MISC. MANGA, *Wicked: The Graphic Novel-Part 1

With the hit musical finally getting a film adaptation, that still left the original book to receive any kind of adaptation as the musical greatly diverges from the source material. Wicked: The Graphic Novel is a planned duology by William Morrow Paperback taking Gregory Macguire's first volume of what was called The Wicked Years series that is being illustrated by Scott Hampton who has worked on such mainstream titles as Hellblazer, Batman, and Star Trek as well as his own series of Simon Dark. Gregory Maguire's take on The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz by L. Frank Baum which started the entire Oz phenomenon shows an alternate history from the point of view of The Wicked Witch Of The West which champions the antagonist in place of the main protagonist. This began Maguire's askew take on various other children's books like Snow White, Alice In Wonderland, and Cinderella. The concept of the villain's origin really caught on from the Wicked musical and brought it more to the surface of pop culture. This caught on with creators like Disney releasing several fairy tale movies redone from the point of view of the villain such as Cruella and Maleificent. When Winnie Holzman rewrote the original Wicked novel for Stephen Schwartz's Broadway musical in 2003, this brought further attention to Macguire's book which to anyone that's read it is starkly contrast to the stage play. Both the book and the musical incorporate elements from the Wizard Of Oz book from 1900 as well as the 1939 MGM live-action film famously starring Judy Garland as Dorothy. The movie brought more attention to the character of the Wicked Witch of the West who is turned from being a mild villain from halfway through the original book as the film's overarching villain constantly trying to foil the heroes' plans. Maguire's true take on the Wicked Witch's origin is truly a work on its own and the graphic novel modifies that as best it can.

The main plot of the Wicked book shows about the earlier life of Elphaba, the green-skinned girl who would eventually become the Wicked Witch of the West. The reader first gets a slightly out of canon prologue with the Witch trailing Dorothy and her friends as they first make their way to her castle after seeing the Wizard. The book then opens up on Elphaba's early years in Munchkin Country where she was the probable daughter of a religious leader and his less than faithful wife just as the royal family of Oz falls to the arrival of the Wizard in his balloon. Cut ahead a few years to Elphaba's teenage years at Shiz University where she first meets Galinda who is not as egotistical as her musical counterpart. The two of them befriend one of the college's few remaining Animal teachers, Dr. Dillamond, who is fighting for the rights of "Animals" which area animals in Oz still capable of speaking because the Wizard's rule seems to be outing all the talking critters. Dillamond dies, and Elphaba believes it is the fault of Shiz head Madame Morrible, so she travels with Galinda to the Emerald City to report their findings directly to the Wizard himself which ends in failure. Elphaba sends Galinda back to Shiz on her own and decides to stay in the Emerald City to join an underground movement. A while afterwards, Elphaba in hiding comes across her old schoolmate Fiyero, a prince from the western country of the Vinkus who had already married with three children but still decided to engage in a love affair with his green-skinned friend. Elphaba then fails an assassination attempt on Morrible which leads to Fiyero getting captured by the Wizard's secret police and her grieving her loss in a convent where she is taken in by the mysterious Mother Yackle. The second volume will cover the latter half of Macguire's novel much of which is never covered in the musical.

Wicked: The Graphic Novel-Part 1 adapts the majority of the first act of the Wicked book, but there is a great deal that is left out of it if you've read the original novel. There is a controversial segment involving some of Elphaba's schoolmates at an adult club which has no real bearing on the main story at all and was mainly added either for shock value or to pad out the story. Much character development is also not included, specifically Elphaba's sister Nessarose, her Nanny, and Galinda's chaperone Clutch. With Scott Hampton's illustrations, a fair deal of the narration has been excluded as well, so if you haven't read Maguire's book prior to the graphic novel then you're missing quite a bit of backstory. Hampton's realistic artwork is vivid but doesn't really bring out the color most people are used to in an Oz story, although not to the point of making the fairy land look like a dystopia. It is highly recommended that fans of the original book should check this out, but for fans of musical and movies might not be satisfied.