Mother and daughter: there isn’t a closer bond in many cases — which is why Zenescope’s series Wonderland can be so powerful. Wonderland is a bad place to dream. Two girls find out why. The latest issue kicks off this week, is it good?
Wonderland: Age of Darkness (Zenescope Entertainment)
This is a one-shot, which means it stands alone but also touches on the main story for those who follow it too. That means it needs to cater to two audiences, newbies and fans. The main story is simple enough, Calie Liddle and her daughter have reunited; the only problem is they can’t chill and recoup, because they are drawn into a very dangerous political game of sorts in Wonderland. The Dark Queen wants to use Calie and, because we’d all do the same, the only way to get to her is through her daughter.
I can’t say the script of this issue did much for me. The issue is basically two stories focusing in the first part on the mother and the second on the daughter. Both are sleeping on some mushrooms and god knows sleeping in Wonderland is a dangerous thing. The mother has to go face to face with a new power player of Wonderland, while the daughter faces a minion of the Dark Queen.
Yawning may be something you do reading this book.
This issue is very poorly paced. There isn’t much there. If writer Eric M. Esquivel had a list of things he needed to accomplish in this issue it’d be pretty slim. That’s unfortunate because as a one-shot you can typically do a lot when it comes to exploring characters. Here he simply introduces a new villain and progresses the plot a smidge. Beyond that there isn’t much in these 40 pages. There is an interesting point where Calie envisions how she’d rule Wonderland, and we see the pureness of her heart, but it’s fleeting.
Tentacles! I see them…
The art by Vincenzo Riccardi is good, albeit there isn’t much here for him to draw. It’s basically talking heads with some traces of character design. There are a few splash pages that aren’t splash page worthy… but they do their job at least. The man does nail facial expressions though as you always know what emotion is being conveyed no matter what.
Sexual?
Is It Good?
Overall this issue is a bit of a downer as it doesn’t achieve the heights it could. There is story progression, but the characters aren’t explored quite enough. It is neat to see how Carlie would rule, which is foreshadowing I’m sure, but overall it’s skippable..
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