We have another #1 this week from the good folks at Zenescope titled Wonderland: Down the Rabbit Hole. With content that takes place before Return to Wonderland, this miniseries promises to establish what you know of the Wonderland universe. That’s a bold claim. Let’s see if it’s any good.
Wonderland: Down the Rabbit Hole #1 (Zenescope Entertainment)
I again must disclaim that I am fresh to the Zenescope universe on a grand scale, so a decent portion of this doesn’t make the greatest sense. You have our gal Alice living it up in the normal world. She’s moving into her new home with her husband and kids. Life is grand.
Everything is peachy, outside of their daughter having the face of a 50 year old man.
Suddenly and inexplicably, Alice begins seeing visions of her past adversaries from the realm of Wonderland. Only visible to her, the apparitions spend some time verbally abusing our dear Alice. From that point forward, we are met with your basic “I’m not crazy”/”yeah, you’re crazy” dialogue and at least one quality surprise towards the end.
The story unfolds as you would expect a Zenescope story to unfold. The action starts because it needs to, without any real motive or trigger. The pace is a bit slow in the beginning but I have to say that by the end grab I was a bit immersed in the plot. There is a decent amount of “lunatic” paneling and dialogue which leaves you a bit confused and disoriented, albeit on purpose.
I get the concept but it still feels cluttered.
The art ranges from okay to slightly less okay. There aren’t any major travesties but at the same time I wouldn’t really praise anything I saw. The majority of the artistic information presented can be absorbed through short glimpses due to the simple paneling and bland/blank backgrounds.
4.0
- The grab at the end was fairly interesting
- Simple characters and bland backgrounds
- With so much nonsense going on, not a lot actually happens
Is It Good?
Is it good, though? No, not really. I can see it as a decent run-through of basic info that will help issue #2 present the meat, but as far as a standalone read it falls short in almost every way. The simple and boring art won’t be missed, and the majority of the written content could be summarized in two pages or less.
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