Calie Liddle has been getting a lot of focus recently, between two Grimm Fairy Tales miniseries in the past year that have tied her into the larger universe, and her own ongoing series.  While the other series are great in that they increase the exposure for this complex character, they are also not where the true strength of this character rests.  For the majority of the character’s existence her complexity was derived from a simple question, trying to figure out how much of her madness was within and how much came from Wonderland.  Now ruling over Wonderland as its White Queen, the series has been redirected to a completely different direction, focusing instead on her quest to rid the realm of the madness which infects the others.

In terms of the new direction, it was relatively seamless, her victory not resulting in the end of her stories, but rather serving as the continuation of what has come before. The first story arc of this new direction featured Calie battling a menace on both Earth and in Wonderland, and presumably operating under the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” concept, this second story arc is laid out in a similar pattern, as Calie goes to hunt for a bizarre group known as the antipathies, but not before getting kind of creeped out on Earth.  While the format is the same, the presentation is not.  While this issue suffers a bit of a bump is in its presentation of new characters, it is only a minor setback compared to the interpretation of this fantastical setting as well as the surprisingly close relationship between Calie and her cat.  By the end of the issue with what lays ahead, this may end up being a noteworthy story arc.

One of the main criticisms of most Zenescope titles is that they rely on selling scantily clad female characters, and otherwise it is just a bunch of boring fairy tale stories.  The same can be said for a lot of comics not just for Zenescope, and those that think so are missing out on a lot of interesting stories.  This can be especially said for Wonderland, what is Zenescope best series and product by a wide margin.  In some respects this issue falls a bit short of the expected, especially in the replication of the format which came before, but as always there is more depth here than in a lot of comics and so this issue, while maybe not a standout, serves as a good example of why more people should think of this series as a standout.

Story: Erica J. Heflin Art: Manuel Preitano
Story: 8.8 Art: 8.8 Overall: 8.8 Recommendation: Buy