Cinderella 1

Until recently, Cindy—a blood-thirsty sorority girl who has a supernatural prowess with a blade— worked as an assassin for the horde... But when she botches an important mission, the dark queen gives Cindy a task that will redefine her life.

This is the story of Cinderella.

Letting her lust for violence cloud her judgment yet again, Cindy takes out the only lead the Dark Queen had on Hades.  The Dark Queen then gives Cindy one last chance to prove her worth, hoping that this task will be her own undoing.  Cindy will have to stay focused if she hopes to complete her assignment, however all but Malec foresee her failure.

Cinderella had always been a bit of loose cannon in the Grimm Universe.  She’s constantly out causing mayhem in the name of Malec, but this time she’s finally gone too far.  The first of a three part mini-series gives us Cinderella and all of her craziness.  Now, I hate to be the Debbie-downer here, but I just couldn’t get into this one.  Pat Shand does a great job as usual with his characterization and writing talent, but I guess I just needed a bit more background in order to really grasp what was going on.  I mean, the issue opens up with Cindy cutting the throat of another woman and everyone seems to be most displeased with what just transpired.  To the casual reader of the series, that scene could mean that this girl apparently likes to kill people and her allies aren’t too happy about it, or for followers of the Grimm Universe, that’s just Cindy being Cindy.  I don’t think the scene has the kind of impact expected if you aren’t reading the other books in the Age of Darkness storyline.  So, even though Zenescope has deemed this one a launching point for new readers, you may want to pick up some of the other series with the Age of Darkness subtitle to fully grasp what’s going down.  Or, if you just want to see a cute blonde go on a murder spree, then by all means, this is definitely the one for you.

This first issue makes for a nice addendum to all of the chaos surrounding the Realm War. Readers get to see what Cindy has been up to while Sela makes her way to confront the Dark Queen. Looking back on it now, this issue could get people to pick up the rest of the Age of Darkness storyline, looking to figure out where Cindy’s story fits in to the grand scheme of things. In the end, I guess I would recommend this to those who want to delve deeper into the mythos of the Grimm Universe. You get a nice sampling of what Zenescope has to offer with its stories and a spotlight on a character who has plagued the hero throughout. So, go pick up this one in a comic shop near you. For info on where to find this issue, visit the Zenescope website, or the Zenescope Facebook page.

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