In the twisted world of Grimm Fairy Tales, there is nothing more twisted than that of its own version of Wonderland. This separate universe within a universe was first explored in three excellent miniseries which revolved around the main character of Calie Liddle. Presumably these were first presented as somewhat standalone to the rest of the Grimm Fairy Tales Universe, but they gradually became incorporated into the mass as the stories developed both for the main characters in Grimm Fairy Tales and the main characters in Wonderland. At first the series was an engaging mix of magic versus actual psychoses, and the story balanced carefully between what were real mental illness versus the madness that was Wonderland.

The success of the series and its spin-offs were enough to give some momentum to an ongoing title for Wonderland, which ended up being Grimm Fairy Tales only second really bankable ongoing series. As this series progressed Calie and her daughter Violet first ran from then challenged Wonderland, finally overcoming it in issue #25 of the main series. Over time the quality of the book has dwindled at times, coming to rely too much on the excess that is common to other Grimm Fairy Tales or Zenescope tales.  In the case of Wonderland, it had always managed to maintain some of its positive momentum, never veering too far into the overly complicated stories of the main series feature Sela Mathers.

With the climactic victory of Calie something had to happen to continue the need for a story and this is the first story arc to show that story line. With a recently reformed Cheshire Cat and a recently mangled White Rabbit as her two allies, she has ventured into the depths of Wonderland to root out the evil and return the realm to the paradise that it once was. This new direction for the series is probably lost on someone new picking up the series, as the quick rundown of the previous plots in the introduction glosses over some excellent stories from the past. Those that have not read them might want to chase them down, to find some truly interesting entries into this sometimes gory genre. For those fans of the series and the characters, this new turn is perhaps not expected or even normal for the characters, but it is still a reliable enough reading experience from a company that tends to be all over the place in terms of quality. Wonderland is not Zenescope’s flagship but by its own merits it should be and the story here while perhaps a bit less psychotic than the normal, is still fun and engaging.

Story: Erica J Heflin Art: Vincenzo Riccardi
Story: 8.0 Art: 8.0 Overall: 8.0 Recommendation: Read

Zenescope provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review