It’s been a novel, a stage musical, and a movie musical. Until now, Gregory Maguire’s Wicked Years series has never set a silver-slippered foot into the world of graphic novels. On the heels of that world dominating movie, artist Scott Hampton has begun adapting Wicked. If you’ve never explored Maguire’s original text — far darker than the already dark stage adaptation — this may be the most beautiful way to do it.
Opening on Elphaba flying high over Dorothy and her companions, Hampton takes a scene we’ve usually interpreted as threatening and made it graceful. His watercolors also portray different visions of familiar characters. The Scarecrow looks more Munchkin-sized, Dorothy dresses like a tomboyish farmgirl, and the Tin Man is a far cry from Denslow and Neill’s original depictions. If you need the familiar, it’s hard to change up the Cowardly Lion.
But it’s Elphaba that’s most striking. In some panels, she almost looks like a young Margaret Hamilton without the make-up. The shade of green used here is more a pale mint in most shots. Restoring Maguire’s portrayal to the forefront, Hampton makes her graceful and far less of an outsider. Not that Idina Menzel and Cynthia Erivo weren’t graceful, just somehow different.
Here, Elphaba’s childhood pain seems less cartoonish. As in the novel, she herself isn’t the illegitimate child; it’s her younger sister, born armless of the union between their mother and a gentle Winkie soul, Turtle Heart. Though he doesn’t play much of a role, there’s also an even younger brother, a ne’er do well who practices cheap illusions. In short, Maguire’s Oz has no limits on where it provides a dark reflection of L. Frank Baum’s imagination.
The culture has been restored, with the few conflicting religions given focus. Sure, Lurlinism may seem pagan, but it’s also clear everyone enjoys Lurlinemas even if they think the old stories are bunk. For me, it’s satisfying that Hampton illustrates an ornate and frightening version of the Great Dragon Clock. Essentially missing from the movie and on stage really only tricking out the proscenium arch, the clock plays a powerful role in Maguire’s Wicked Years novels.
It’s been decades since I read Wicked, and this revisit needed to happen. Maguire’s prose is practically poetry, and the characterizations sharp. Hampton brings it to life, and somehow a couple of decades have seasoned it so the ambiguity has either lessened or become less important. Hopefully, Harper Collins sees enough value in continuing to at least Part 2. It’s agony waiting to see how Hampton handles its darker themes.
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