Spoilers ahead.
As an avid fan of fantasy, fantasy heroines, magical girls, and witches, after reading 'The Last Witch', I have to say...
I really don't.
Why do so many people like this? It is severely underdeveloped, even for a supposed start of an ongoing series. There are plot holes galore, it is predictable, poorly planned and structured, and to top it off, it is almost shamelessly unoriginal.
Apart from it being virtually no different from any other seemingly-ordinary-girl-discovers-she's-magical-and-is-in-fact-the-most-powerful-witch-ever-and-only-she-can-stop-the-big-bad-evil-from-taking-over-the-world story out there (complete with her having a dead mother and a useless little brother to protect), there are elements that blatantly rip off 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'. Honestly, I can't describe it any other way - "ripoff" is fitting. The magic (faerie? witch? what's the difference? or is it the same?) is mainly made up of the elements water, fire, air and earth - there are evil witches who have an affinity for each - and only the main heroine, Saoirse, can master all of the magic, and defeat them herself. She literally glows (notably her eyes, every time she performs magic) when she becomes too powerful or overemotional, and she floats in the air. Her finding her balance involves meditating and going into a garden, spiritually. There is a character, Hugh the faerie boy, who looks exactly like Sokka with white hair (he ties it back the same as Sokka, too!), and he even acts like him, only he's smugger, and an annoying sonofabitch who exists to "protect" the "poor, helpless" heroine, because the most powerful witch ever apparently can't take care of herself, nor learn anything by herself. Got to have a male potential love interest in these types of stories!
FFS, even the title has the word 'Last' in it. I've seen reviews that do compare 'The Last Witch' to 'Avatar', and I think the creators of the comic intended it that way, when they should have tried harder to make 'The Last Witch' stand out, as its own unique creation.
Before I go any further, I'll get the positives out of the way:
The art is brilliant. It's vibrant, bold, expressive, and I can really see top tier animation studios hiring the artist and colourist to come work for them. One original idea I can give credit to the comic is the use of Irish folklore and mythology as the basis of its worldbuilding; there aren't many modern fantasy stories about them. And as much as I think that the characters are generic templates found in any fantasy quest fiction, there is one that stands out to me: Saoirse's grandmother. It's nice to show that yes, older people can have adventures too, can be a part of a heroic team, and not exist solely to be the know-it-all mentor who typically dies at some point in the story to further the protagonist's development. Nan doesn't die in this book. In fact, Nan might be the only character I consistently liked. As flawed and even stupid as she is (I blame the idiot ball handling done for plot convenience, same goes for her plot convenient secrecy), she is at least aware of it, and tries to redeem herself. Her cigar chomping and smoking (yet the smoke is hardly ever drawn in, for some reason) is charming, too.
Now that that's brought to pass, back to the problems I had with 'The Last Witch':
Urgh, that title. It makes no sense. There are loads of witches and magic users in the graphic novel; the super special female protagonist, Saoirse, is not "the last witch" in any sense. Existing evil witches are common knowledge in this world. Wait, or are they myth, according to what info is given at the beginning? It's very inconsistent and haphazardly thought out, like most things in 'The Last Witch'.
Saoirse's grandmother is a witch!
Speaking of, slight spoiler here, but whatever: The four evil witches that Saoirse has to kill - yes, kill - in order to save the world from the unleashing of the darkness of a faerie king...they are her grandmother's sisters. Nan is the weakest of the sisters, she is barely a witch, and apparently there are only a few witches around who are considered "good". What makes someone who uses magic "good"? Is it just about corruption?
Anyway, to get back on track, the plot is about Saoirse killing her great-aunts - her own family, right after a great tragedy that made her little brother and grandmother her only close relatives left. Her father and her entire village die. This is never addressed. Ever.
I forgot to mention that Saoirse just turned twelve-years-old at the start of the story. She's a child, an orphan wracked with grief, and she is made to kill more members of her family, because it's her destiny. Apparently. Again, this is never addressed.
She does give the witches she encounters a chance to back down and surrender before she battles them, but this seems like a last minute editorial decision, quick and arbitrary, probably done in order to allay her murdering them, her fellow witches and great-aunts. And this is a children's comic.
(Her father's death is barely mentioned again, either, after it is announced. Great writing there.)
On that note, let's talk about Padraig. Remember him? The comic doesn't seem to, once the adventure starts rolling. Even though he's introduced at the very beginning as Saoirse's friend. And potential love interest, like Hugh (yeah, $%!!^**&^!!! off to $**%$!&^%&!!! with that). Also like Hugh (%$!!**^!, I swear they even have the exact same character model), Padraig is an annoying, smug little shit who insults Saoirse, calls her poor, and calls her grandmother a loony. He borderline abuses her, not merely teases her. You have to wonder why they are friends, and why the stubborn and headstrong Saoirse puts up with him.
Another spoiler here: Padraig disappears from the story as quickly as he appeared in it. It is revealed a little later that he died, and was eaten by the local legendary witch. Yeah, she's real, and the myth of her being evil is true, and she's a cannibal, because of course. Or, Padraig was about to be eaten by her; the artwork and dialogue are not clear.
So not only does Saoirse lose her father and her village to a witch, but she loses her childhood best friend to one at the same time. She saw him being cannibalistically eaten before her eyes.
Guess what? Once her quest with her brother and grandmother begins, Padraig is never mentioned again. He might as well never have existed. What masterful storytelling and character writing.
There is a moment near the end where Hugh casts a spell on the group's wagon - or at least, that's what the reader is told he did at the end-end, that he cast a protection spell on the wagon, before setting off to find Saoirse. But the art and dialogue at the occurrence itself strongly indicated that Hugh stole magic from Nan while she was asleep - draining her, absorbing her magic for his own - before going after Saoirse, marking him as a turncoat. There was nothing to suggest that he cast a protection spell over the wagon. Nan, afterwards, is angry at the faerie boy for what he did to the wagon, not for what he obviously did to her. So he's not a villain, then? Then what was Nan saying "It's not yours...it's not..." in her sleep while Hugh's light show is happening around her all about?
Was there no editor for this graphic novel? How do you get away with this kind of sloppiness, and with such fantastic artwork?
Why do the evil witches, who according to the story must die, have darker skin than the light-skinned heroes? Nan is white, but her corrupted sisters are not. Yikes. How the hell did that fly under everyone's radar, too?
And wow, do these powerful witches (and faeries? Apart from Hugh they barely factor into the book) really have to die at the hands of a twelve-year-old? At the hands of a young girl who a day ago didn't know she was a witch, and who wasn't even sure witches existed up until now?
Additionally, the witches killed both Saoirse's parents on two separate occasions. How convenient.
Finally, there's Saoirse's witchmark. It's what initially marks her as super special. She's had it her whole life, and it has made her an outcast in her village. A freak. Although this is yet another underdeveloped thread that goes nowhere, as well as an example of telling instead of showing. Her secret witch grandmother never explained to her what the mark was and why it was there before, because of reasons. Said mark is an intricate symbol (I think it's supposed to be Celtic?) on her shoulder, that she can just easily cover up with her clothes anytime, if she has to hide it. It's not ugly, like Padraig the dick and sham of a friend says. It's cool. It's pretty. It's the source of her magic powers.
FFS, writers and artists, if you want your heroine to be an outcast because of something to do with her appearance, have the guts to make her ugly! Give her big marks or scars on her face, things she can't hide as easily. Give her a deformity. Or a disability, for some much needed diversity in the fantasy genre. Saoirse is an able-bodied redhead who has boys keep saying how pretty she is! (I remind you, she's twelve!)
Have people who are not white not be the villains or suspicious! This is ridiculous and unforgivable for a 2021 publication.
Okay, one more example of how unoriginal 'The Last Witch' is: It uses a little girl's cloth doll, found by the heroine in a perishing town, as a signifier that people have died, including, likely, the doll's owner; just like in Disney's animated 'Mulan' movie.
Well, I'm done.
I'm sorry, I wanted to like 'The Last Witch', truly, for it seemed like my kind of thing. But I can't overlook bad storytelling, bad, inconsistent editing, overused clichés, tropes and archetypes, and how it offers nearly nothing new to the table. I have no doubt that the production team behind it tried to make it epic and awesome and worth remembering. Sadly, it didn't work for me.
Final Score: 2/5
P.S. I've hesitated to call Saoirse the overused and sexist term "Mary Sue" throughout this review, even though she legitimately ticks most of not all of the boxes for it. The more I think about it, with the evidence presented, the more likely it looks that she is a Mary Sue.
P.P.S. Hang on a second, what about Saoirse's father having the same name as Hugh's faerie warrior grandfather, in a tale told by Hugh? Is that ever going to come back, into play, or in any way? Argh! Stick with your ideas or don't include them at all, comic!
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