Zenescope - Omnibusted #39: Down the Rabbit Hole
a.k.a. The Omnibuster.
Omnibuster's Note: The miniseries I'm reviewing today deals with sensitive psychological topics like mental illness and suicide. Unlike many modern content creators, I will not shy away from using these terms. However, I understand the tactlessness of indulging in their description and depiction, and will leave exposure to such words and imagery up to the comics consumer.
It's New Year's Eve, Ticketholders, and though I probably dropped the ball on getting to ten thousand views for the month of December, I intend to not drop the ball when it comes to keeping my year-end content obligations.
I don't have any version comparisons to share, but you'll probably notice as you start to read the Trade that it is the first (maybe only?) collection to have a continuity explanation on its interior page, probably because it's a psychological thriller bullshit simul-prequel that wouldn't make much sense without telling us that it takes place during Return To Wonderland (which is both supported and contradicted by each issue's credits page saying it takes place during and before Return To Wonderland..., because Wonderland). The cover is taken from Down the Rabbit Hole #2, and the Table Of Contents (promising a preview of Through the Looking Glass as a bonus) is a two-page interior spread from the fourth issue.
Grimm Fairy Tales Presents:
Wonderland - Down the Rabbit Hole
Despite not much going on in this first issue, it is packed with the franchise's characteristic 1.5-logue writing (provided in part by the Bolder himself, Pat Shand) and surreal body horror visuals, which I always marvel at, even when (much like the original Alice In Wonderland book) the kindest thing I find to say about a given "story" is that it’s certainly in English.
In this particular story, it's move-in day at the Liddle residence, complete with some "it's too good to be true, it feels like a dream" impostor syndrome dialogue reminiscent of Wonderland #10 Alice, when she's distracted by seeing her own faceless reflection in a window. The illusion (I think; it's hard to piece the puzzle together when the rhubarb pie is melting and the Jell-O is on fire. Does anyone else smell frozen hair?) quickly dissolves into referential madness with Drake threatening Johnny (we know the doubled meaning of that by now, so I don't have to say it again, right?), Spades threatening Alice's life, and the Jabberwocky threatening her sanity...plus whatever is going on here:
Once this (admittedly incredible-looking) nonsense is out of the way, we learn that Alice is seeing a therapist (like, attending regular meetings with him, not hallucinating him) who works for Dodgson and is giving her the wrong medication to make her madness worse. Also, we see the Liddles' marriage start to fracture because of Alice's condition (which is the best written pair of pages in the issue). Alice later makes the first attempt on her own life, spurred on by the voices of Wonderland in her head promising a crown for Calie (because she's going to be the White Queen), a hat for Johnny (because Hatter, duh), and a pussy for Lewis (I don't think they mean a cat, plus he kinda literally fucking died in RTW).
This is the cover (Anthony Spay & Sanju Nivangune) I was talking about in the intro, and while I miss the production effort that was put into Trades like Alice In Wonderland and The Dream Eater Saga, I love what Zenescope directed the artists to do with the covers for this miniseries (which I'm not going to give away just yet). Also: David Seidman. Just...David Seidman.
So far, with the whole split existence thing that Alice has been put through since her Tale made my skull into a Möbius Strip and my brain into bacon jelly, and with the editorial qualifiers cementing (relative to cement that never dries) this miniseries as a simultaneous prequel to Return To Wonderland, it seems too surreal for continuity to matter at all. But as we see with the beginning of Down the Rabbit Hole's second issue, it is also a branch sequel to the Alice In Wonderland miniseries. If you recall, the part of Alice that grew up in Wonderland ended that story by defeating the Jabberwocky in a kaiju battle and sealing him away in the mind of her Nexus self. Now, he's trapped in a Majin Buu egg at the center of a maze in "a Realm outside of dreams" (which could be the same sub-Realm where Calie and Johnny fought in Wonderland #4?), and he's using the Faceless Alice and Dodgson's resources (like the corrupt psychiatrist) to provoke her into suicide so he can break free. This panel fucking rocks!
So, with Alice's survival having been seen to and her being put under long-term psychiatric observation to prevent a repeat occurrence, we see time pass with Johnny’s first (?) act of theriocide, Calie's goth phase, and the beginning of Lewis' relationship with Mistress Betty.
And yet they all show up to celebrate when Doctor Octopus (seriously, her psychiatrist looks like a Spider-Man villain) clears her to go home despite her still clearly having hallucinations (awesome-looking, terrifying ones that I—probably, depending on the day—wouldn't even wish on my neighbors' cat-torturing, yappy little bitch of a dog) and taking the wrong medication at his direction. How do the medical practitioners (not professionals; they practice medicine because they don't know what the fuck they're doing) in this Universe still have jobs if they're oblivious to literal institutional corruption and can't properly monitor what their patients are taking‽
Oh, and the White Rabbit and Faceless Alice have teamed up now.
I should probably also mention (as the credits page for this third issue does) that Alice wanted to go back home so she could be near her family (her cheating sub husband, budding serial killer of a son, and hateful, chain-smoking goth daughter) to protect them from the cosmic insanity dragon trapped in the purgatory dimension in her brain who will escape if she dies (sort of like she's an unwitting Nexus Guardian like the Lovecraft bloodline). Like, I get that she doesn't know these things about her family (or at the very least, she doesn't believe when Wonderland entities are telling her about the dark side of her family), and that Wonderland is unbound by traditional space-time rules (which is why Sane Alice already watched this miniseries unfold before she set it in motion), so it doesn't matter how close to or far from them she is; Wonderland can get to the Liddle family from anywhere at any time. But her sanity is in question (so any attempts to warn or defend them against Wonderland threats would fall on deaf ears) and bringing the monster threatening her family as close to them as possible makes Alice not the brightest knife in the crayon belfry, because Wonderland, and because my metaphor juicer is set to puree.
Case in point, when they get home, she starts seeing the house as the Jabberwocky's prison maze (decorated with visual references that Zenescope and Carroll fans alike can appreciate, such as a raven perched on a floating writing desk). We also get elaborations on events that the beginning of Return To Wonderland montage'd its way through, like Alice playing along when she's gifted the White Rabbit (the moment she shares with Johnny when he asks her what self-harm feels like is a powerful one that treats the subject with the care—and bluntness—that it deserves) and Alice freaking out when Pappy (the phrase, "fuck Pappy with an ebola-encrusted corkscrew" cannot be stated enough) delivers the Allen mirror (which is how it ends up in the basement of the House Of Liddle) because she used to talk to "Lacie" through it when she was a kid and he "thought it might provide comfort." As the freakouts continue, Down the Rabbit Hole begins to read like a self-fulfilling prophecy out of Greco-Roman mythology: Lewis emotionally distances himself, and with the mirror in the basement, Wonderland has unprecedented access to its favorite bloodline, all because of Alice's Sysiphean protective nature (and Dodgson being a deeply connected, wealthy pile of fecal treacle, of course). Oddly enough, Calie is the only one who doesn't turn away from her or write off her behavior as insanity. We know the kind of character Calie would soon prove herself to be, so in larger context it isn't that unbelievable. Hell, even taking this miniseries on its own, this is a clear statement of a child's unconditional love for her mother, and like the scenes with Lewis and Betty or the moment with Alice and Johnny, I can feel Shand's influence all over it, right up to the instant Faceless Alice pulls our doomed heroine into the depths of her bathtub (because we haven't gotten a Nightmare On Elm Street reference in awhile).
Unfortunately, my praise of the story's depiction of a child's unconditional love doesn't get to last very long (unless you were reading Down the Rabbit Hole as it individually released back in 2013), as Wonderland's efforts to show Alice the inevitability of its desired future (the power of fractional truth and mutual self-delusion at work, people!), and her own mad battle against the unseen forces of madness, at last drive Calie away.
Meanwhile, Johnny finds himself a certain indestructible rabbit to mutilate (Wonderland training and indulging his dark impulses).
Finally coming to the conclusion (literally, because the final issue is next) that she's losing a battle of attrition, Alice decides to give Wonderland the sacrifice it needs, but on her own terms, by once more bringing the fight to Wonderland (like daughter, like mother).
Okay; time to talk covers now. If you haven't noticed before, this issue's cover should cement for you (relative to cement that is mixed perfectly and dries instantly) that the chosen Digital Edition/Trade Paperback covers all feature Alice interacting with the White Rabbit in some way, and that the Rabbit himself gets more and more decayed with each issue until, as you can see above, he's just a skeleton. Nice Liddle touch, isn't it?
I'd also like to draw attention (finally, a pun!) to the fourth cover and its sketch variant by Mike Krome and Ula Mos (though crediting a colorist on a sketch is kinda like crediting your local butcher for the sauce you put on the ribs he sold you). They have nothing to do with Wonderland in general or Down the Rabbit Rabbit Hole specifically, but instead serve as promotional collectibles for the Unleashed event series (Liesel Van Helsing, a character I enjoy and will get to in time, gets the dynamic, right-third focus she deserves) and the Oz miniseries (Dorothy is also shown) that were being released at the time. I will probably get to both in the year to come.
Getting into the finale, it's kinda more than a Liddle bit bullshit, but also an inevitability because it's a prequel. After writing letters to Calie (who is hooking up with Brandon by this point), Johnny (who has a girlfriend until he gets rough with her while they're watching a Hatchet knockoff), and Lewis (who is Betty-whipped and loving it), she gives Wonderland the middle finger by making the end of Return To Wonderland #5 happen.
Yeah; between these last two issues, Calie has already been to Wonderland once, and following Alice's death by hanging, we see that Calie and Brandon are headed to New York (where Beyond Wonderland takes place), meaning that she has just learned Dodgson's explanation for the Realm Of Dreams and Madness, Lewis and Betty are dead, and she has pushed Johnny Through the Looking Glass and into the last part of this new trilogy (which I will probably get to in the coming year, and I probably need to start a Swear Jar for that phrase). Do the Liddles not get to read their letters?
As for Alice herself, she and the reading audience are introduced (unless they've already started reading No Tomorrow, which began publication as this series was wrapping up, and $I will probably get to it in the coming year$) to a new Death character who pretty much replaces Morrigan going forward and will become popular enough to get her own ongoing anthology series eventually.
Before she can claim Alice's soul, the Maker interferes (the creator character who serves as the elder of the Keepers we've been seeing since the Dream Eater Saga) and turns Alice into the new avatar of Love (confirming what we've suspected since her appearances in the Wonderland Ongoing series). Before assuming her new role, Love deposits Alice's happiest memories in Wonderland's reflecting pool, which is supposed to read like a happy ending, but accomplishes...what? Aside from being a bookending nod to Wonderland #10 (where things actually turned out worse than the main timeline, remember?), I don't think it ever amounts to anything further.
Oh, and Faceless Alice?
SPOILERS!
Turns out she wasn't in league with the Jabberwocky after all. It was Spades all along!
I joke, but it was a legitimately good twist that makes more sense than the majority of Wonderland content because now that the Jabberwocky is free again, she can begin pulling the strings that will lead to his demise (‽) and scheme to take his place as ruler.
This was way better than I remember (because I took the time to appreciate Shand's writing of the more character-rich moments), but still more psychological thriller bullshit than I wanted to devote my time to in 2025.
Pray for my soul because as I write this, I have three days to write tomorrow's State Of the Ticketverse Address. Also, 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 because kings very chess mother green served squares nacho pizza, 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.
Omnibuster,
Happy New Year!
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