Madness of Wonderland #2 & #3

 Warning: There may be spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk!

         

 As the investigation of the bizarre murder continues, agents connected to the case keep winding up dead.  Now Detective Legrasse must delve even deeper into Lovecraft’s journal in order to put this case to rest.  However, a spectre from her past begins to haunt her and a man thought dead leaves signs of his return.  The madness continues in these next two installments of the new Wonderland spin-off by Dan Wickline. 

So, I think it’s safe to say that you never want to get involved with anything even remotely related to the Liddle family.  Something Emma Legrasse is finding out all too quickly as other agents investigating the murder case that started all of the current craziness, begin to get picked off one-by-one.  Not only that, but she keeps reliving her traumatizing past, bringing up old emotions and pain that would not deem a normal police officer fit for active duty.  Somehow, Emma has been able to suppress all of those feelings throughout her life and only now having them well up during this strange investigation.  Obviously a strong willed girl, otherwise she would’ve lost it a long time ago having to deal with so many murders for all these years. 

The one big mystery though is how Lovecraft’s journal ties into all of this exactly.  Sure, the markings on the victim might have something to do with it, but if Legrasse is the only one that has the journal, who else would know about it?  Question upon question piles up across these issues, which will hopefully be answered by the conclusion to this mini-series with the next issue.  This is looking to be something great. 

 Dan Wickline is putting together quite the wonderful mystery here.  What with a quick appearance by a character we all thought dead and little hints divulged from Lovecraft’s journal, it’s certainly shaping into a series I just can’t put down.  It even has me trying to figure who this mystery killer is.  Each issue has me thinking I’ve finally figured it out and then something else surfaces that debunks my theory.  Good mysteries are hard to come by these days, at least ones that really get me thinking, so for the fact that I have no clue who’s killing everyone, I’m really looking forward to the last issue.

               

 Now, my only beef I had to do with issue three.  The art just fell short in my opinion.  It seemed flat and unemotive compared to Reine Rosenberg’s work on the second issue.  I mean when you compare the agent getting killed in issue two to the one in issue three, you just don’t get the sense that Agent Anders is feeling her life slip away as much as Nicole the medical examiner did.  Oscar

Celestini did great with the Lovecraft flashback shots in both issues, but I just didn’t feel it with Puste.

So, now this series is starting to wind down, but not before a few more wrenches are thrown into the works.  I can’t say enough how much I’m enjoying Mr. Wickline’s work on this series and really can’t wait for the big reveal.  If that’s not motivation enough to go grab these two issues then you must be mad!  Believe me when I say, Madness of Wonderland does not disappoint.  For more info on where to find these issues, visit the Zenescope website, or the Zenescope Facebook page.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of these books for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.