I have to say, despite the way the women in Zenescope's series dress, these do make good stories. Heck, the designs aren't even worth a nitpick. I've seen a few architectural design flaws like a hatch that almost looks like it was broken off when it was really just open, but that's minor stuff. The character art really makes these mistakes feel secondary.

The writing meanwhile is definitely a positive. I've seen a lot of comics from this company that just show these dark "good girls" driven by their traumas or a purpose that loses its meaning. Here though, the title character Gretel shows a step away from the usual. She's burned out and feels the years bearing on her. It's a little surprising to see how the character from the original Grimm Fairy Tales Zenescope series is given a re-rendition. Here, she is a witch hunter wanting to get back at the witch who cursed her. That curse meanwhile brought her to a caregiver who she had to separate from. Unlike most Zenescope character, Gretel got the love that she needed to continue living. But being separated from him and a life of trauma ends up making her feel isolated.

When the witches are on the attack, Gretel has to reunite with her father figure Samuel. But there are no times for reunions when the witch behind Gretel's curse makes her move. During the journey, Gretel confronts her isolation several times. Quietness doesn't suit her since all it does is bring bad memories. The most significant however comes from a modern witch hunter codenamed Calabar. Witches adapt to times and Calabar was almost one of their victims of children farming. While Gretel was feeling sorry for herself, the witches thrived.

The ending certainly was satisfying. Overall despite the tragedies and dourness, this series is a little more lighter than the usual Zenescope romp. It's certainly a step in the right direction from the publisher's beginning.

Monologue Much?

This is a well drawn series, with good lines, inking and colors. Everything is crisp and sharp, characters are reasonably expressive, and you always know where you are and what's happening. Best of all, we have an attractive and feisty heroine who doesn't have to look like pinup cheesecake in absolutely every panel. Cursed, witch hunting Gretel is a more interesting and fully formed heroine than usual, and even her angsty bits are fairly novel. Her banter and wisecracking has its moments and we don't just get a catalogue of cliches.

That said, this is a remarkably talky project. The villains monologue, the supporting characters all monologue, and between dialogue, thought balloons, and narrative sidebars, Gretel shares just about every thought she's ever had during her several hundred years lifetime. Needless to say, there's a lot of repetition in that approach, and the monologuing often slows the pace of the story to a near halt.

But, mixed into that there's an interesting story and plot, complete with some nice twists and unexpected angles. The upshot is that you have to be patient with this series, but if you are patient there are many rewards. And, lots of stories like this are padded out with fight scenes that go on forever and are just repeated with different characters over and over. That isn't done here. Fights and battles and confrontations are crisp and brief, and most of the space is devoted to the aforementioned dialogues and soliloquies. The net effect is that this often reads more like an illustrated novel than your usual comic or graphic novel.

So, this ended up being a satisfying, if somewhat scattershot, tale that was anchored by a much stronger and well developed main character than usual. I'm good with that.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Hmmm… A comic that is bright and breezy, but also wordy as all hell, and that can be really smart when it needs to be, but also entirely dumb. There's a line in it about the truth of the story being long-winded, and boy do the characters here like to yack. Everyone gets to tell the entire backstory before now, whether we need to see it or not, and while there is a pleasurable twist in all that at one point, the word count here should be about half what it is. That said, the convoluted story, going back several times through the last few hundred years of our witch hunting heroine, does at least enliven the page more than you might think. But it also clunks into Stupidity Corner, with a waffly bit where it tries to bring racism in as a subject. That's nothing compared to the childish, misguided bit where it tries to bring the Holocaust in as a background – and gives the Jews in their cattle cars lovely glass windows in the carriages to look out of. WTF? Is this supposed to be shatterproof, bulletproof glass, or magic, or what? Risible.

So, comments like that might make you think this is as idiotic as so much else from the Grimm Universe. And actually, no, it isn't. It's a lot richer, a lot more well thought out, and when it does that thing I can't talk about, it's actually quite good. I'm not sure the whole conclusion makes as much sense as the creators think it does, but I actually enjoyed this, for all its flaws. Three and a half stars – which is stellar compared to much of this house's output.