Never underestimate the Dark Queen!
Creative Staff:
Writer Joe Brusha
Artwork Sami Kivela
What They Say:
The four realms have fallen and an Age of Darkness has arrived. The Dark Queen begins her reign after merging the realms with Earth. The survivors must band together in order to defeat her and restore order. But with several Realm Knights dead and the Grimm Universe thrown into chaos, can Sela and her remaining team stand against the Dark Queen and her army?
Content (please note that portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Dark Queen has Sela backed into a corner, but will she honor her bargain if the rebels acquiesce? The question is will she have the chance to if they take the fight to her? With Malec wanting revenge on his wife, they have little choice in the matter since he is now the only way into the fortress. But as the sun sets and they say their goodbyes, they all wonder if this will be the last moonrise and will they see another tomorrow.
As the Dark One marches his captives towards the ominous entrance, his soldiers are taken aback to see how easily their Master has captured these troublemakers. After many months of endless battle, he walks in triumphantly with the leadership of the rebellion seemingly crushed. It is too good to be true, but they see the proof of his crusade and hesitantly open the gates into the inner sanctum. After all, if they cannot trust the husband of their leader, who else will lead them. But, that may be their last mistake as this ragtag band separate to accomplish the goals laid out before them: the dissection of Lucinda’s forces so as to weaken her before the final assault.
But, as they begin their offensive, the Dark Queen was, of course, expecting them, waiting with her generals to lovingly welcome her mate back into the fold. However, he has other plans which involve charging headlong into the fray and crushing this Dark Horde beneath his cloven hooves. While Lucinda watches her forces fall and Sela comes forward to challenge her, this battle is far from over as a new enforcer takes the field to end this fruitless struggle, once and for all.
In Summary:
Writer Joe Brusha has set the stage for what will hopefully be an epic struggle for the future of the Grimm Universe! With Sela and her forces finally confronting Lucinda, it looks as if the underdog will finally have the upper hand until we get a glimpse of those two trump cards at the end. How will she be able to defeat this evil pair … or will she? It’s these kinds of cliffhangers that make for a good comic.
But of course, we cannot forget Sami Kivela’s wonderful artwork! It has been his frenetic action scenes that have kept our attention throughout this series. Going from a tranquil setting and stunning close-ups all in an effort to setup the epic battles is brilliant in leading the reader into the story. It gets them emotionally involved in what could have been a clichéd comic of endless fighting, but now we care about the characters as we watch them struggle against what most certainly appears to be a hopeless struggle.
However, as we come to the final issue in this series, we have to wonder how will Brusha and Kivela wrap up all of the loose ends? This title is supposed to take place before the current storylines, and yet it seems impossible to cleanly severe the changed characters and convoluted story into what we now of know as the present day. Hopefully, this will not lead into another mini-series by which they try to make sense of the aftermath of the Realm War. Guess we’ll find out next month with the finale!
Grade: B+
Rating: 17+
Released By: Zenescope
Release Date: August 5th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
