Samantha Darren

Origin

When she was a little girl, her father left her mother, which either made her mother crazy or exacerbated her already existing mental problems. After this she kept Samantha inside almost continuously with the girl almost never venturing outside her house. She is shown as a studious college student with whom her college professor has fallen in love with. Her earlier years have left her incapable of dealing with his unwanted advances and sexual harassment and Samantha eventually resorts to killing him to stop the abuse. As was later revealed though, this decision was heavily influenced by Belinda who was trying to convert Samantha to the side of evil in the ongoing struggle by the agents of the Dark One to control Earth.

Creation

Her first appearance was in Grimm Fairy Tales #21 in the interpretation of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. She was created by Raven Gregory and EricJ.

Character Evolution

As with many characters in the Grimm Fairy Tales continuity, when first introduced Samantha seemingly was a one-time character intended to fulfill the modern role of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. As the Grimm Fairy Tales continuity was expanded so was her character. It was revealed that she is in fact a falseblood (the result of the union of a highblood and a regular mortal) and that she contained great potential for magical ability. Eventually as the Grimm Fairy Tales ongoing series took on a different format, Samantha’s character was chosen to headline the series Grimm Fairy Tales: Myths and Legends, where she sometimes takes an active role and other times serves more as a guide.

Major Story Arcs

Samantha’s initial appearance was in the Grimm Fairy Tales version of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. After this she was seen as a corrupted individual and one that was on the path to joining the side of the Dark One due to this corruption. Sela decided that this could not be though and chose to face Belinda over her fate, and eventually sacrificed her own life so that Samantha could have another chance (though her death was only temporary.)

Samantha next must face a series of trials as she attempts to escape from a magical realm of which she has no knowledge. Her origin as a falseblood is revealed to her by a number of creatures (including Tiamat) in a cryptic way, though she learns that she is the descendant of a powerful highborn. She is not seen again for some time, but eventually Sela and Shang decide that they must travel to Myst to stop the pending assault on Earth by the gathered forces of the Dark One and his minions such a Cindy, Orcus and Jacob. At this point Samantha is left in charge of the realm of Earth to ensure that the sides of the Dark One do not gather too many followers, and important followers from among the other falsebloods residing on Earth.

Samantha’s first role in this regard it to come to the aid of Britney Waters who is being attacked by an agent of Baba Yaga (Baba Yaga plays the same role as Samantha does, only for the dark forces.) Samantha arrives too late to help Britney but she finds that she has already made the conscious decision for herself to be an agent for the side of good while also having learned to unleash her true potential. In the next instance Samantha also takes part in trying to rescue Erica Baxter, though she is ultimately unsuccessful as Erica is drawn into the influence of the Sea Witch. Following this certain secrets are revealed to Samantha in the short story arc The Gathering. This tells the story of Helios (who is supposed to represent any number of ancient sun gods) who is revealed to be an extremely powerful falseblood born in the land of Myst. He could not control his great powers of fire and he learned to fear them after killing the one true love of his life. In so doing he asked to be banished to the sun where he could live in exile. The artifact used to banish him was later broken into three pieces and scattered across the realms. As Samantha tries to interefere she is joined by a mysterious child-like guide who informs her of this story and how the forces of the Dark One are attempting to retrieve the pieces of the artifact so that they can return Helios to Earth and put him in their employ. Samantha is incapable of retrieving either of the first two pieces, which fall into the hands of Baba Yaga and the Sea Witch. The third piece remains hidden, except that a map exists for them in the inner sanctum of Myst. Baba Yaga witnessed the writing of this map as a child, and as she was taken there by Samantha during the Dream Eaters Saga she is able to return for the map.

The Dream Eater Saga was another cross company story arc in which Samantha played a significant role. It is not placed exactly in the continuity, though it is clearly before the Gathering story arc.

Powers and Abilities

As a falseblood Samantha controls innate magical ability. She does not have to learn how magic works, rather she must learn specifically how to control her own power. She does control a massive amount of magical power and she has used this in many different applications such as functioning underwater, shooting energy blasts, flight, dimensional transport, and teleportation. Her powers are generally considered equal to that of other magic users (such as Baba Yaga) only that she lacks the control and experience to always know how to utilize it most effectively.

Other Versions

The character was initially based on the fairy tale The Sorcerer’s Apprentice where a young apprentice sorcerer uses some of the magical abilities of a sorcerer while he is away. The character initially uses these magical powers to simply aid in her chores as with the animation of the magic broomstick (which shows up in Samantha’s story as well.) As Samantha has progressed as a character she comes to be based less and less on this character. The most famous version of this character is in the Disney animated movie Fantasia, where the role is played by Mickey Mouse.