Evil hides in the darkness to inflict pain, but can secrets be just as powerful to cause even deeper wounds?
Creative Staff:
Writer: Pat Shand
Artwork: Przemyslaw Klosin & Manuel Preitano
What They Say:
Sela and her mentor Shang, along with their former enemy Belinda, have opened a school for a select group of Highborn and Falseblood teens with enhanced abilities. Their goal is to guide the teens who may one day be humanity’s only hope against evil from other realms.
Content (please note that portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Bloody Bones has successfully infiltrated Arcane Acre with the Warlord of Oz and Maka to wreck havoc upon the slumbering students and faculty. With two of their own slaughtered whilst the rest slept, it appears that they too will be easy prey for these predators with no interference. But Wulf has other intentions when he is roused from the nightmare of his friends being consumed by their own fears. He is now the only defence from the Warlord being able to carry out the rest of his mission, until Ali is too jarred from his nocturnal ordeal; however, when all seems lost due to their foe’s overwhelming power, a watery ally is released from her imprisonment to step in, allowing the pair to relieve him of his greatest weapon.
As the final blow is about to be struck, Belinda arrives to see the unmasking of the greatest foe Oz has ever known. The guilt of slaying the Dark One still haunts her since he was the only one who knew the whereabouts of her son; but with the help of the goddess of death Keres, she has learned that he is still alive and closer than she has ever known. However, has this information tainted her judgement that she will go so far as to betray those she now calls friends? Which will she choose to obey: the side of justice or the truth from the pain in her own heart. She can only choose one, but will it be the right choice that she can live with while the other is left behind along with her guilt.
In Summary:
Just when we think that Pat Shand couldn’t make this story arc any better, he slips in Belinda’s bombshell?! Never mind that the students and faculty are being slaughtered while they sleep and Blood Bones has free reign of Arcane Acre, all those events are secondary compared to the first and last pages of the issue. We all know that Malec took advantage of Belinda after the birth of her child in Grimm Fairy Tales Giant-Size #1 back in 2009, but who would have guessed that Shand would bring those nightmares back when she’s the most emotionally vulnerable after killing the Dark One? This time, when her feelings are so raw that anything or anyone could make her go back into the darkness makes this one the best issues of the series so far!
But the part which drives the poignant impacts home is the artwork by Przemyslaw Klosin and Manuel Preitano. While they are both known for their details in bringing the narrative alive, to combine their talents into one story just makes it all the more moving so as to draw the reader into this bizarre world of dreams and nightmarish reality. Klosin skillfully opens the stage with the desperation of trying to survive the truth revealed by Kerres which quickly devolves into the survival of confronting the facts of ones interpretation of their own fears. And yet, the terror is only expanded once Belinda defies the advice which the goddess had given her; Preitano so passionately displays the sadness and anger on the face of mother and son, you cannot be feel the heartbreak once the rejection of madness drives another wall between the two. Klosin may have opened the wound in Belinda learning the truth, but Preitano adds salt to the trauma, which only makes the misery echo within her hollow soul all the more tauntingly.
Bloody Bones might have been the antagonist, but the Warlord was the one whose actions cut the deepest. Belinda now knows how she can never leave her past behind, no matter how truthfully she may try to apologise for her actions. But it is now that she will be tested the most earnestly while trying to comfort those who have lost more than a child. Who can say which is the more grievous injury, but it is at times like this when the temper of a person is tested to the utmost; whether they succeed or fail is due to the calibre of their will and I cannot wait to see how Belinda’s will prove its mettle.
Grade: A
Rating: 17+
Released By Zenescope
Release Date: December 30, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
