Review - Grimm Fairy Tales Presents 2015 Giant-Size Realm Knights (@Zenescope)


"So. Welcome to Arcane Acre."

Magic schools may differ from place to place, but one thing they all seem to have in common is their propensity for serving as ground-zero for battles. Arcane Acre in Grimm Fairy Tales Presents 2015 Giant-Size Realm Knights from Zenescope doesn't change that. The issue is written by Jeff Massey, illustrated by Marc Rosette and Ferran Sellares, colored by Valentina Cuomo and lettered by Ghost Glyph Studios.

Winter Break is a time of peace and quiet on most college campuses. But not at Arcane Acre! While Sela battles the spectral Pirate King over the fate of the Gemini Twins, it's up to Bolder, Masumi and Earth's fledgling Realm Knights to keep the five realms from falling into shadow once again!

The Zenescope universe is nothing if not expansive and Grimm Fairy Tales Presents 2015 Giant-Size Realm Knights doesn't stumble in that regard. The plot of the issue is predicated on an all-out assault on Arcana Acre with some of the lesser-known villains of the Zenescope universe. Massey does an admirable job of giving the reader enough context to figure out what's going on, but there are still facets of the issue that are a little tough to follow if you're not familiar with the universe. That being said, Massey's dialogue is self-contained where you have at least enough context to know what's going on in the issue itself. It's pretty clear as well that the end of the issue positions characters throughout the Zenescope universe for future interactions.

The illustrations by Rosette and Sellares have a sufficiently comic book feel. Much of the book is essentially a continuous brawl and the artistic duo handle the action very well. The two rely on an array of panel insets and overlays set atop backgrounds that are illustrated fairly robustly. There's a pretty spiffy rendering of the ghosts assaulting the castle with Rosette and Sellares illustrating them as human yet with an ethereal glow about them. Cuomo's colors are vibrant and eschew the winter setting of the college slightly, but they work.

At it's core, Grimm Fairy Tales Presents 2015 Giant-Size Realm Knights is essentially another entry in the Grimm Fairy Tales universe that capitalizes on what seems to be a never-ending war. Sela can never seem to catch a break as she always manages to find herself at the center of said war. Massey's script is pretty clean and paced evenly, moving the story along at a moderate pace that never feels like it loses sight of what it wants to accomplish. The artwork by Rosette and Sellares is sound and clean. Grimm Fairy Tales Presents 2015 Giant-Size Realm Knights is worth a read for the more devoted Zenescope readers.

Grimm Fairy Tales Presents 2015 Giant-Size Realm Knights is in stores now.

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