Review by Frank Plowright

Early on in Grimm Fairy Tales battles between Sela Mathers and her opposite, Belinda, regularly featured, but as Sela became more aware and her power grew Belinda didn’t pose as much of a threat. The end of Volume Seven, though, saw her find a new ally and they attack here.

The opening story is the most ordinary to have appeared for some while. Brent Peeples renders the fantastic as mundane while failing to deliver the emotional impact and Joe Brusha’s story is an inconclusive encounter with minimal fairy tale influence.

Brusha’s better with what follows, first a story of the devil’s immortal servant and the price they paid, and then another look at the cruel Cinderella. Almost the entire volume is a matter of either introducing or reintroducing people and moving them in place for a coming conflict, and this is well handled with plenty of intrigue. Regular readers might not like the idea that the cast are now carrying the story and there’s little in the way of fairy tales, but the cast is strong and capable of standing alone.

Unfortunately, though, after considerable improvement over the previous volumes, the art declines. Semi-regular Gabriel Rearte is about the best here (sample art), and draws more pages than anyone else, but too many other artists are enthusiastic, yet below the level of quality you’d want for spending money on a graphic novel. The devil is a recurring character, drawn differently by each artist. Under other circumstances this inconsistency would irritate, but the devil appears in many forms.

The coming conflict isn’t postponed this time, and the extended final chapter sees the Dark Horde invade. There’s a clever twist concerning the source of a major dent in their plans, but it fails to live up to the promise of five realms threatened, largely because of poor art. Six different artists contribute, but their individual pages aren’t identified, so the one decent artist is dragged down with the remainder. It’s extremely puzzling as the art has been improving and one might have thought the climax to a considerable amount of plotting would be allocated to greater talents.

Change has been brought about, and how that affects everyone will play out in Volume Nine. The first eight volumes are also combined as the Grimm Fairy Tales Omnibus.