Belle is Targeted Prey

Belle is Targeted Prey

Zenescope Entertainment 2020

Written by Dave Franchini

Illustrated by Julius Abrera

Coloured by Juan Manuel Rodriguez

Lettered by Kurt Hathaway

Belle’s life is far from normal, and she knows that, with life hunting and fighting mythical beasts, protecting the world from the darkest secrets they can’t handle. But what happens when the hunter becomes the hunted? Belle is going to find out, as she has made it to the top of the list of one of the deadliest beings to ever exist, and they won’t be coming alone. Don’t miss this adrenaline soaked story like you have never seen before!

Belle is one of my absolute favourite characters and she’s really become someone that we want to see more of and she is flawed like the rest of us and knows it. Yet somehow with that she is able to overcome her fears and actually put up a good fight. She is totally underestimated and she still has a lot to learn and honestly I feel that one day she’s going to be feared for her prowess. This is almost what I feel is a more effective Huntress than over at her company and that my friends is saying something.

I adore the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is extremely well presented. I think when we start off in the middle of something and have to play catch-up it inherently adds this whole desire to know what is going on. This means we’re not going anywhere and instead we have to see this through to the last page. Dave does this extremely well. The character development is sensational, granted I want to see Belle grow more faster it’s a process. I mean she’s on her own now and life lessons should very well hit hard and fast. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the full story as well as the twists and turns along the way it takes us on that wooden roller coaster ride.

I like seeing how this is being structured and how the layers within the story that have been here throughout all these one shots remains strong it’s impressive. Equally impressive is seeing how everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow. I am a huge fan of Dave’s writing and I cannot wait till we start getting more than one shots.

I love the interiors here. The linework is strong, confident and seeing the varying weights being utilised to showcase the detail work is utterly spectacular. The utilisation of backgrounds is sometimes great and sometimes meh I know that fighting on a rooftop is hard but I really don’t enjoy blank backgrounds. The creativity and imagination that is on display is phenomenal and these opponents she fights are insane in membrane! The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The colour work is beautifully rendered. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is really extremely well done.

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This is one of those books where you don’t want it to end. Of all the women in the Zenescope Universe I think Belle is the one that has taken me by the surprise the most. She has a near familiar background and it so incredibly easy to relate to her in so many levels. Plus she has trust issues and with what she’s been thought, that we’ve seen, she every reason for that. I am waiting, impatiently I might add, for her to grow to a point where she learns more about fighting, more about looking for clues and doing detective work. She can’t rely upon Mel all the time so I want to see more from her. That I am so invested in this character that I want this for her should tell you everything you need to know about how well she is being fleshed out as a woman.