Grimm Fairy Tales Myths & Legends Quarterly: Prophecy

Grimm Fairy Tales Myths & Legends: Prophecy

Written by Joe Brusha

Illustrated by Julius Abrera

Coloured by Grostieta & Vinicius Andrade

Lettered by Taylor Esposito

Mary Medina’s powers over the dead have always been shrouded in mystery. In her secret identity as Mystere she has tried to use them for good even as evil forces have sought to corrupt her. With every new threat against her she falls closer to the darkness and when a new threat emerges she’ll have to uncover the secrets of her past to save her future.

This is another one-shot that would have greatly benefited from being a four issue limited series. There are too many times I feel like we rushed through something or it got glossed over. It just feels disjointed at times. Which is a shame too because the bones of this story are strong, it just needs a better hand to flesh out the body.

I was grabbed by the opening, that fresco painting is something to behold (even if Mary looks 10 years older than she is). It made me want to see what was inside the issue that’s for sure. There is something about the idea here that really piques the curiosity and how Mary and Will’s lives are intertwined and affected by what we see. The ramifications of what this issue has on these two characters is something that I’m really going to enjoy seeing play out.

Overall I like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information are presented fairly well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances does wonders with their personalities. The pacing is great and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story it leaves wishing we’d see more.

The way that we see this being structured is solid and how the layers within emerge, grow and evolve are nicely rendered. The layers within the story open up avenues to be explored while we don’t see enough explored; they do manage to add some nice depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are handled extremely well.

That fresco is amazing, the pinup pages are utterly amazing and the detail within the work we see put into the use of their abilities is sensational to see. I’m loving how we see faces, facial expressions and body language throughout as well. How we see backgrounds being used to enhance and expand the moments as well as how they work within the composition of the panels bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show such an amazing eye for how colour works. The weathering on the fresco, the colours in Mama Cal, the walls or carpet in that abandoned house all these moments and more really shine because of how we see the colour applied.

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There is so much going on here and I wish we’d had a chance to see more of that explored. The bombshell of her darker side and why folks tend to fear her, what her friends from school think of all this, does she even talk to them anymore, are any of them still alive? Some answers and so many more questions come to light. Maybe we need a two-part seventy-two pages each set to tell a story. Something that really allows us the opportunity into Mary’s life further because the more we learn the more we want to see. The writing is good, the interiors are amazing. The darkness is no longer coming because it’s already here.