Grimm Fairy Tales stands about halfway in terms of its ability to mange its own content.  It has some series which are either standouts or which show signs of something much better, but it also has stories which are so unnecessarily muddled that it becomes hard to make sense of them.  The main universe of the Grimm Fairy Tales universe all too often falls into the latter category as it doesn’t really have a clear direction for how much of myths, fairy tales and legends that it has taken on.  Part of the problem with this is that it has mostly lacked a lot of character development.  It has been there for the likes of Sela and Calie Liddle, but mostly has been absent elsewhere as the stories have assimilated so many characters in so little time.  There is an additional compounding problem, in that the company wide crossovers have not really been of a high enough quality to add in a lot more depth, between the Dream Eater’s Saga, Unleashed, and Age of Darkness/Realm War.

Thus far Realm War has been subject to the same level of muddled madness, as characters come and go, die and are reborn, and have all kinds of other random stuff happen to them without really adding much to their characterization.  In short so far in this series, the Dark Queen has overtaken the Earth, with Las Vegas as her throne city, and allowed her forces to kill as they like, with a new age of darkness descending on the Earth.  The heroes have not fared so well, having suffered numerous setbacks, with even major characters such as Baba Yaga seeming to be on the wrong end of victory and life.  With Malec finally on their side though, the characters seem ready to finally take on the Queen and her forces, and in this penultimate issue, the heroes head for the Queen’s stronghold eager to settle it one way or another.

While the quality of the series has never really improved, at least this issue mostly focuses on action as opposed to too many maneuverings by both sides.  The characters aren’t really constrained by anything because this is primarily one long battle after it gets underway about halfway through the issue.  It is not really an excuse for what has come before, but at least shows that the creative team can know what to do with these characters when it is not too focused on the vast world that has been created.  A smaller outlook would work better overall for the main world of Grimm Fairy Tales, and perhaps an issue like this one might signal that it is now time to take care of what they have instead of adding more.

Story: Joe Brusha Art: Sami Kivela
Story: 6.8 Art: 6.8 Overall: 6.8 Recommendation: Pass