GFT Retrospective #66: The Goblin Queen

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. the Ticketmaster

Spoilers for a forty-one-year-old comic book character, but though they have the same name, this has nothing to do with Marvel's Goblin Queen, Madelyne Pryor, who is a clone of the then-presumed-dead Jean Grey, host of the Phoenix Force who sacrificed herself to keep the giant, creation elemental bird made of fire from eating every planet in the universe because human feelings gave it the appetite of a teenage boy and the emotional intelligence and volatility of a weak-minded teenage girl with a thing for Victorian bondage attire. At least, that's what I remember from the 90s X-Men cartoon because I never read the comics. Madelyne Pryor features heavily in the new continuation series, X-Men '97, which I will probably binge later in the year (or next year, after the second season, provided I'm not still deep in One Piece and other anime) with the original series. So, that should keep things current in terms of Algorithm-focused references, right?

To keep me and yourselves current, please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, comment your three impossible tasks at the bottom of this post (I'm keeping that in here from last week's GFT Retrospective for reasons that will become evident shortly), help out my ad revenue as you read to gain the favor of grateful beasts (ditto), and follow me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest Grimm news on my content. And have your supervillain-created clones and goblin minions do the same because the more the merrier!

From what I could find, The Goblin Queen isn't directly based on any pre-existing fairy tale. There is a two-book series of children's fantasy novels from the late 1800s by George MacDonald, the first of which is The Princess And the Goblin, and there are theatrical adaptations of The Snow Queen in which she commands goblin underlings, but these are superficial and nominal similarities only, with no real plot inspirations other than what I will get into in the coming issue analysis.

GFT #55: The Goblin Queen

As has become the new norm in the post-Hard Choices era of Grimm Fairy Tales, this issue picks up where The Grateful Beasts left off, with Sela and Bolder besieged by the Goblin Queen and her (duh) goblins. The art here is noticeably darker and more dramatic, creating an intense, almost claustrophobic atmosphere that works in stark contrast to the previous issues' brighter, more majestic and epic surroundings. We're in enemy territory now, and the art team (Dafu Yu and Studio Cirque, with designs by Pinocchio legend David Seidman; Seidman has been involved since at least The Glass Coffin, and Studio Cirque since The Golden Stag--with the occasional, one-issue absence for each of them so far) want us to know it and feel it. Sela has another Super-Saiyan ass-pull outburst, but despite trading blades with Belinda for centuries, she is outclassed by the Goblin Queen almost immediately and the goblins themselves are too numerous for Bolder to pick up the slack, so he spills the tea that they are on a quest on Morrigan's behalf in hopes that she will spare Sela's life. We then get ominous hints that Death reclaiming his throne in Limbo won't be as easy as expected.

Before Sela's fate is decided (but we know she's going to survive because she already died once and just began her journey in earnest a few issues ago, and she's the main character, for better or worse), the issue cuts back to Gruel and Orcus, who hold a cremation ceremony for Morgazera (shown lying in repose, with the bull horns presumably vanished between issues after his mana faded, or the artists forgot to draw them?) and plan for more revenge-driven hate crimes against Sela by Orcus giving Gruel the last remaining claw of an extinct species of dragon so he can sacrifice his remaining humanity for power. Huh...Orcus uses the sharp calcium protuberance of an extinct mythical animal to seek revenge on Sela and give someone enhanced power in exchange for their humanity...where have we heard that before?

Oh well, no time to ponder one-note villain motivations from Volume 8 because it's back to the main story, where the Goblin Queen (here looking like a generic, evil sword-and-sorcery chick who got a green wig and devil-horn headband from a post-Halloween bargain sale at Party City) has temporarily spared Sela's life in exchange for doing the "animals I was nice to complete impossible tasks for me" fetch quests that made up the second half of The Grateful Beasts. The bees gather a hundred pearls from a broken necklace that were scattered around a field of flowers (probably for a very good reason that has something to do with the Goblin Queen's power?).

Next (and with a similar, "this was probably done for a reason, but I'll risk making a villain stronger to save my friend that I've barely known for a week" catch), the ducks help Sela retrieve a lost crown from the bottom of a deep lake. Sela is nigh-immortal and capable of pulling random powers out of her ass (which is her new, magical hammerspace now that her book is gone, apparently), and yet she has trouble holding her breath long enough to swim to the bottom of a lake because this part of the fairy tale needs to get paid off. And maybe the size of her boobs and the weird sinus issues of the resting bitch face she's drawn with have something to do with it, too....

Also, it wouldn't be a fairy tale adaptation without animals that can understand human speech because she just tells the ducks that she's looking for a crown and they get it for her.

Things deviate from The Grateful Beasts after that (the animals and tasks were already different, but the story remained similar enough) when the Goblin Queen reveals that she has the key to Limbo around her neck, and sets Bolder free because Sela will need all the help she can get in the third trial: escaping from her lair without becoming goblin food! Zenescope co-creator and series writer Joe Brusha gives the Goblin Queen some pretty badass villain lines here, because while Sela's story is the one that matters most (and Bolder makes for one hell of a quippy sidekick/co-lead), using the Rule Of Cool to try to get a new villain over is just as important...maybe to a fault, because Sela and Bolder still get some stilted writing here and there.

I've voiced my criticisms, and will continue to do so, but I am way more on board with this arc than I remember being at first read, making this a rare case of analysis and Future Knowledge upping the enjoyment factor on something.

I hope your enjoyment factor is staying high, so please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, comment your three impossible tasks at the bottom of this post, help out my ad revenue as you read to gain the favor of grateful beasts, and follow me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest Grimm news on my content.

Read my non-comic book-related stuff, too, but Stay Tuned for the Goblin Queen's third trial as Volume Nine nears its end in next week's Grimm Fairy Tales (GFT) Retrospective, and

Ticketmaster,

Kind of wishing I had themed the week with a Goblin Slayer Anime Spotlight,

Out.