Origin

Anna originates from the town of Salem, Massachusetts sometime near the end of the 19th century. She is seemingly a normal girl that is raised by her widowed father, but there is in fact a more mysterious past. Anna's mother had the ability to see information about objects. She could touch an object and know the identity of the object and those who had touched it previously. She passed thee abilities onto her daughter, only Anna's abilities are much stronger. At some later point (10 years since the beginning of the series) Anna's mother dies of mysterious causes.

Creation

Anna first appeared in issue #0 of Salem's Daughter in April 2009. She was envisaged as a combination of various genres, both by the inclusion of the witchcraft trials from Salem, Massachusetts, as well as with the presence of Braden Cole with his associated Western elements. The series was the first foray into the Western genre by the Grimm Fairy Tales continuum or by Zenescope Entertainment as whole.

Character Evolution

Anna is introduced as a young woman who has no knowledge of her special powers and she thus struggles to both use them and at the same time how to use them for good. After being confronted by Darius she decides that she is to follow the good path for her powers (though she recalls later that she had a conversation with her mother about choosing a good path) but she struggles with her abilities. For instance, when her neighbour Jared was possessed by Darius and made unwanted sexual advances towards her, she could not control her power and burned him to death.

Although not initially identified as a part of the Grimm Fairy Tales continuity in any way, it is later revealed that she is indeed in the same universe as Sela, Samantha Darren and Calie Liddle as she takes part in the Dream Eater Saga (this is also confirmed by her appearance in the 2012 Grimm Fairy Tales Swimsuit issue.) Because of her inclusion in this universe, it is likely that she is a false blood by birth.

She also continues to show some internal turmoil between her abilities and her society. She is still shown to be respectful of religion despite her powers.

Major Story Arcs

Anna is first introduced as a young woman trying to lead a regular life. This soon changes as she is confronted by Darius for the first time. He offers her power by joining him, but she refuses. Darius is not so easily dissuaded and he mentally controls one of Anna's neighbours Jared to first meet with her and then to try to sexually assault her. Anna fight back but accidentally burns Jared to death with power that she did not know that she had. In the mean time, a renegade by the name of Braden Cole is on the tracks of Darius as the mysterious figure killed Cole's family. Cole comes to Salem and begins investigating the appearance of Darius. Anna is imprisoned and awaits trial in the jail, and while imprisoned she is confronted by Darius once again who again offers her a different pathway by offering her to join him. She again refuses, and this time once again Darius resorts to leaving and using his mind control powers to force another to intimidate Anna. This time it is the town sheriff's deputy but he is soon stopped by Braden.

Braden takes Anna to her father's house and explains to him that she must escape. He is initially skeptical, but once he realizes that the his dead wife spoke that this day would eventually come, he realizes that Braden is right. Meanwhile Darius is at the local tavern inciting the local townspeople to seek out Anna and to kill her. While Anna is just about ready to leave she i confronted by the townspeople who decide that she is to be executed without even a trial on the suspicion of witchcraft.

As Anna is led to the gallows, she protests that she is innocent and that a mistake is being made, but it falls on the deaf ears of her fellow residents, most of whom are being mentally controlled by Darius. As she is about to be killed, Braden interferes by killing the sequence of would-be executioners before her father manages to catch her after she has fallen from the gallows. Braden kills Darius (literally blowing his head off) but Darius first warns him that he cannot be killed because he is an eternal. Braden believes this (and it later turns out to likely be true). Anna's father also dies in the melee but before dying he asks Braden to take care of his daughter, and the two leave town.

The pair then proceed on a series of adventures. Generally speaking these adventures are caused by visions which Anna receives in her dreams. When she receives a vision it is a sign that someone needs their help immediately. In the first of such adventures the pair venture to a farmhouse where they confront a man that they believe has killed his wife. After a couple of armed confrontations they realize that he in fact had killed her (a fact that even he was not aware of) as a powerful succubus is trying to mate and bear an evil progeny. Anna and Braden are able to find the location of where the succubus will give birth and Anna is able to banish her back to where she came from. The man takes the child and heads off to accept that both of them must die - the man over his guilt and the child because it is evil.

Braden and Anna are next seen investigating the Jersey Devil and once again due to a vision Anna receives. They go to a town in New Jersey near the Pine Barrens where a man has reported that his stepson is missing. After a short time investigating, the pair believe that they have found the culprit, as Anna senses that a man at a bar knows more that what he is telling. They search his house and find his dead wife and also some clothes of the child. A short time later as he is being hanged, Anna senses that he is likely not as guilty as he seems. The two stay some time longer in the town but soon Anna disappears, seemingly in the middle of her dreams. She awakes in a strange cave and soon finds the missing boy as well as discovering that the cave is the home of the creature that people say is the Jersey Devil. Meanwhile Braden is suspicious of Anna's disappearance and seeks some answers of his own. He confronts the town leader who agrees to help, but Braden does not realize that he i being led into a trap. The town leader then reveals that their town had been suffering from hardships, but they had made a deal so that prosperity would be returned. As part of the deal they had to make sacrifices to the creature. Braden is led to a place where he will be a sacrifice but all are surprised as Anna and the boy exit from the cave first. Anna intervenes and saves Braden and the boy but the town leader is killed by the creature.

As opposed to the first mini-series which contained three stories the second miniseries entitled the Haunting only has one story. This involves the duo heading to a town in Pennsylvania where they discover that a powerful entity is possessing people around the town. The first person that they must try to help is a possessed boy. An exorcism is attempted but it is only partly successful as the conducting priest himself becomes possessed and chooses to kill himself rather than be an agent of evil. The evil does not dissipate though as at the funeral service for the priest, the once-junior and now main priest is overcome by a locust attack originating inside his stomach. As the entire church start to burn down the heroes have to find an exit, which is eventually only made possible by Anna's magic.

Soon other members of the town start to become possessed. One starts shooting and killing other town members, but Braden will not hoot him back at Anna's insistence. Instead he eventually shoots between the two before Braden returns fire. Anna is not hit but falls into a mysterious illness. A mysterious woman that the two met named Lettia then appears and offers her services. Her story is told eventually. Her father was a slave in Louisiana, but following the Civil War the master decided to move north and to keep his slaves on as servants. As he soon began to know his slaves understood the magic of voodoo. The master desired knowledge of the dark arts for his own power but the servants refused to teach him in total as they feared what he would do with the powers. Eventually he holds the servant's family ransom, threatening to kill the daughter (Lettia) unless the mother teaches him what he desires. They agree but eventually the master double crosses them and uses Lettia for a conduit to the spirit world. The master and his wife are soon killed but succeeded by their son. Their son attempt to use the dark magic to return his family to life. He is ultimately successful and traps Anna and Lettia in a place between living and death where his family once was. His plan seems to be successful before a mysterious entity in this prison offers Anna a deal. If she can become a part of Anna then she will return Anna and Lettia to Earth. Lettia protests but Anna realizes it is the only way. The two of them wake up but don't recall anything about the bargain and then deal with the son.

Anna shows up in the Dream Eater Saga in a one-shot dedicated to her and battles Pan.

Powers and Abilities

Although she does not fully understand her powers, Anna is evidently a powerful magic user. She can teleport, create fire, create light and has some abilities with dimensional banishment. She often also instinctively creates force fields. An aspect of her power is also receiving the visions which she and Braden use to find those in need of help.

Depiction

As with many Grimm Fairy Tales characters, the depiction of Anna between the covers and the interiors has a large discrepancy. The covers often have the character in an exploitative position, while the interiors display a capable heroine. the one exception to this is the anachronistic aspect of Anna's clothes. They are often displayed as much more revealing than would be socially acceptable at the time.