GRIMM SPOTLIGHT: GRETEL: BLOODY MARY, from Zenescope Entertainment on February 16th, 2022, takes a road trip with Gretel and Calibar to help a local town where kids go missing near an abandoned amusement park.
The Details
- Written By: David Wohl
- Art By: Allan Otero
- Colors By: Jorge Cortes
- Letters By: Taylor Esposito
- Cover Art By: Mike Krome (cover A)
- Cover Price: $5.99
- Release Date: February 16, 2022
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Was It Good?
It’s been almost a year and change since we’ve seen Gretel, and now is a great time to reintroduce readers to the character. However, GRIMM SPOTLIGHT: GRETEL: BLOODY MARY delivers the basics of the character with a painfully clunky reading experience.
Gretel’s adventures, for the uninitiated, tend more to the supernatural horror side of the Zenescope universe, similar to Mystere and Van Helsing. Wohl layers in plenty of spell-casting, wicked witches and wizards of the child-eating, variety, and a setting that works perfectly by taking fond childhood memories and turning them into something twisted and evil. All the piece parts are there for a tailor-made creepshow in the spirit of IT (2017).
Where the story stumbles is in the painfully clunky narration and dialog. The narration is riddled with grammatical awkwardness, and the dialog sounds unnatural coming out of anyone’s mouth. The words simply don’t flow, and this issue would have benefited greatly if the creators had read the words out loud to tamp down the rough spots.
Reading awkwardness aside, Otero turns in some fine work with the visuals. It would have been nice to see Otero play with the optical illusions of mirrors more instead of relegating the mirrors to opaque surfaces, but it works well enough to get the story across.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at the covers, or Click Here to jump right to the story description with some spoilers.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
We begin with a flashback to Nashua, New Hampshire. A group of kids is playing around a closed amusement park. When one boy in the group enters the Hall of Mirrors, he’s snatched away by a malevolent presence living in the mirrors.
Now, Gretel and Calibar rescue a trio of children about to be eaten by a warlock who’s beholden to Gretel’s ultimate enemy, the witch Goody Cole. When they head back out on the road to track down goody Cole, they’re flagged down by the same group of kids from the amusement park who’ve been searching for their friend for a week. Despite Gretel’s eagerness to stay on course, Calibar offers to help their kids’ search.
In the amusement park, Calibar and Grete split up to hasten the search. Calibar enters the Hall of Mirrors and is snatched away just like the children, even when she fires her weapon at the ghostly specter known as Bloody Mary emerging from the mirror. Gretel hears the gunshots and races into the Hall to help but the specter casts her out.
Gretel retrieves an ancient spell book she acquired on her last adventure from its storage spot in her van and casts a spell that sends her back in time to witness Bloody Mary’s origins. We conclude the issue with horrific abuse, the birth of a legend, and a fallen house.
Final Thoughts
GRIMM SPOTLIGHT: GRETEL: BLOODY MARY brings back an old Zenescope favorite to rescue children kidnapped into a dark mirror realm by a legendary specter. The setup is tailor-made for a creepy tale to tell by a campfire, and the art is excellent. That said, the narration and dialog are super clunky and in desperate need of editing.
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