, there's an old man that she keeps seeing. He gives her a note that she takes to her dad and he rips it up. Bitch Grandma is staying in Cornelia's room because this has upset her so much. Talking with her dad, Corny learns that the man is her grandfather, who left the family a very long time ago. He's not sure he wants to see him.
In the school, Kandor shows the girls the magical power source that creates the school itself. It's called the lumien and it's basically a bunch of elemental energy ribbons. They send out several end pieces of the ribbons and follow them to find more magical kids. Heatherfield is apparently so magical that a lot of younger children and babies are being born with magic.
Cornelia makes a quick trip home to tape up the note from her grandfather and leave it for her dad, who goes to see him after all.
This one was interesting, but nothing too special. After so many issues of them hiding magic, the idea of a bunch of magical kids just out there practically in the open is unusual. And all the parents are going to end up knowing about W.I.T.C.H. The villain is a bit lackluster, but I'm also intrigued to learn more about this frozen hidden world and what exactly happened between Liam and Mariko.
Order of Favorite Guardians: Cornelia, Hay/Taranee, Irma, Will.
The same. Cornelia is still way out in front and now she's done yet another cool thing by helping her dad. Taranee's helping Will was awesome, but I also just really loved Hay in this volume.
FIRST ISSUE: At Takeshita, Mrs. Takeda visits her husband and eventually forces him to take her to Mariko, their eldest daughter. he explains about her being trapped in whatever state she's in thanks to her contact with the parallel world that he calls "fast world."
Cornelia follows a lumien strand to a girl that looks a little bit older than W.I.T.C.H. Leah is a model who can shapeshift into whatever the person she's around needs most, but she's upset because she's forgotten her original face. There's this whole modelling storyline that's not very interesting. It's not Cornelia's best work after her awesome family story last time. I mean, she doesn't do anything wrong. It's just a boring storyline. The other girls take Leah to meet Yan, who helps her rediscover her true self.
SECOND ISSUE: Taranee's mom senses that she feels lonely without Peter in the house, so they go pick out a dog. Mrs. Cook is thinking a nice, cute, little puppy, but Taranee picks out this huge black dog named Flea. While at the shelter, Taranee meets twins Luna and Sun and realizes Sun is magical. Liam sends monsters to the shelter to kidnap Sun, but she's rescued and recruited by W.I.T.C.H. She has a hand in her own rescue though, as her ability to talk to animals includes ones not of this world. Sun is a bit grumpy, but I like her. At the end, Taranee and her family go back and pick up the little puppy Taranee also liked, so Flea has a friend.
In a brief side story, Irma attempts to befriend the younger Takeda daughter, Shinobu, but nothing comes of it.
THIRD ISSUE: Hay notices her parents are having some marital issues, and her mom finally tells her the story of how they got together. Her mom was quite wealthy and her dad was a waiter in their household. Her mom, confronted with a marriage proposal she didn't want, realized she loved Hay's dad and they left to be together. Her father disowned her, but every year he sends a man with divorce papers, because if she signs them, he'll give her his entire fortune. So when he comes this year, Hay's dad says they're all going back with him. They basically go to China just so Hay's dad can have Hay's mom see everything she's given up and she once again declares her love for him and they leave happy.
Meanwhile, Liam came to stay at Will's house in a ruse to get closer to baby William, who apparently is super magical. Matt follows him back to Takeshita, where he's caught and Takeda freezes him.
FOURTH ISSUE: Shinobu is wandering around Takeshita. Takeda forces Liam to go kidnap baby William. W.I.T.C.H. has some comic relief teaching scenes. Liam visits Hay to semi-apologize for what he's about to do, then goes to Will's, where he knocks out Susan and kidnaps baby William. Takeda forces him to take William through the portal back into Liam's "fast world." William handles the entire trip just fine because he's just that magical. W.I.T.C.H., led by a furious Will, attack Takeshita. Will knows William is through the portal, so she doesn't listen to the others and goes right in. They follow and then Takeda freezes the entrance shut so they're trapped. His mission was to get the girls and William into the portal so they'd be out of our world and he'd have an easier time ridding Heatherfield of magic. Shinobu confronts her father and injects herself with his formula. He tells her the only way to save herself is to go to fast world. Takeda's robots freeze him while he's trying to protect Shinobu and she creeps into the frozen passage.
Pretty exciting! The first issue was a bit of a dud, but the other three made up for it. I like the family backstories we're getting for the girls, though it does seem odd that first Cornelia's and now Hay's family have some old secret family drama that's revealed. And it hasn't been that long since the same happened to Taranee.
Order of Favorite Guardians: Cornelia, Hay/Taranee, Irma, Will.
Taranee's issue had her creeping a little ahead of Hay, but then it was followed by Hay's issue, so they're right back to being tied. I hope Irma gets something to do soon.
FIRST ISSUE: The girls find themselves in fast world, where they meet the White Queen, who tells them of her war with the Shadow Queen. She tricks them into fighting for her, but the girls realize the White Queen is actually the bad guy in fast world. The Shadow Queen turns out to be Mariko, though she's not always corporeal, her body being back on Earth. Shinobu had found William and both were then found by Mariko, so all three were imprisoned after the battle. W.I.T.C.H. and Liam free them, though Liam sacrifices himself to save Mariko. Everyone escapes and heads back to the portal.
SECOND ISSUE: They make it through the portal and Mariko's spirit is reunited with her body. But everyone has to flee because the White Queen is on her way, somehow using a scrap of Irma's lamia (how could that even tear?) to track them. The fast worlders are using their speed to suck parts of Heatherfield back into fast world. Hay uses an old lullaby to magically transport all the citizens into an airport bunker. I have no idea how. Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay all sing together to fight the White Queen, who's attacked the bunker. Will isn't with them because she got the people out just in time. Matt breaks free of his icy prison and his voice joins them. Somehow it's his additional voice that conquers the White Queen and breaks the connection between Earth and fast world. Takeda is also freed from ice and reunited with his daughters. W.I.T.C.H. kindly lets him go. Too kindly.
So these two issues wrap up this storyline. While I didn't hate it, I found the ending very unsatisfying. Liam sacrifices himself to save Mariko and she just briefly cries. Nothing more. Takeda is forgiven way too easily without even thanking W.I.T.C.H. or realizing there's nothing wrong with magic after all. And I have no idea how any of that singing stuff worked. But anyway, it's over.
THIRD ISSUE: Now it's time for the filler issues. Irma becomes suspicious of Kandor and what he does in his free time, so the girls stow away on the bus and spend all of their Sunday travelling all over the world. It's a fun issue with a lot of comedy. Turns out Kandor likes knitting, so he buys yarn from all over, but he tells the girls he's collecting rare books to hide his secret.
FOURTH ISSUE: It feels like they just started back up again, but it's apparently the end of the school year. A pianist named Francis is worried about his grades. Taranee knows him and even gives him a kiss on the cheek. I honestly can't remember if we've ever met this guy before. Cornelia and a girl named Sandra were never friends, though they're quite similar, and they decide to walk home together. This is Sandra's last day because she's moving so it's bittersweet for the pair to realize they had so much in common too late for them to be more active friends. Hay isn't in school, as she has chicken pox. The others visit her later. Irma and Stephen attend a party with his friends and Irma feels out of place. Then they have their goodbye moment, as Stephen is going off to college. Will's mom goes to a high school reunion and is reunited with her old boyfriend. Then Dean turns up in time to dance with her. It's cute. Will takes William to a day care for the first time and he totally does not even try to control his magic. He's a hit with the other kids, but I have no idea how that's going to work when Will isn't there to make everything disappear. The girls end the day hanging with Yan in Kandrakar. This was a fun issue with all sorts of storylines going on.
FIFTH ISSUE: Will is practicing for a swimming competition and then all sorts of weird shit starts happening. It turns out because Will loves swimming so much, she gives the water all her emotions and memories and such, and it's kind of giving them back to her. W.I.T.C.H. steps in and sorts things out.
Order of Favorite Guardians: Cornelia, Hay/Taranee, Irma, Will.
Still the same! And that wraps up this story arc.
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