GFT Retrospective #117: Wonderland #9

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. The Wonderful, Retrospective,

Apologetic Ticketmaster.

We were so close to the 10k mark last month, Ticketholders! Like, despite having less content density overall, Just the Ticket racked up three thousand more views for November than I had in October, and I came away just six hundred views short of my goal...which is still to have a ten thousand view month before the end of 2025. That's the wonderful, retrospective part.

The apologetic part comes with the issue that I am reviewing today.

When I began writing the Grimm Fairy Tales (GFT) Retrospective, it was a journey of comparison between my memory of my first readthrough, things I noticed on this re-read, and searching out the original source materials (folk and fairy tales, classic literature, etc.). There comes a certain point in any literary journey (like with my One Piece Multi-Piece series) where the little details shift from foreshadowing that hits different to things you have to remember as a means of better appreciating a coming resolution. There also must come (especially at the age of forty-something) a point where memory quietly recuses itself from the equation, morphing retrospective content into a brand new experience. Said experience comes with a certain amount of moment-to-moment cynicism that begins to feel disingenuous as each moment passes, like, I wouldn't have anything to complain about if I just kept reading.

However, there's kind of a point to these weekly one-issue reviews, even if they are sometimes cynical and soulless; that being that the feeling of the criticism is reflexive of the issue's...issues. Does it make good commercial or creative sense to put out a frenetic piece of content with the barest hint of a story, make people pay for it, and expect them to come back for more in the hopes that things get better? No. That's why I offer my content for free as a supplement or alternative. And it's a creative style that lends itself more to long-form content like Trade Paperback compilations, where you can read a complete story or arc all the way through if you prefer.

All this to say, today's issue is where things get better; a conclusion that re-frames the faults of the previous issue into competent foreshadowing and new threads of a story that was yet to be finished.

Wonderland #9

Starting things off with a pun, this is a wonderful Stjepan Šejić cover. The beautiful autumn floral flourishes, the artistic identity of the posing and costuming (which is a proper way to say it looks like a Šejić cover because of Calie's Leather Mommy outfit and the vine bondage),

and the mouth of the plant kaiju in the background that literally bookends the arc with a callback to his cover for Wonderland #6, all make it clear why this cover was chosen for the Digital Edition and the Trade compilation.

For some plot relevance to the Wonderland B plot (which has been the more interesting plot of the two so far), also look to the Ale Garza cover (which was colored by Quest Giant-Size colorist Linda Šejić).

As for the issue itself, events pick up right where they last left off, with Calie holding the Flower Girls at gunpoint while Harmony and the rest of the cannibalistic lust zombies do what it says on the tin and Violet struggles against the effects of Dream that are turning her "stark raving mad" (as Calie's inner logue puts it).

I've mentioned this phrase before in a previous post, and I got curious enough after encountering it again here that I decided to do some etymology research. That's word origins, not insects. Also not incest. Don't confuse etymology with entomology, and definitely don't confuse insects with incest. Your life will be a lot simpler that way. Anyway, "stark raving mad" originated in the late 1400s as just "stark mad," obviously combining "stark" (Old English and Germanic origin, meaning strong, utter, or complete) and "mad" (no explanation necessary because this is 2025). The "raving" part came centuries later (from Old French meaning "to speak or move irrationally," so of course that's what we call EDM parties now), and there is a "stark staring mad" variation that highlights the wild, bug-eyed look of the insane (like Jack Nicholson in Batman, The Shining, and Cuckoo's Nest, Nicolas Cage memes, or Survivor 49 contestants Savannah and Sage).

Getting back to the review, I said last time that Harmony's presence in the story was rendered pointless by her exposure to Dream, and that was one of the criticisms that I am glad to be proven wrong about in this issue. I am still disappointed that she only existed as red herring nostalgia bait and "protagonist's new friend who dies," but brilliant foreshadowing is brilliant foreshadowing, and in a scene reminiscent of the finale of Children Of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (a bit of the first one, too), Violet shrugs off her Dream symptoms and starts chucking the club's entire bar supply at the villains before sending them up in flames with the lighter Harmony gave her in the previous issue. When Calie later asks how she was able to clear her mind and fight back so easily, Violet cites a sudden feeling of empowerment similar to what Calie experienced in Escape From Wonderland. This is further elaborated on in one of the issue's two epilogues, where (as mother and daughter once more go on the run—but "off the grid" this time, so it'll totally make a difference and hitchhiking is safer than hiding from Wonderland in New York or LA, just like my sarcasm) the Innocent and Love (the latter shown to be Alice in her bikini armor outfit from Alice In Wonderland) mention that, possibly as a result of her exposure to Dream and the Hatter’s Hat, Violet can channel Wonderland energy while in the Nexus.

a.k.a. the Temple Of Purity....

I come to another retroactive correction of my opinions on the previous issue. I said there (because of its hyperactive editing and convenient cliffhanger writing) that William Allen the Suicide King was a liability that hindered my favorite Wonderland character's ability to go all-out against the Queen Of Spades. That situation is immediately rectified here by him giving into his Wonderland persona and giving the Grey Knight a round of full-body invasive surgery with a dagger and no anesthesia while the Red Queen cuts her way through the Spade army to carry her actually stark raving son to safety, and to the Font Of Sanity (it wasn't given a name, but that's what I'm calling it).

Once I set aside my impulse to joke about the "Save Martha" vibes here,

this pair of pages hit me in the feels like a truck,

with the Red Queen (Elizabeth Allen) ultimately doing for her son what "Lacie" did for Calie near the end of Return To Wonderland (with the added benefit of purified sanity in William's case), the light of his freedom disintegrating the Spade Queen's army in one shot as my Queen walks off, sad but victorious for now. I don't immediately recall if William's fate is ever followed up on, but we get a good explanation for why Red didn't end up corrupted like Hearts was (her love for her son left no quarter in her heart or mind for dark thoughts, so Spades' powers wouldn't work on her). Seriously, the writing this issue is peak and Sheldon Goh brings his A-game with the facial expressions (I mean, just look at them, right?). The second artist (E.J. Morges) is hit or miss with the Club Excess scenes, but Raven Gregory carries with the writing, like I said. That is, until the issue's second epilogue....

We see that, in Chicago, a new crop of Flower Girls (led by that blue-haired one we saw...enjoying her own fertilization in the previous issue, who is actually not Erika from Wonderland #6) have established Club Decadence (so, they're not the most original with naming things) on the Spade Queen's behalf, and the issue ends with the revelation that Erika is still human...oid?..., has her sanity back (?), and has given birth to a baby girl she names Dahlia Ivy. Watch out, Jay-Z; Beyonce could be a Wonderland flower monster in disguise! Joking aside, this "plant nursery" concept of the Flower Girls infecting women with Dream and getting them pregnant on a national scale for...reasons? (behind the Queen's back no less) is certainly an interesting writing choice. But I have to invoke my forty-something cynicism clause here and call bullshit because I don't remember it ever being followed up on.

That said, I had fun this time, and the tenth issue (which I skimmed through and I feel like it's going to be special) is up for next week's Retrospective, so please 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 facts separate from fertilizer and get one step closer to my year-end goal, 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:

• 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,

Out Of the Rut,

On the Road To 10k.