The decision to go for a big company wide crossover is a strange one for Zenescope and Grimm Fairy Tales.  First of all, such crossovers are very much hit and miss even at the big two of comic publishers where at the very least fans will get in line for their favorite characters.  So too is it a strange decision because the shared universe at Grimm Fairy Tales is really not that big.  After tying in a couple of series there is really not that much further to go, and even after giving characters like Cindy their own miniseries, there is not that much ground to expand upon.  Thus even before the series started there was an uphill battle for Zenescope to pull this off, and the track record thus far has not been going in their favor either.

This issue is as good as any other to demonstrate what problems exist within this series, which itself exists as a microcosm of what is wrong in the Grimm Fairy Tales universe.  As with the overall theme of Grimm Fairy Tales, characters are borrowed from all across the spectrum of legends, fairy tales and myth to populate the story, but the manner in which this is done is confusing.  The Cinderella character is bad and the Little Red Riding Hood character is good.  Previously established characters such as Robyn Hood have turned bad with little explanation, and other characters are around who serve as stereotypes of characters that are anachronisms in modern comics, such as the martial arts master.  Of all of these characters are thrown together as Sela and her team are fighting back against the forces of the Dark Queen, and for the first time manage to fight back.

While this is still a convoluted mess at times, this issue pulls the story together better than previous issues in this series have managed.  There is a stronger focus on the plot and less on all the disparate sub-plots, even if these do include such tangents as Cindy’s own desire for power and Sela making up with her ex in the most intimate way possible.  For the first time this series appears to be heading in the right direction which is a positive sign, but it still has some way to go before making this crossover gamble pay off.

Story: Joe Brusha Art: Sami Kivela
Story: 6.2 Art: 6.5 Overall: 6.2 Recommendation: Pass