Grimm Fairy Tales has somewhat of a hit-and-miss record when it comes to interpreting literature into its universe.  While Wonderland is among the best offerings that the company has made in its entire run, Neverland was sometimes without direction, and Oz suffered from a lack of a singular focus for the entire series.  Previous Oz series have been a bit hard to take, mixing in humorous moments with serious ones in a recipe that was bound to fail, all the same time not doing a whole lot to establish the characters as pertinent to the overall dynamic of the universe, nor even particularly special by itself, at least as compared to the psychedlic world of Wonderland.

With this third entry into the Oz trilogy, it would seem as though the ccorner might finally be turned for the use of Oz within Grimm Fairy Tales.  At the end of the previous miniseries there were a number of revelations, none among them as important as establishing Zamora as the mother of Dorothy, and thus confirming Dorothy as a powerful wielder of magic herself.  This first issue deals with a lot of the after effects of the previous series, as Dorothy returns to the Emerald City with the two traitors in tow, all the while returning to a hero’s welcome and perhaps an even greater invitation in addition to that.  Zamora is still scheming behind the scenes, and her presence here helps remind why she could be put to use as an effective villain if the creative team behind this series allowed her to be.

It is not so much that the series manages to stand out in its own right, but rather that it is far better than what has come before in the Oz stories from Zenescope.  That being said there are still some problems as this series aims to wrap up the stories, which will presumably also thrown Dorothy to the forefront of the Grimm Fairy Tales universe as a hero of equal worth to Sela Mathers or Calie Liddle.  It might seem as though the bizarre road to doing so might finally have gotten serious with this issue, and this deserves a look for fans of the overall universe to at least see if they can get this series on track as it would seem to be here.

Story: Jeff and Kristin Massey  Art: Antonio Bifulco
Story: 7.6  Art: 7.6 Overall: 7.6 Recommendation: Read