One of the consistencies in recent issues of almost every Grimm Fairy Tales series is the tie-in to all the other realms, between Oz, Myst, Wonderland and Neverland. All too often though the connection is a bit too forced, and that is the case here. The multiverse of Grimm Fairy Tales was never fully developed before being put into being, and the scars of this are still visible as for instance the land of Myst remains a sort of free-for-all land of “anything goes” when it comes to plot or character development. So too is it consistent across all the series that stories contain a lot of interesting concepts that are missed for the bigger plotlines. For instance the Goblin Queen, one of the more intriguing but also undeveloped characters in the Grimm Fairy Tales universe, is sent to rule over Neverland. Such a story is one which would be interesting to see, but as before, such opportunities seem to be wasted.
This is what this issue boil down to. With so much talk and so little action or implementation of interesting concepts, this story doesn’t really go anywhere. Generally while I give a free pass to most artists as long as it doesn’t interfere with the story, that is not the case here either, as the flat coloring makes everything seem very two-dimensional, not a good thing when the characters are already two-dimensional enough as it is. It ends up being disappointing, as all the pieces to succeed are here, just they are mostly wasted, leaving both the characters and the readers without a solid direction to go in.
Story: Joe Brusha Art: Sami Kivela
Story: 5.5 Art: 5.5 Overall: 5.5 Recommendation: Pass