GFT Retrospective #103: The Return

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. The Ticketmaster Returns.

I have nothing of preamble to say other than to express my gratitude that I'm not overloaded with extra content and life pressures this week, so I don't have to rush with this review.

Continuing from one of the worst-written, most oddly drawn, disconnected issues I can remember, the Zenescope team come into their seventy-fifth mainline issue in peak form, and it is a special one, folks!

GFT #75: The Return

Zenescope isn't just bringing it with their writing (the usual executive team of Brusha, Tedesco, and Gregory, but they're on blast like I haven't seen or felt since Fear Not) and interiors this time (A Drink And A Tale penciler Sheldon Goh, and first-time Zenescope colorist Felipe Gaona, who would later contribute to an issue of the Wonderland Ongoing series), they're rocking ten covers for this one, as well.

Starting on the left, we have J. Scott Campbell and Nei Ruffino's milestone cover (with three variants, not counting the Volume Twelve TPB cover with the "75" removed), followed by Anthony Spay & Ivan Nunes with an awesome, plot-hyping cover of Sela appearing at the New York-New York in Las Vegas. Both also show off Sela's new costume that she will be wearing for pretty much the remainder of the series. It kind of says, "we're still Zenescope, but we're going to just make Sela into Wonder Woman now for reasons that will become apparent later," and I don't entirely mean that as cynically as it sounds because it does become an iconic look for her. Nunes also colors covers for The Dream Eater Saga's Marat Mychaels (The Dark One crushing Sela's glasses, which was used for the background of one of the Table Of Contents pages for Volume Twelve) and The Immortals' Franchesco! (another plot-relevant cover with Sela back in her teaching role, but with a large wooden stick because sexy detention because Franchesco!, and if Sela was my high school English teacher, I would commit every fairy tale detail to memory and stay after class every day for deep...philosophical conversations...because I like folklore and mythology, of course). That was for San Diego ComicCon that year, but Franchesco! also pulled a double on top of that

with some Steampunk Comic Shop retailer exclusive variants. Finally, there's Greg Horn's Kickstarter cover (with Sela in an Uncle Sam poster pose because July) and Stjepan Šejić's cover (with Venus choking Sela, because Stjepan Šejić).

The big issue begins in earnest with The Innocent and Corruption back in the Epilogue Realm following their interaction with Sela in the Winter Witch and Curse issues.

They and the other hooded figures discuss the rise of the Bad Girls, the tactical desperation of Malec, the failure of the Dream Eater, the coming of Helios (the Warlord Of Oz is shown, but this last mention—given my Future Knowledge—only serves to demonstrate how quickly Zenescope’s creative team had forgotten him amidst the Greco-Roman pantheon, the new IPs to come, and setting up the next major event, and how they would ultimately fail to get him over as a Universe-level threat according to his introduction. It's one of this issue's few...issues (sorry; it's hard not to make that pun at every available opportunity), but it's also worth mentioning because of how large-scale egregious it is. I promise I'm going to be positive about the story from now on, okay?

There's some apt commentary here with how these observer characters vacillate between scapegoats ("we sent out the Dream Eater because the Highborns and Falsebloods were destroying everything with their war, but now we think it's actually the humans who are making everything worse!") for complex issues based on their own, one-dimensional, elemental personalities. Basically, those with power and influence are disconnected from the societal intricacies of those they rule over and "protect from themselves." It's unfortunately a timeless allegory, but it works.

Corruption also introduces an interesting bit of lore that pays off sometime later (and which I hinted at in a previous review) when it mentions Love and Hate having "been through" something. But that is for another time, Ticketholders!

For now, it's time to catch up to Sela, who is on her way through the Nevada desert (where many snitches, pawns, and gingerbread men have tempted fate in the eyes of the Horde), so we all know where this is going and how cathartic it will be on and beyond the page. There's perhaps too much exposition (as though this is serving as a hard entry point for new readers who aren't interested in experiencing the previous seven years of continuity for themselves), my usual criticisms of Sela unduly glazing Shang's mentoring skills still stand, and there's some other bad retconning going on for those who have read previous issues, what with Sela recapping the framing device from Hard Choices, under the new context that her father, Drago, was a member of the Council operating undercover in the Horde. Now, just to make sure I wasn't misremembering anything like with the Serpent's Scepter, I went back and re-read Hard Choices, with particular focus on that framing narrative, and yeah, I was right. There was some mention that the Council would execute Drago if they knew he had left Myst and settled down in the Nexus (that "no travel" order, which begs the question of how Malec and Baba Yaga got there at the time), so I guess if you thought hard enough about it to give yourself a nosebleed, you could make the logic leap that he was a double-agent shirking his obligations to both sides and Sela actually does have Council blood after all, but Drago's affiliation is never explicitly stated in Hard Choices, so this recap exposition by Sela feels more like a retcon to explain the Winter Witch's nonsensical dialogue in the previous issue rather than an honest entry point for new readers. Yes, I know I said I would be positive, but repeating myself (even when it's necessary) doesn't count because I'm in charge here, and I said so. Following her return,

Sela easily blitzes and blasts her way through the Dark One's Vegas stronghold, putting down Cindy with a single punch, shrugging off the effects of Morrigan's bracer through sheer force of will, and multi-casting her Realm Colors to put Malec into a stalemate. It's one, continuous run of single-minded, action heroine badassery (ignoring the part where Sela threatens to show Malec a happy ending),

and the ensuing war of words between the two is masterfully written to highlight the contrasting personalities of the heroine and villain, and foreshadow the outcome of the second half of the issue without feeling like it's trying too hard to get us invested. I mean, if you're not locked in by now, you don't like awesome things and you don't have a soul. This first half (by the way, this issue is over forty pages) reminded me in the best way of my first time seeing one of those multi-parter event episodes from the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, like "Search For Splinter" or especially "Return To New York," or watching the Fake Straw Hats section of the Fishman Island arc, with the heroes on a mission against seemingly impossible odds and showing how much they've grown in terms of power and character.

In the second half, though, we learn that action hero badassery and big tiger-mom energy are only fun in context, as, after some time, Sela has undertaken oddly Horde-like measures to install herself as a substitute teacher at Caredean Prep School, where a girl named Ilys (with a familiar dark hairstyle and facial features) is a student. During an after-class conversation, Sela is about to drop the bombshell about who she is, but in walks Venus (the caring Dean of Caredean Prep, as it turns out), and when Ilys calls her "Mother," Sela absolutely snaps, almost collapsing the school in her hyper-focused wrath to put down the Goddess of Love and reclaim her stolen daughter. When I originally read this issue, I remember feeling that old sense of disappointment at the outcome, of being denied the satisfaction that I (and Sela) had been promised. But now, I see the brilliance and emotional weight and nuance of this part. We see here that, despite it all having begun with prenatal kidnapping, Venus genuinely loves Ilys as her own daughter now, not just a Falseblood tool. So although Sela feels (and rightly so) justified in her actions to achieve her goal, those means make Sela the villain in this context. She does still stop to evacuate students, and ultimately turns herself in to the police upon coming to her senses and acknowledging the carnage she has wrought (setting up for the events of the next Volume), but yeah, Sela is in the wrong this time, and it's incredibly emotional and compelling on my second read.

The issue ends with more conversation in the Epilogue Realm, where The Innocent continues to have faith in humanity, and in Sela, despite current events and the multiple threats that are to come. Love also lowers her hood in this final portion, revealing...a blonde. Thanks, Zenescope! There are, like, at least six important blondes in your comics that I can think of right now (Samantha, Britney, Cindy, Venus, Calie, Alice, Violet, Anna,...). But eagle-eyed readers might notice a literal hint of a blue-and-white half-bustier beneath her parted cloak that helps narrow things down.

Thus ends Volume Twelve of Grimm Fairy Tales, but I'll be reviewing some special issues in the coming weeks before I drop the super-sized, two-Volume Omnibusted that I'm editing in tandem with the upcoming MHA Update post. I need to do a little investigating to see what comes next chronologically, but for now, I like how this issue looked and how it took me on an emotional journey through perspective morality. So if you've been following the lore thus far, prepare to feel the payoff in your soul, and if you're looking for a good entry point to reading Zenescope comics, this is the best I can think of; just know that a few of the minor details (as I mentioned above) aren't entirely accurate.

Stay Tuned, and as always, please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, leave a comment at the bottom of this post and any others you have opinions about, help out my ad revenue as you read so I don't have to Return my valuables, and follow me on BlueSky, Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my content.

Ticketmaster,
Out Of Myst.