GFT Retrospective #115: Wonderland #7

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. The Retrospective Ticketmaster.

As I'm writing this, it's Sunday afternoon following an incredibly stressful workday of being responsible for something important that I've never done by myself before, and when it was all behind me, I was greeted by the pleasant surprise of a 500-plus-view day before noon. Thank you so much to everyone on BlueSky, Tumblr, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn (and yes, even those of you who come by my content at random) for helping me start my roving weekend a little brighter than sunlight can currently provide in my part of the world.

And thank you to Zenescope for starting off this week's issue by giving me so much to talk about.

Wonderland #7

First of all, there's the cover art, starting with the Sean Chen and Sanju Nivangune cover (and not just because the line artist has the same first name as me). It's a whimsical take on The Birth Of Venus with Spades and Hearts doting over Violet, mixing Zenescope's usual brand of fanservice with expressive comedy and industry faux-shadowing, and I like it. Skipping to the convention exclusive for the sake of a competent transition, Anthony Spay and Ula Moś take us to London Supercon (archive site, MCM ComicCon) with a basic, "female characters do the sexy with city-relevant person or landmark in the background" cover. Anonymous Blonde Syndrome got me for a minute before I realized the two women were supposed to be Salome and Julia, pre-fusion. It exists. Urszula Moś also did the coloring on the Alfredo Reyes cover used in the Trade Volume here, and it's the best kind of disturbing, on top of being immediately relevant to the plot (or at least, it spoils the opening scene of Psychological Thriller Bullshit We've Seen Before With A Different Face).

As she does more often than is necessary for a well-written character, Calie Liddle is having a dream where she spills her darkest fears to a departed loved one (with Johnny "dead" now, it's her late boyfriend—and Violet's father—Brandon the Lizard King) who is revealed to be the Jabberwocky in disguise. I guess the only mildly intriguing thing about this is that Calie doesn't bolt awake screaming like she supposedly had been for the past Stephen King number of years, meaning that either she finally made peace with the fact that the Jabberwocky will always be in her thoughts and she thinks she's ready to take him on if he ever becomes more than a thought again, or that she didn't notice him pulling the same old shit again inside her own dream because wishful thinking and static character writing.

Or it could also be the sudden arrival of Harmony at their front door, looking considerably less like a flirty, panty-flashing, exhibitionist club-girl than in the previous issue, and despite Harmony being a dead ringer (puns!) for Calie's "I hope his dick falls off!" best friend from Beyond Wonderland (right down to the quippy dialogue, purple hair, musically-derived first name—which was Melody before she got mauled by Cheshire offscreen...maybe—and that series being the last time it was such a sarcastic-fantastic idea to hide from Wonderland in a big city), and despite everyone else who has tried to get close to Violet so far having been a magically corrupted serial killer or an eldritch dream god in disguise, Calie doesn't bat an eye, and is even receptive and happy to suddenly learn that her twice-kidnapped daughter has made a new friend behind her back.

This makes sense, and will not end tragically for anyone in any way, just like my sarcasm.

Okay; rant over, because it's movie night at the Liddle residence, which means it's time for some Zenescope cross-brand self-promotion. As of the first Wonderland Annual from 2009, it has become a coincidence bordering on confirmation that Zenescope titles outside of the Grimm Universe exist in-Universe as movies (recall how in that issue, one of the Russells was watching The Chronicles Of Dr. Herbert West—which I shined on at the time, but will be reviewing in April along with the Lovecraft story and the first Re-Animator movie). Here, Violet and Harmony are watching Irresistible (complete with a "totally natural" explanation of the plot so readers will rush out to buy the four-issue series).

I skimmed through the TPB for my own knowledge and the context of this review, and...it's fine. As Cliff's Noted by Violet, the Irresistible miniseries follows Allen Keeg (because backwards or anagrammed surnames are subtle), an awkward, love-numb incel whose life sucks so bad that he can't enjoy a strip club, gets beaten up by a three-man improv group, and is subjected to a stereotypical Romani curse (back when it was still okay to say "Gypsy") by the actual, Biblical Delilah. Said curse makes any woman who sees him (except for the one who dumped him and "ruined his life") instantly want to fuck him, hence the title. As expected, he quickly learns the "too much of a good thing" moral (plus the curse gets stronger all the time, turning the women into violently jealous lust zombies)

and goes to felonious lengths to (ineffectively) end the curse, only to willingly subject himself to the ending of Maniac to get his shitty life, and the stock narrative of Irresistible, over with.

The first issue of Irresistible name-drops a ton of comic books (Allen geeks out with a stripper dressed like Emma Frost), including both Grimm and non-Grimm Zenescope titles. This, taking the "Zenescope comics are movies in their flagship Universe" thing into account and assuming the dialogue is similar in the "movie," gave me strong, "Burt and Vicky have Night Shift on their dashboard" vibes.

Also, Allen is said in today's issue of Wonderland to be played by Jared Leto (this issue released in January 2013, the year after Irresistible concluded, four months before the fourth Thirty Seconds To Mars album, and ten months before Dallas Buyers' Club would cement him as an overrated method actor, but a full four years after any previous musical or film success, so he seems like an odd choice of reference to make here; Violet also floats the idea of Channing Tatum as Allen—who would have just starred in 21 Jump Street and Magic Mike, with a G.I. Joe sequel on the way in a few months at the time, and would have been a more contemporary choice for the writers).

The pop culture references continue with the girls arguing a Death Battle street fight between Joss Whedon and Ron Howard, referencing Cabin In the Woods and The Avengers in the bargain (I had to throw that in because I happen to have reviewed them both), as focus shifts to Wonderland, where I get to make unconventional use of this

because the Red Queen and Suicide King (a.k.a. the Short King, because that's a thing people say now, I guess, and my forty-something ass is one of your fellow kids...)

have reached the front gates of the Temple Of Purity, home of numerous blue, glowy-eyed monk types who can read minds and souls, freeze people in place, and open a pit to Ominously But Generically Named Fate Worse Than Death Sub-Realm #69,420 anywhere they want. So of course, they completely miss the White Rabbit spying on them for Spades even though they can later sense her and her army from deep inside the Temple, and any hope of my favorite Wonderland duo getting the happy ending they deserve is dashed by contrived writing at the last possible second...next time!

Meanwhile, at the Culver City Apartment Of Wishful Thinking and Bad Decisions, Dodgson's money is running low (good on Calie for making a profani-ton of money last nineteen years; with everything else she's done wrong in her life so the story can happen, at least she's been financially savvy up to now), so as she runs out of a potential job interview at a diner (more gory Wonderland hallucinations), Harmony and Violet plot to sneak out and go clubbing the following night...next time!

I also think it's important to note that, despite everything that has ever happened to her, and every gory visual that occupies her mind on a secondly basis, Calie is shown that evening reading Horns by Joe Hill (which had been out for three years by then, and would receive a film adaptation later that year). I suppose PTSD doesn't always make sense in real life, either, but I still found it odd that she would be reading a horror novel here.

Anyway, that's all I have for you today (which was a lot!), so Stay Tuned, and 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 can keep my own sanctuary of sanity fortified against a crazy wannabe monarch, and follow me on BlueSky, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my wonderful content (including tomorrow's TBT '25 push of one of my HeroMachine heroes).

Here again is the release calendar for the rest of 2025, presented for your benefit, as well as my own SMART-ness and sanity:

• November 26: GFT Retrospective #116: Wonderland #8
• December 3: GFT Retrospective #117: Wonderland #9
• December 10: GFT Retrospective #118: Wonderland #10
• December 17: Zenescope - Omnibusted #37: Wonderland Volume Two
• December 24: Zenescope - Omnibusted #38: Madness Of Wonderland
• December 31: Zenescope - Omnibusted #39: Down the Rabbit Hole

Ticketmaster,

Outsane.