BELLE: THE SHAPE OF FEAR, from Zenescope Entertainment on 5/24/23, brings Belle to the brink of madness when recurring dreams become all too real.
The Details
- Written by: Dave Franchini
- Art by: Rodrigo Xavier
- Colors by: Juan Manuel Rodriguez, Maxflan Araujo
- Letters by: Taylor Esposito
- Cover art by: Igor Vitorino (cover A)
- Comic Rating: Teen+
- Cover price: $5.99
- Release date: May 24, 2023
Is It Good?
BELLE: THE SHAPE OF FEAR is a decent fantasy/horror adventure that forces Belle to enter the Dreamland after her harrowing encounter with the Faceless Woman to confront a new threat. Dave Franchini’s story gives Belle a new realm to explore and dangers to face, but the issue, as a whole, reads as a setup for challenges in the future rather than as a satisfyingly complete story.
Dave Franchini focuses on the overly chatty Belle as she suffers from recurring dreams about a cabin in a surreal landscape. Belle travels further into Dreamland each night until she works her way into a living manifestation of her subconscious, where other entities are tasked with hunting her down.
In concept, BELLE: THE SHAPE OF FEAR is a fine story that takes Belle out of the physical world for monster hunting and into a realm where the imagination can be made real. Eventually, Belle’s encounter with Sleeping Beauty leads to a unique team-up for fighting dream monsters, and the final moments uncover an intriguing villain pulling strings behind the scenes. On the positive side, this issue adds a lot of “newness” and firsts to Belle’s canon, which is a pleasant change of pace from the monster-of-the-month model.
On the downside, this issue asks more questions than it answers. Franchini covers all the basics with a very chatty Belle making the most of a deadly situation, but ultimately, very little about the main villain is answered, so you don’t know what she wants, why she wants it, or what this villain’s arrival means for the future. When you finish a comic with more questions than answers, the satisfaction level takes a significant hit.
The ending may be uncertain, but Rodrigo Xavier’s art is nothing but rock solid. Admittedly, Xavier uses a typical Zenescope house style but it works in this issue. The line work is clean, Rodriguez and Araujo’s coloring is excellent, and the action is grounded but exciting.
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What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
We begin with Belle narrating her travels in a dream. She approaches a lonely cabin at the top of the cliff and notes this is the furthest she’s traveled in this chronically recurring dream. Eventually, Belle finds a down hatch in the cabin that leads her into a surreal landscape of ships, castles, and fantasy beasts that could only exist in Dreamland.
When Belle awakes, Mel encourages her to do some research to find out the meaning of the dreams. Reluctantly, Belle agrees. While researching at the local library, Belle encounters another woman who has a much better handle on navigating the everchanging landscapes of Dreamland – Sleeping Beauty. When the two are attacked by dangerous beasts, Sleeping Beauty helps defend Belle and explains that the monsters are after Belle due to an unusually large amount of dream energy in Belle’s body.
We conclude the issue with a hunter, imagination made real, and the promise of future threats.
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Final Thoughts
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BELLE: THE SHAPE OF FEAR adds fresh realms to explore for the perennial beast hunter with surreal landscapes, nightmarish monsters, and a whole lot of talking (naturally). That said, this issue falls short of satisfying because it asks more questions than it answers.
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