Why, happy Walspurgisnacht, Rama readers!

Don’t know what that means? I hadn’t heard of it either, but our resident Calendar Man, Troy Brownfield, alerted us to this holiday. The long and short of this holiday is that witches in Germany hold a celebration in preparation for the Spring.

So in keeping for the Spring (which I hope lasts after that nasty Winter), here’s some of our favorite witches in comics! (And possible spoilers ahead, duh.)

TO REITERATE ONCE MORE — THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS AHEAD!

Zatanna: Perhaps we’re splitting hairs this early on in the list, but Zatanna has been a magic user after many people’s hearts. The daughter of master magician Zatara, Zatanna initially joined the Justice League trying to find her father. She eventually stepped out of her father’s shadow and became a fully-fledged member of the Justice League — yet she made a major lapse in judgment by mind-wiping and lobotomizing the villainous Doctor Light (as well as Barry Allen rogue the Top), as well as wiping Batman’s memory of the event. Since then, she and Bats have reconciled, even almost entering a relationship. She has since been a member of Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers, regaining her confidence while battling agents of the Sheeda horde. While Batman might be MIA with the rest of the Big Three after Final Crisis, Zatanna is still a member of the Justice League.

The Scarlet Witch: It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. The Scarlet Witch, aka Wanda Maximoff, was the daughter of the mutant terrorist Magneto, and her reality-altering powers made her one of the first recruits to his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Yet she and her brother Quicksilver soon learned the error of their ways, and joined Captain America’s “kooky quartet” Avengers along with former criminal Hawkeye. Wanda became a sterling Avenger, falling in love with the android Vision. She managed to have twins from the robot, but it was revealed that the twins were shards of the demon Mephisto, which are soon dispelled from both the world and Wanda’s memory. This would come back to haunt her, as upon remembering the twins she lost control of her reality-altering powers and killed the Vision, Ant-Man, and Jack of Hearts, thus disassembling the Avengers. When the Avengers found her and planned to kill her, she rewrote the world into the House of M, putting Magneto in charge. After the heroes struck back, she then depowered 90 percent of the mutant population worldwide. Many feel that she is leading the Mighty Avengers, but *SPOILER ALERT* it is actually the Asgardian Loki in disguise.

Klarion, the Witch Boy: DUM-DUM-DUM! Klarion the Witch Boy has come in a few different incarnations: he was reintroduced post-Crisis to turn Young Justice into adults (and the Justice League into teenagers) in the Sins of Youth crossover. But his latest incarnation was straight from the mind of Grant Morrison, during his Seven Soldiers maxiseries. In this series, Klarion was a witch boy in an underground city, who soon made his escape to the real world above — even taking over the Frankenstein monster using his Grundy wand. Yeah, it’s twisted, but it’s some fun atmospheric work by Frazer Irving.

Enchantress: Originally an adversary of Power Girl, magician June Moore eventually joined the Suicide Squad. Yet June made a heroic sacrifice during the Day of Judgement, going catatonic after Faust sacrificed part of her soul to reignite the fires of Hell. But that part of her soul came back, and Faust reunited them to battle back an mystical Egyptian king. Enchantress made her return to the greater DCU when the Spectre went amok, thus inspiring the Shadowpact to form. The Enchantress caused the team to lose one year of their lives during one of their first cases, as she diverted a magic spell that would have otherwise killed everyone in Riverock, Wyoming.

Lucifer: No, not the embodiment of all evil — the tomboy thief protagonist of the BOOM! Studios series Hexed. Luci Jenifer Inacio Das Neves, or Lucifer, is a witch-for-hire,  using her eclectic magical skills to acquire all sorts of mystical items for the highest bidder. Yet her plans have been mucked up a bit by the return of Dietrich, an old partner of hers who she left during a botched case. The first issue of the four-issue mini is free for iPhone users, and is definitely some fun art with some superb coloring.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Of course I couldn’t forget the most popular comics witch of all! Sabrina Spellman’s father was a warlock, and her mother an ordinary human — this duality put her with her aunts Hilda and Zelda. While trying to help people with her magic, Sabrina also has to keep her mystical abilities a a secret, even from her boyfriend Harvey.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 10:56 am and is filed under Dial H for History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.