Wonderland #1

There's such a wide variety of comics being published today, it's an expensive proposition to buy them all - but now and then it's fun to try a series you haven't read before.

There are quite a few of these Grimm Universe / Zenoscope comics, and I've never read any of them - so this issue of Wonderland seemed like a good place to give it a try.

Seemed like.

Judging by the covers to the issues I've seen so far, I had assumed that this series was set up to appeal in a 'Good Girl Art' / 'Bad Girl Art' way, as it takes well-known, public domain characters, adds in lots of scantily-clad supermodels, and watches the cash roll in.

Nothing in this issue indicates that I've made a mistake.

It offers almost nothing in the way of information or backstory (my recent re-reading of the original Alice in Wonderland was more help than anything here).

It focuses on two women (who I assume are descendants of the original Alice) and a new, bloody incarnation of the Mad Hatter. The women are on the run from a mysterious menace. We also get a glimpse of the Red Queen (who's - brace yourself - scarily clad).

The focus here is on the art by U. Ken Marion, and it's quite good, with a style similar to Ron Lim.

The story by Raven Gregory is pretty slim. For a first issue, it would be nice to get something in the way of backstory - all we get are the names of the two women (Calie Liddle and her daughter Violet) and that the've escaped from Wonderland. No idea who they are, what Wonderland is, why there's so much death and blood involved, or - most importantly - why we should care.

Granted, this series isn't aimed at me - and I can't judge the whole line by a single issue - but there's nothing here that urges me to add these titles to my weekly list. Seems like a missed opportunity to me.

Grade: C+

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