The Charmed Ones prepare to take on The Old Ones (Charmed Season 10, Issue 7)

Charmed Season 10 #7

Written by: Pat Shand
Art by: Dimat
Cover by: David Seidman
Colored by: Valentina Cuomo
Lettered by: Christy Sawyer

Published by: Zenescope
Cover Price: $3.99

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!

Even though I just reviewed Charmed a few months ago, this was supposed to be a good jump on issue for new readers, so I decided to give it another shot.  This story was mostly a stand alone story, though there was a lot here that provided closure to hanging story threads, and a lot of setup for future storylines too.

In this issue, we found out that in order to get Knox’s help during the last arc, Leo promised the Charmed Ones would do him a favor in return. If they refuse, LEO WILL DIE! The sisters aren’t happy about it, but to save her husband, Piper agrees, bringing Paige along with her. Knox wants the Charmed Ones to help stop his mentor, Aldor Kose, from killing all the students at Knox’s school to help resurrect the old ones. In the end, Knox sacrifices himself to protect his students and defeat Kose. The issue ends with Knox climbing out of his grave, infected by one of the old ones.

I know this was just a quick fill in issue between major story arcs, but the art on the last two issues was a huge step down from other issues in this series, especially when it came to the Charmed Ones. In my last Charmed review, I had commented that Elisa Felix’s art was a huge step up from Season 9’s art. The last two issues were a huge step backwards. There were many scenes where I had no idea which Halliwell sister I was looking at.

That said, I did like how Aldor Kose looked. Artist Dimat seemed must more comfortable drawing monsters than trying to make the characters look like their actor counterparts. Thankfully, Elisa Felix will be back with the next issue. I would love to see Dimar’s work in a different context, it just didn’t quite work for me here.

This issue did a good job setting up the next major threat, but in a lot of ways it was just filler. It was strange that they seemed to set Aldor Kose up as a major threat, but had he defeated so easily. There is clearly more to this story when Knox rises from the dead in the end, but it just seems like there were other ways of getting us there. After taking the time to drag the Charmed Ones into the fight, they really didn’t even do much. Knox made the heroic sacrifice himself.  It wasn't a bad story, just not quite what I was expecting.

I did love the little teases we got about Pru’s story. The sisters have been avoiding Pru since she came back to life, something that has become very obvious to Pru, who is tired of feeling like they only talk to her when they need something. It is clear there is a lot more to this story than has been revealed so far, and I’m definitely curious how it will all play out. I thought bringing Pru back was a hell of a twist, and it seems this is going to be a major part of the story moving forward. I hope they keep Pru around after all is said an done.  I think she can really add an interesting new dynamic to this series.

This issue was kind of just there for me, which is often the hardest review to write. When I love or hate a comic, words just flow for me. I think I am just not a good enough writer to be able to find clever ways to say, “this issue isn’t bad…but it will never be anyone’s all-time favorite comic.” But, that is pretty much exactly how I feel about this comic. Good setup for the next arc, but not much else going on here.