Review: Robyn Hood: The Curse #3 (of 6)

Ah California; the place where the sun shines on the angles and the demons alike.Â On a mission to help her best friend, Marian, RobynÂ seems to have been a little side-tracked, leaving her friend to wrest her own wife from the clutches of an evil monster.Â But as Robyn herself, may soon discover, not all monsters look the part!

This issue is pretty muchÂ a couples only issue, with Marian and Sam in one corner and Robyn and Gerry in the other.Â Mixed up in the mess are a couple of cops on the trail of the actual murderers that are plaguing the city.Â All three pairings have their issues to be sure and writer Chuck Dixon does well to give each some time in the book, helping to either move things forward or by setting things in motion for the final acts.

For such an industry legend like Chuck DIxon, there may be a perception that he is slumming it over on Zenescope, especially with his work still being featured by DC on the Bane Conquest maxi series.Â I find that type of thinking to be narrow-minded at best.Â Dixon, through his earlier work in the Bat universe, has proven he can write a range of characters, including strong female leads.Â Add on the proviso that Zenescope have needed more consistent writing on their books and it seemsÂ that this is a pairingÂ that can’t fail.Â True, Dixon’s Van Helsing series seemed to lose its way a tad.Â But with Robyn, Dixon has a character that can remain urban, even in the face of mysticism, and if its one thing Dixon does know, it’s urban!Â The plot moves well throughout the issue; the third issue is always a tad tricky being as it normally ends the first mini arc, before setting up the next.Â Dixon achieves both aspects well, using the couples various viewpoints as the fulcrum.

Julius Abrera provides the pencils in a solid, if mainly unspectacular way. Action panels are well covered, with the quieter scenes suffering form a mix of perception issues, lack of detail and inconsistent faces.Â Still you have to applaud Abrera’a ambition.Â The demon scenes work brilliantly, giving just enough uneasiness to proceedings, although I am not sure we need to see Marian in her underwear for her confrontation with her demon of a wife!Â From a setting point of view, we have day time and night-time; a different approach to inking may have helped accentuate some of the pencil lines, rather than going for a “one size fits all” heavy style.Â As always, with Zenescope books, the colors are fantastic and bold.Â Robby Bevard has his “A” game in place across each panel.

Robyn Hood, as a character, was probably one of my least favourite Zenescope characters, as I feel there was a lack of originality to her.Â In addition, there seemed like an awful lot of backstory to wade through.Â RecentÂ mini runs have changed my mind; sure there can be someÂ pacing problems, but with a quality writer like Dixon on board, I fully expect that those creases will be ironed out as Dixon begins to become more conversant with the Zenescope model of publishing.

Writing – 4 Stars
Art – 3 Stars
Colors – 5 Stars

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Written by: Chuck Dixon
Art by; Julius Abrera
Colors by; Robby Bevard
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