GFT Retrospective #15: The Redemption Arc
Greetings again, Ticketholders!
Today's post is kind of a departure from formula, as it focuses on the first official story arc in the main Grimm Fairy Tales series. Up to this point, each issue has been a fairly standalone story, with only one or two recurring characters or items throughout the series' run. Zenescope has not officially named this arc, but it consists of four issues that lead one into the next, comprising a single story about redemption. And so, I have decided to unofficially call this the "Redemption Arc." Here it is:
Three young men with histories of theft, sexual assault, drug abuse, and general delinquency (who can be figuratively referred to as “pigs”) are planning to hold up a grocery store when Sela intervenes to teach them a lesson.
It is a refreshing take on the Grimm Fairy Tales formula, marking the first time the focus character(s) were sucked into the book without reading it. Not only does Sela will them into the book, she enters it herself, turns them into pig-men, and sics a werewolf on them to scare them into repenting.
This is not the same werewolf as in Red Riding Hood--which died--but the fact that she can control it or is working side-by-side with it suggests that either Sela does have some power over the book and its characters, or that she has some kind of business relationship with the man behind the werewolf outside of this specific scenario.
This also introduces some rather shaky continuity, as we have seen Sela go from a non-presence to a passively evil force to a guide and mentor of varying morality, then something resembling human and fallible, and now as an active force of vengeance. One can suspect that everything as far back as Snow White took place after the Timepiece short story, and this issue and Cinderella took place some time after Timepiece. But this early in a newly-minted series, it doesn’t seem like even the writers have it all figured out. Later on though, this issue will prove to be a catalyst for one of the most kick-ass characters in the Grimm Universe.
A sequel of sorts to the Three Little Pigs, and another departure from formula, this issue finds an aimless Sela being drawn into a nightmare version of her fairy tale book and taking on the role of Little Miss Muffet.
Confirming my suspicions from last issue regarding the timeline of events, Sela is greeted by gory, fearsome versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the Three Pig-men, Bluebeard, the Beast, the Wicked Stepmother, and finally, the not-so-Itsy Bitsy Spider.
Escaping the spider’s web, she encounters an as-yet-unnamed, stereotypically Chinese monk-looking man who identifies himself as the person who gave Sela the book (which is either true and he’s a shapeshifter, or he’s so ancient that he’s the one who gave the old woman the book and he knew Sela would inherit it one day, or the writers had amnesia the day they wrote Legacy).
The rest of the issue is a commentary on atomic bombs, the KKK, Manson, Hitler, Saddam, Bin Laden, and how humanity as a species could be responsible for such tragedies and still be called “good.” In the final three pages, we see an unnamed woman placing a drawing and rose at the base of a tree, and Sela makes reference to an event not yet portrayed in any issue, which “continues to haunt [her] to this day.”
And so, we lead with this into part three of the “Redemption Arc….”
The folks at Artmonkeys clearly hate commas. Also, I have no idea what this cover has to do with anything.
Regardless, it’s back to the old formula in this flashback, detailing the events Sela referred to in the last issue.
Carolyn has a crush on her coke-addict stepbrother, Bryan. Fearing he might hurt Carolyn, their mother Patricia hires a local thug to kill Bryan. But Patricia’s friend Sela recommends she read a story from the book.
I am not familiar with The Juniper Tree, but the characters once more strongly resemble their framing scenario counterparts, have derivative names, and interact as part of similar plots.
The stepchildren’s mother falls under the influence of an enchanted tree that makes her act on her desire to kill her stepson (somewhat like the Piper’s MO in his miniseries), and then drives her daughter to suicide.
Deborah’s (the fairy tale counterpart to Patricia) fondness for apples and unhealthy need for her daughter’s love and attention bring to mind Talia, the evil queen from Snow White. The motivations of these characters differ greatly, so I know their connection doesn’t go anywhere beyond the superficial. It’s just fun to notice these things.
Another interesting callback here is that we learn that Bryan’s coke dealer is Belinda. Yep, its more of that next-level, Timepiece-style manipulation.
Patricia may have called off the hit on Bryan, but Carolyn ended up dying instead because she snorted Belinda’s coke. And this was all so Sela would hate humanity enough to switch sides. I wonder how many other third-party dirtbags Belinda hired to meddle in Sela’s lessons?
Stay way tuned for a reappearance of Patricia in a future miniseries. In the meantime, though, Redemption continues in part four….
The trip through ghosts of Sela’s past concludes with her sagacious new mentor showing her an example of how, contrary to the burden of evidence in Sela’s experience, helping one person can make a difference.
Flash back again to a boy named David, who is being bullied and extorted by an older boy who says he must pay a toll to walk through the park. Sela sits down with him shortly after to tell him the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff.
This marks the first time Sela has told a story herself without having the book. With more character development and action than the original, Sela’s version otherwise follows the telling most people know, and inspires David to fight back against the bully until he gives up.
Back in the chronologically murky present, the mentor tells Sela how David grew up and died fighting in the Gulf War, inspiring a fellow soldier named Marcus Jenkins to later save the life of a young man who would grow to be some famous filmmaker we’re supposed to recognize or Google or something, because butterfly effect.
I don’t know whether to face-palm about this or show some kind of awe at how inspiring this was supposed to be.
Okay…face-palm!
They should have called this issue Three Billy Goats Groan, it’s such an after-school special pile of cheese! Actually, starting in Little Miss Muffet, this whole arc has been the biggest, psychedelic, Ebeneezer snooze-fest of a moral lesson to ever be shoved between an offensive cultural stereotype and a pair of breasts. Yes, the fairy tales themselves were good for the most part. But as Zenescope’s first attempt at a story arc for this series, it falls flat.
And as far as Marcus Jenkins goes, I’ll get to it later, but he’ll turn out to be another Patricia-like character; a secondary player from a mediocre issue that we’re supposed to gasp about when they’re reduced to even more of an afterthought in a future miniseries due to poorly concocted character design and minimal page time.
I actually hate this four-parter more than I did the first time I read it.
Reading these four issues may have left me in a negative frame of mind, but don't let that stop you from commenting, liking, sharing, subscribing, and clicking me some ads. I'll leave Volume Three's short story for next time, so stay tuned.
Ticketmaster,
out.
Today's post is kind of a departure from formula, as it focuses on the first official story arc in the main Grimm Fairy Tales series. Up to this point, each issue has been a fairly standalone story, with only one or two recurring characters or items throughout the series' run. Zenescope has not officially named this arc, but it consists of four issues that lead one into the next, comprising a single story about redemption. And so, I have decided to unofficially call this the "Redemption Arc." Here it is:
GFT #15: The Three Little Pigs
This issue continues a theme first seen in The Frog King and again in Beauty and the Beast: that of balancing a person’s inner self with their outward appearance.
Three young men with histories of theft, sexual assault, drug abuse, and general delinquency (who can be figuratively referred to as “pigs”) are planning to hold up a grocery store when Sela intervenes to teach them a lesson.
It is a refreshing take on the Grimm Fairy Tales formula, marking the first time the focus character(s) were sucked into the book without reading it. Not only does Sela will them into the book, she enters it herself, turns them into pig-men, and sics a werewolf on them to scare them into repenting.
This is not the same werewolf as in Red Riding Hood--which died--but the fact that she can control it or is working side-by-side with it suggests that either Sela does have some power over the book and its characters, or that she has some kind of business relationship with the man behind the werewolf outside of this specific scenario.
This also introduces some rather shaky continuity, as we have seen Sela go from a non-presence to a passively evil force to a guide and mentor of varying morality, then something resembling human and fallible, and now as an active force of vengeance. One can suspect that everything as far back as Snow White took place after the Timepiece short story, and this issue and Cinderella took place some time after Timepiece. But this early in a newly-minted series, it doesn’t seem like even the writers have it all figured out. Later on though, this issue will prove to be a catalyst for one of the most kick-ass characters in the Grimm Universe.
GFT #16: Little Miss Muffet
Confirming my suspicions from last issue regarding the timeline of events, Sela is greeted by gory, fearsome versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the Three Pig-men, Bluebeard, the Beast, the Wicked Stepmother, and finally, the not-so-Itsy Bitsy Spider.
Escaping the spider’s web, she encounters an as-yet-unnamed, stereotypically Chinese monk-looking man who identifies himself as the person who gave Sela the book (which is either true and he’s a shapeshifter, or he’s so ancient that he’s the one who gave the old woman the book and he knew Sela would inherit it one day, or the writers had amnesia the day they wrote Legacy).
The rest of the issue is a commentary on atomic bombs, the KKK, Manson, Hitler, Saddam, Bin Laden, and how humanity as a species could be responsible for such tragedies and still be called “good.” In the final three pages, we see an unnamed woman placing a drawing and rose at the base of a tree, and Sela makes reference to an event not yet portrayed in any issue, which “continues to haunt [her] to this day.”
And so, we lead with this into part three of the “Redemption Arc….”
GFT #17: The Juniper Tree
Regardless, it’s back to the old formula in this flashback, detailing the events Sela referred to in the last issue.
Carolyn has a crush on her coke-addict stepbrother, Bryan. Fearing he might hurt Carolyn, their mother Patricia hires a local thug to kill Bryan. But Patricia’s friend Sela recommends she read a story from the book.
I am not familiar with The Juniper Tree, but the characters once more strongly resemble their framing scenario counterparts, have derivative names, and interact as part of similar plots.
The stepchildren’s mother falls under the influence of an enchanted tree that makes her act on her desire to kill her stepson (somewhat like the Piper’s MO in his miniseries), and then drives her daughter to suicide.
Deborah’s (the fairy tale counterpart to Patricia) fondness for apples and unhealthy need for her daughter’s love and attention bring to mind Talia, the evil queen from Snow White. The motivations of these characters differ greatly, so I know their connection doesn’t go anywhere beyond the superficial. It’s just fun to notice these things.
Another interesting callback here is that we learn that Bryan’s coke dealer is Belinda. Yep, its more of that next-level, Timepiece-style manipulation.
Patricia may have called off the hit on Bryan, but Carolyn ended up dying instead because she snorted Belinda’s coke. And this was all so Sela would hate humanity enough to switch sides. I wonder how many other third-party dirtbags Belinda hired to meddle in Sela’s lessons?
Stay way tuned for a reappearance of Patricia in a future miniseries. In the meantime, though, Redemption continues in part four….
GFT #18: Three Billy Goats Gruff
Flash back again to a boy named David, who is being bullied and extorted by an older boy who says he must pay a toll to walk through the park. Sela sits down with him shortly after to tell him the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff.
This marks the first time Sela has told a story herself without having the book. With more character development and action than the original, Sela’s version otherwise follows the telling most people know, and inspires David to fight back against the bully until he gives up.
Back in the chronologically murky present, the mentor tells Sela how David grew up and died fighting in the Gulf War, inspiring a fellow soldier named Marcus Jenkins to later save the life of a young man who would grow to be some famous filmmaker we’re supposed to recognize or Google or something, because butterfly effect.
I don’t know whether to face-palm about this or show some kind of awe at how inspiring this was supposed to be.
Okay…face-palm!
They should have called this issue Three Billy Goats Groan, it’s such an after-school special pile of cheese! Actually, starting in Little Miss Muffet, this whole arc has been the biggest, psychedelic, Ebeneezer snooze-fest of a moral lesson to ever be shoved between an offensive cultural stereotype and a pair of breasts. Yes, the fairy tales themselves were good for the most part. But as Zenescope’s first attempt at a story arc for this series, it falls flat.
And as far as Marcus Jenkins goes, I’ll get to it later, but he’ll turn out to be another Patricia-like character; a secondary player from a mediocre issue that we’re supposed to gasp about when they’re reduced to even more of an afterthought in a future miniseries due to poorly concocted character design and minimal page time.
I actually hate this four-parter more than I did the first time I read it.
Reading these four issues may have left me in a negative frame of mind, but don't let that stop you from commenting, liking, sharing, subscribing, and clicking me some ads. I'll leave Volume Three's short story for next time, so stay tuned.
Ticketmaster,
out.
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