Robyn Hood: Good Enough to Make One Merry!

Cover by ebas

Reviewed by Jim Smith

“I know what they’re going to do. What they’re going to try to do.  I won’t let them.  People don’t do things to me.” (Robyn Hood)

SYNOPSIS:  In the lands of Myst a tyrant rules the city of Bree with an iron fist leaving its citizens living in fear and terror. But all hope is not lost when one man takes the first steps to finding the one person who might save them all. Meanwhile on earth Robyn has had a troubled life for many years since her mother's death. In and out of foster homes Robyn now finds herself transferred to a high class high school filled with the rich and over privileged. But when Robyn crosses one of the popular kids she will learn first hand the extent of torture they are willing to go to against those who transgressed against them.

In this fresh take on the character of Robin Hood, we find a troubled young woman from the Earth taken into the Realm of Myst to be the champion of the Kingdom of Bree. But before she can be a champion, she must first be ready to embrace this destiny.  What would get her ready?  Well, being born in the Realm of Myst, raised as a human in our world, learning to steal to survive, losing the woman she believed to be her mother, spending time in foster care, being injured in a car accident and then raped, during which the rapist stabs her eye with a piece of glass ... yeah, that would get lots of people ready for a lot of things, but to be a champion?  Well, that will be borne out in the rest of this miniseries.  With that in mind ... lets look at the good, the bad and the ugly.

THE GOOD: Dan Glasl’s penciling is amazing!  The story idea by Joe Brusha, Raven Gregory, Ralph Tedesco and Pat Shand is great.  There are several variant covers available, and all of them are amazing.

THE BAD:  This book has a little too much gratuitous violence for my tastes, especially in the three pages dedicated to Robyn’s rape.  Also, this issue serves as an origin/backstory for Robyn Hood, so it takes place mostly on Earth, with Robyn only making back to the Realm of Myst in the last two pages.  Finally, it is a miniseries, running for only six issues.  This being said, lets move on to ..

THE UGLY: The rape.  ‘nuff said.

MY TAKE:  This book is incredibly well-conceived and executed.  I downloaded the Zenecope app for my iPad, just so I could jump on issue #2.  I am looking forward to the rest of this miniseries.  

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book in exchange for this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions belong 100% to the individual reviewer, here on Earth.