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Review: Grimm Fairy Tales Jasco Game One-Shot

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

One of the things that bugs me about how comics books are perceived isn’t the looks from colleagues who don’t understand why us geeks spend so much on books or how we know the minutiae of any of our favourite characters, be it Avengers, Justice League, X-Men or any one particular hero.  No, the thing that causes my annoyance is the fact that publishers can often end up putting out books as adverts for others things, taking advantage of their geeky and nerdish followers.  This is the exact case as Zenescope rolls back its own continuity in order to produce a book that caters more for a card game fighting system than the characters that their fans enjoy.

There is a story of sorts in play, although if you are a long time comic book fan, I am sure that you will recognise this as Zenescopes’s version of Marvel’s Secret Wars!  That’s right; thanks to the grand daddy of Marvel’s event books, we get to suffer this pointless fighting comic in order to help people understand a card fighting system.  Heroes are pitted against heroes, villains are pitted against heroes; its all a little bit boring, been there and basically devalues key characters such as Robyn and Sela (that’s right, Sela!) Mathers.

This book is written by Zenescope mainstay Dave Franchini which in itself is a surprise.  Normally Franchini can be relied upon to provide a decent level of storytelling.  Here, it is practically writing by the numbers.  The setups are functionary and the dialogue looks to entrance the reader into the game.  Thing is, not everyone who reads comics is into card games and vice versa.  Even if this is the case for you, you deserve something more meaningful than this.

The art of Zenescope probably gets more negative attention than it deserves, in most cases.  However, here, the art by Eduardo Garcia, is a different kind of bad than those who oft-criticise these books.  The opening pages start off OK, but before you know, Robyn has miraculous boobs that manage to grow in size per panel and we are introduced to Prometheus…sorry I mean Legacy!  It seems that Legacy is the one holding all the >ahem< cards.  The art suffers from having no real plot; its hard for Garcia to detail those key moments, when in fact there are no such moments to be had.  Even the colors, provided by Maxflan Araujo, don’t match up to the standard I have come to expect from this range of books.  Thank god for Taylor Esposito providing his normally excellent lettering.

Cross media isn’t a new thorn in the sides of the comic industry; for every tepid PS4 Spider-Man game influenced comic book, there is the Injustice Gods Among Us comic.  One builds on both existing mediums, as in the case for Injustice, the other is just playing down to the lowest common denominator.  I for one, refuse to spend my hard earned on this insult to comic book readers.

Writing – 2.5 Stars
Art – 2.5 Stars
Colors – 3 Stars

Overall – 2.5 Stars

Written by; Dave Franchini
Art by; Eduardo Garcia
Colors by; Maxflan Araujo
Letters by; Taylor Esposito
Published by;  Zenescope Entertainment

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes
I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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