Zenescope - Omnibusted #47: Robyn Hood - Legend

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. The Omnibuster.

I'm a little disappointed in myself, Ticketholders!

The purpose of the Grimm Fairy Tales Retrospective and its Zenescope - Omnibusted counterpart was to not only revisit Zenescope's comics from a nostalgic, comparative, and scholarly perspective, but to cover them in something approaching a canonical order. Had I not chosen a thematic approach to these past two months of content (all of the Jungle Book miniseries together, all of the Robyn Hood miniseries together), I might have adhered to that a bit more closely, but that was not to be in the cards, on account of an Editor's Note I saw in the first issue of the Robyn Hood Origin Trilogy's finale, subtitled: Legend.

Robyn Hood Volume Three

Legend

I'll get to that soon, but first, there's the matter of introducing the Trade Paperback itself.

As is often the case with spinoff Trades like this (the main Grimm Fairy Tales Volumes have always released with original main cover art, even the white background reprint editions), the front cover is the same as the first issue's A Cover, this one by Ken Lashley and Romulo Fajardo, Jr. The Credits and Table Of Contents background is cropped from the fourth issue's A Cover by Emilio Laiso. Pat Shand continues as writer (with a nice, trilogy-ending afterword from him on the very last page of both the Omnibus and Trade editions) and Larry Watts provides interior art yet again for a consistent visual style throughout the trilogy.

The only Robyn Hood Volume to have bonus material so far, Legend also gives us a sneak preview of Robyn's Ongoing series (that I will get to in time).

When we last saw Robyn "Hood" Locksley, Cal "Sheriff Of Nottingham" King had killed "the only person who ever understood me" right in front of her and literally booted her into the clutches of the NYPD. Well, if you're just reading the trilogy by itself, prepare for those stakes to have no immediate weight because it's now several months later, Robyn is back to her "maim white collar criminals and redistribute their wealth in ways that look cool in the moment but could get the new recipients killed later" schtick after being released from prison in a miniseries I haven't reviewed yet (this is where that Editor's Note about the Realm Knights miniseries comes in), and Maid Marian just healed Will in the timeskip so he's all good now (well, there's the secret that Will is alive because Marian made him into a bootleg Sheriff Of Nottingham by using Provenance shards that he has to replace on the regular like Game Gear batteries, so maybe not all good). Oh, and they're working with Guy Of Gisbourne now because seeing her man back from the dead after a third of a year in shock and mourning hasn't turned Robyn's worldview upside down enough. So in a case of "the enemy of my enemy is convenient at best," Robyn agrees to join them in returning to Myst (by her own choice, rather than being dragged there suddenly like the last two times) to put down Cal for good and dispell any notion that she would ever cooperate with the Horde.

Shand brings the banter, character-rich dialogue, and Capital-M Moments this issue, as we see Avelia has joined the rebels as well (even serving as Marian's magic teacher in the skip), Robyn and Gisbourne clash over battle strategy because he's a tactical asshole (mommy issues notwithstanding), and Will confesses his feelings for Robyn with one hell of a kiss. Unfortunately, the capital nature of that particular Moment doesn't get to last because shortly after, circumstances lead to Robyn learning that there are no more Provenance shards (even though Marian had a full bag in the previous issue) and Will's death is inevitable.

While Cal (being addressed by his Horde underlings and human subjects as "Sheriff King," which is on-the-nose to the point of hilarity) has random citizens killed for being needy and democratically presumptuous because his name and personality are both shit and he finds it amusing, this next issue begins in the wake of Gisbourne's cold, strategic assessment that Will Scarlet is literal dead weight, as Much the Miller's Son engages the dishonored knight in a visceral brawl that opens old emotional wounds for them both and ends with Gisbourne leaving the group and Much laying bloodied and fractionally conscious, unable to avenge his slain mentor and savior (Gisbourne put a dagger in Friar Tuck in the previous series). Avelia follows, as does Marian (promising to train further with the branded witch to find a way of saving Will's life permanently), leaving Robyn and Will to further explore their feelings and prepare for the battle ahead. Again, subtle but very powerful character work here, as Marian has an encounter with Delphina's water spirit (purifying her magic and directing her off the path of Avelia's dark necromancy—a possible hint to more of the story behind those servitude marks?), leaving Gisbourne and Avelia to hash out their differences after the witch saw him mourning at Friar Tuck's grave.

As much as I certainly want to get to Robyn beating the pink glow off of Sheriff-King King's smug dumpster fire of a face, I cannot sing the praises of this trilogy's character writing enough.

But then fuck this issue for cheaply playing with my emotions! The last preview page says "Robyn vs The Sheriff Of Nottingham. One lives. One dies." The title page and cover show Robyn mourning over Will's dead body. The issue opens with Will saying "I'm not gonna die, My Girl" (which is the title of a sad kids' movie from the 90s where a mortician's daughter sees her childhood crush get stung to death by bees; spoilers) and Marian shows up conveniently (I'm talking about the timing, not the writing, because we saw this established in the previous issue) to say, "guess what? Here's some magic I got from Delphina, and Will isn't going to die from his chest wound because he doesn't have one anymore." So of course, when Robyn, Marian, Much, Will, and Gisbourne have said their pieces to be at peace when they go to war (Robyn squaring things with Gisbourne and getting some more lovey-dovey time with Will—though she still can't bring herself to say the words because of her magically destined sociopathy, even though she wants to—Much and Will doing the medieval handshake thing that assholes use as a dominance gesture toward women, and Marian keeping her unrequited feelings for Robyn under wraps), Shit King the Sheriff-King shows up, all hopped up on Provenance energy like a walking magic bomb, to cook Gisbourne and rip the magic out of Will's chest before being dismembered and exploding anticlimactically as all rapists should.

I knew it was coming because I had read this before, but still, fuck this issue for playing with my emotions.

I didn't mention this before, but each issue ends with a title-drop for the next issue, and Robyn Hood #3 calls this one "The Canonization," in reference to a quote from John Donne that appears on the last page. The dictionary defines canonization as the Roman Catholic admission of a dead person into sainthood, as well as admission of works into a literary collection identified as genuine. There is language of a religious connotation in the literary definition as well, though we now use canon to refer mostly to fictional continuities like horror movie franchises, comic books, video games, and anime (hence the toxic debate over Dragon Ball's many media incarnations and the "quality equals canon" mindset in some fandoms).

So, all of that to say that, although my feelings stand about the trilogy's penultimate issue being emotionally manipulative (and blatantly, unapologetically so), Pat Shand is brilliant once again, using the final exchange between Robyn and Will to both solidify her as the eponymous Legend (canonizing her exploits and final expression of love by the literary definition) and qualify him for sainthood in the hearts of the surviving Merry Men, the citizens of Nottingham, and his Girl (canonizing him by the religious definition).

I'm not crying; you're crying.

Apparently, being choke-lifted and cooked by nuclear Provenance magic is more survivable than having the essence of a dead oracle ripped out of a hole in your chest, because Gisbourne is still alive and his Freudian hate-boner lasted way longer than medically advisable. Like Robyn, I am very much sick of Gisbourne willfully avoiding every single out he is given and thinking he's the shit to end all shits (especially when we all know that exploded in the previous issue). He doesn't deserve honor, or a legendary death; he deserves to be his own undoing and get stabbed in the back, because, as Avelia told him at Delphina's cabin last time, legends are for those on the side of good, and true warriors move on from vengeance. Fitting, then, that Robyn once again defeats him handily and declares their beef-hatchet squashed and buried, and Avelia should appear from beyond the gutter (that's the comic book version of being out of frame) to impale him from behind, taking her revenge as a tragic villain and allowing Robyn to keep the legendary warrior status she has earned at great cost. Damn.

Unfortunately, not every overwhelming Horde works by Head Vampire logic, so even without Cal or Gisbourne or a numbered John to lead them, the Dark Horde (mostly comprised of red WoW orcs because all modern fantasy design sensibilities were founded by millennials, I guess) are still laying waste to Nottingham while Marian, Much, and Larry the fruit merchant (whom I spent the series calling "Floppy-Hatted Redneck Guy" because he looks like his name should be Cletus or something, and I consider him the Mole of Robyn Hood comics because he keeps popping up at random to endure misery; justice for Mole!) struggle to hold their ground. So after mourning briefly in the gutter, Robyn arrives, leveraging the "Child Of Darkness" card to get the Horde to leave Nottingham in her control "or suffer the wrath of pissing me off" (I'm paraphrasing), and it works. By the way, the "Child Of Darkness" thing will be a moving goal post of false starts and disappointments going forward (because prophecy), so look forward to not looking forward to that.

Anyway, the "real warriors move on" quote also informs Robyn's story for the rest of the issue, as she continues to mourn her lost Will (damn and praise Shand for another masterful use of the doubly thematic!), but finds new joy in life when...Marian cooks her the worst-looking breakfast of all time‽ So, yeah; the dead are best remembered as we remember them in our hearts, tragedy is molded into us (not healed) by time, and Marian moves in with Robyn as her sidekick in New York, where they use their vigilante skills to pay the bills and share the wealth.

As I said at the top, the Legend Trade and the Origin Trilogy Omnibus both end with a sneak preview of Robyn's Ongoing series, but for now, my coverage ends here.

I debated myself over whether or not I would talk about the abundance of ads to be found in the individual digital issues, but they are for titles too far off in the Retrospective to make note of at this time, and I want the series to breathe in your minds (if you are using this as a companion piece for your reading experience) because even with its few apparent flaws, Robyn Hood is perhaps Zenescope's best-written imprint ever.

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95

Omnibuster,

Out.