GFT Retrospective #20: Halloween 2011
Happy Halloween 2011 from September 2017, Ticketholders!
Isn't time travel great? You get to go nine years in the past to go three years into the future, learn about obsolete technology and bad art, and be generally Retrospective. So let's get back to that, shall we?
Like the previous Annuals (and the series as a whole, especially the early issues), the art style varies dramatically from one story to the next.
The first of the three stories in this issue, titled “Dead Luck Desert,” looks horrible, like someone went through the ClipArt catalogue from a Windows 98 version of WordPad. That’s right, it’s not even good enough for MS Word. I suppose there is something sort of effective and dynamic about using this bad ClipArt style, but in terms of brand recognition, it’s a terrible choice. The only way you can recognize Belinda is that she’s vaguely woman-shaped, has red hair, and says evil stuff. No one else in the story seems to matter that much (in context or across the series at large), and the artist doesn’t even seem to care enough to get the good parts right.
Okay, so basically, it’s 2004 and Belinda has hired the Vegas mob to find some kid named Jimmy (maybe the same guy from Jack and the Beanstalk?), who is apparently “out of [their] league.” She makes reference to her “master” several times, presumably the person doing voice-over in the Wicked Ways short story (who could be the Reaper from the 2008 Annual or someone not yet revealed in the continuity as I have presented it to you thus far), and goes off like a badass to handle Jimmy.
This is the first point in my Retrospective Continuity--as it shall henceforth be known--that anything close to a blatant reference has been made to characters in the Grimm Fairy Tales framework having powers or abilities (except for Sela, Belinda, Asian Stereotype Man, the Reaper, the old woman from Legacy, and various Sinbad and Wonderland characters).
Belinda dispatches Jimmy easily and reclaims some artifact (unclear what it is, exactly, because art style) that Jimmy stole from “him.” Ah, yes; IMPLIED OMINOUS CAPITALIZATION!!! Boss of the Evil Agency, anyone? So, uh, yeah…Belinda is about to execute Jimmy when his wife and baby enter the room. Belinda has a sudden and inexplicable change of heart and attempts to help Jimmy and family go on the run, telling a nearby gangster named Eddie to “let them go or suffer my wrath!” I’m paraphrasing to be hilarious and cliche, but that’s the basic idea.
Five years later, Belinda contacts Eduardo (because “Eddie’s a kid’s name”) to help her dispose of an undisclosed “she” (ominous emboldening!!!). Surprise! Belinda knows Eddie went back on his word, and “she” turns out to be Sela. Again, the only way you know is vague woman shape, dark hair, and glasses. But let’s just say that one insubordinate human gangster doesn’t fare too well against two nigh-immortal, super-powered women.
Terrible art style aside (because I can’t stress it enough), this was a surprisingly powerful moment for Belinda--basically the only real character development she’s had in Retrospective Continuity, ever--and the only time we’ve seen good blood, or blood of any kind, really, between Sela and Belinda. They play off almost sisterly in their dialogue, while not letting us forget that they are hero and villain to one another, each with secrets they don’t yet want us, or each other to know. Awesome.
The second story, titled “The Sure Thing,” follows a couple at a costume party who take part in a rather…”Siberian” game of roulette. The winner gets a million dollars. The bettors? They get eaten by The Dark One’s pet dragon. That’s it. We get something of a name for “Him” in this barely-a-story (that name being “The Dark One”--and no, he’s not being played by Robert Carlyle. What do you think this is, “Once Upon A Time” or something?). But that’s it. Done, done, on to the next one.
“The Rule of Three” is a gritty noir detective piece. It’s the usual, grizzled cop ruins his family by obsessing over a serial killer plot. It even has the femme fatale element (provided by Sela, who broke into his apartment to kill him but ended up…not). Who and what the serial killer turns out to be, I’ll leave for you to read. I don’t have encyclopedic enough knowledge to recall if ex-Detective Frank Danner ever shows up in any of the series again, but whether or not it amounts to anything, I enjoyed this little yarn. It’s a nice juxtaposition for Belinda’s morality arc (reluctant sarcasm quotes?) in “Dead Luck Desert.” It also gives us another taste of the dynamic between Sela and Belinda, and hints a little at their business relationship with The Dark One.
As always, leave your comments in the obvious place, remember to like, share, and subscribe, click on the ads between posts as you read, and stay tuned for some uncharacteristic political correctness as Christmas comes early in the next post.
Isn't time travel great? You get to go nine years in the past to go three years into the future, learn about obsolete technology and bad art, and be generally Retrospective. So let's get back to that, shall we?
GFT Halloween #3 (2011)
This is more of a collection of unrelated stories than a single, continuous narrative.Like the previous Annuals (and the series as a whole, especially the early issues), the art style varies dramatically from one story to the next.
Okay, so basically, it’s 2004 and Belinda has hired the Vegas mob to find some kid named Jimmy (maybe the same guy from Jack and the Beanstalk?), who is apparently “out of [their] league.” She makes reference to her “master” several times, presumably the person doing voice-over in the Wicked Ways short story (who could be the Reaper from the 2008 Annual or someone not yet revealed in the continuity as I have presented it to you thus far), and goes off like a badass to handle Jimmy.
This is the first point in my Retrospective Continuity--as it shall henceforth be known--that anything close to a blatant reference has been made to characters in the Grimm Fairy Tales framework having powers or abilities (except for Sela, Belinda, Asian Stereotype Man, the Reaper, the old woman from Legacy, and various Sinbad and Wonderland characters).
Belinda dispatches Jimmy easily and reclaims some artifact (unclear what it is, exactly, because art style) that Jimmy stole from “him.” Ah, yes; IMPLIED OMINOUS CAPITALIZATION!!! Boss of the Evil Agency, anyone? So, uh, yeah…Belinda is about to execute Jimmy when his wife and baby enter the room. Belinda has a sudden and inexplicable change of heart and attempts to help Jimmy and family go on the run, telling a nearby gangster named Eddie to “let them go or suffer my wrath!” I’m paraphrasing to be hilarious and cliche, but that’s the basic idea.
Five years later, Belinda contacts Eduardo (because “Eddie’s a kid’s name”) to help her dispose of an undisclosed “she” (ominous emboldening!!!). Surprise! Belinda knows Eddie went back on his word, and “she” turns out to be Sela. Again, the only way you know is vague woman shape, dark hair, and glasses. But let’s just say that one insubordinate human gangster doesn’t fare too well against two nigh-immortal, super-powered women.
Terrible art style aside (because I can’t stress it enough), this was a surprisingly powerful moment for Belinda--basically the only real character development she’s had in Retrospective Continuity, ever--and the only time we’ve seen good blood, or blood of any kind, really, between Sela and Belinda. They play off almost sisterly in their dialogue, while not letting us forget that they are hero and villain to one another, each with secrets they don’t yet want us, or each other to know. Awesome.
The second story, titled “The Sure Thing,” follows a couple at a costume party who take part in a rather…”Siberian” game of roulette. The winner gets a million dollars. The bettors? They get eaten by The Dark One’s pet dragon. That’s it. We get something of a name for “Him” in this barely-a-story (that name being “The Dark One”--and no, he’s not being played by Robert Carlyle. What do you think this is, “Once Upon A Time” or something?). But that’s it. Done, done, on to the next one.
“The Rule of Three” is a gritty noir detective piece. It’s the usual, grizzled cop ruins his family by obsessing over a serial killer plot. It even has the femme fatale element (provided by Sela, who broke into his apartment to kill him but ended up…not). Who and what the serial killer turns out to be, I’ll leave for you to read. I don’t have encyclopedic enough knowledge to recall if ex-Detective Frank Danner ever shows up in any of the series again, but whether or not it amounts to anything, I enjoyed this little yarn. It’s a nice juxtaposition for Belinda’s morality arc (reluctant sarcasm quotes?) in “Dead Luck Desert.” It also gives us another taste of the dynamic between Sela and Belinda, and hints a little at their business relationship with The Dark One.
As always, leave your comments in the obvious place, remember to like, share, and subscribe, click on the ads between posts as you read, and stay tuned for some uncharacteristic political correctness as Christmas comes early in the next post.
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