Tag Archives: sela

Review: Realm War #11

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realmwar011covGrimm 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

Review: Realm War #9

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realmwar009The 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

 

Review: Realm War #8

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realmwar008If one had any questions as to whether the main universe of the Grimm Fairy Tales universe is overly complicated then this single issue would answer that.  The entire world is embroiled in darkness as the Dark Queen has managed to merge the realms and is in the process of consolidating her power.  Following on the events of the previous issue, Sela is still looking for a weapon which she can use against the Dark Queen, but it would have been a lot easier if she had not been ambushed while doing so at Area 51.

In order to try to make sense of this issue there are Greek gods, characters inspired by fairy tales, characters inspired by legends, characters inspired by fantasy and original characters that have similar qualities to those already mentioned.  Also to keep track, there is a triple cross in this story, in which a character is deceived and then deceived again and then the original deceiver get deceived.  It seems at times that the writers of this series don’t really understand the need for any kind of restraint, and instead just keep piling on the plot twists and the new characters that act for reasons which are not fully developed.

The lack of a single compelling narrative is where this series falls down.  The main series of Grimm Fairy Tales can at times contain stories that are well conceived and well told, but it would seem that with the company wide crossover in mind that the sum is far less than its parts.  There are even compelling characters in play here but they get relegated to secondary roles.  One can only hope that after the events of Realm War that the main series goes back to the drawing board and tries for something more restrained.

Story: Joe Brusha Art: Sami Kivela
Story: 4.0 Art: 7.0 Overall: 4.0 Recommendation: Pass

Review: Grimm Fairy Tales 2014 Holiday Special

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GrimmFairyTales2014HolidaySpecial-coverOne of the common problems with the Grimm Fairy Tales Universe.  When it focuses on stories other than ones that it has tried to incorporate from a variety of fairy tales, literature and mythological pantheons, it tends to get a bit bogged down.  That is not to say though that original stories from this company are all bad, only they tend to do better whenever they come in a format which more closely resembles fairy tales.  That is the case here as once again Sela is forced to deal with Krampus at Christmas time instead of just being able to sit back and enjoy some egg nog and candy canes.

Over the past few years, it has been a common theme of Sela to intervene from Krampus attempting to kill as many people as he can over the holidays.  Usually this is a play on one of the good aspects of the holiday being distorted.  That is to say that Krampus has acted as an agent that punishes those that use (or misuse) Christmas traditions for their own interests.  While these previous issues have been of variable quality, the stories generally fit closer to the profile of what should be expected from this universe’s specials – a tale of morality usually involving a bit of gore.  This year’s story is a little different as instead of it focusing on those that Krampus wishes to punish, it focuses on the character’s background.  The effect of this is a story which is a lot more fairy tale like than most in the past specials, and it works well enough, especially with Sela trying to teach her disciples how to enjoy Christmas.

The end result is not amazing, but this fits better into the sequence of holiday specials than most of them have, for instance the relatively recent 2014 Halloween special.   Fans of the main series will probably find enough here to keep them happy, but this issue stands alone as enough of a creepy Christmas story for any readers interested in a little gore mixed in with their mistletoes.

Story: Anne Toole Art: Butch Mapa
Story: 7.8 Art: 8 Overall: 7.8 Recommendation: Read