The quality of this series has thus far rested on the familiar but discarded formula from Grimm Fairy Tales.  Take a fairy tale (or urban legend in this series) and retell it slightly and add in a real world punishment for someone who has committed a sin similar to those crimes.  When this series has been best, it has been because it has manged to find this balance between the supernatural and a real world analogy.  This is the first issue thus far of the nine which has succeeded without this formula, even if its punch is not as bad as the others.

Where this issue succeeds is in partial successes of both of the two aspects which have tied this series together.  Of course, one of the aspects of an urban legends story is the use of lot of gory horror, and this issue succeeds in doing so.  Where it also succeeds is in one of the staples of horrors which is often overlooked, that being that the unknown can be more frightening than the known.  An excessive amount of gore can be scary but so too can the lack of information.  This story uses this in an obvious way, by also leaving it a little open ended as to what might be the outcome for one of its main characters.  On the other side the real world analogy does not tie into the urban legend very directly, but the choice of the setup to the end of issue revelation certainly does work.

This series has been through some ups and downs, but this one surprisingly proves more effective at showing off the narrator Keres as the more complex character, one that has been lurking in the background, acting as an arbiter of justice, though often on her own terms.  As an issue which the publisher is providing for free (under certain conditions) this serves as a good vessel for the introduction of the character and the concept to a wider fan base.  And while this is not the strongest example for this series, it still serves as a good example of the quality that Zenescope is capable of when people looked past their covers.

Story: Jow Brusha, Ralph Tedesco and Gerardo Preciado Art: Eleonora Carlini
Story: 8.5 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.5 Recommendation: Buy