Coven 1

The scene: a moonlit night in the deep Salem woods, a group of girls roasting marshmallows around a campfire,  a group of armed, cowled men creeping through the darkness.  The girls are witches, and the men are crusaders, and all Hell is about to break loose when they come together in anything but, love and friendship.

The first issue of Coven starts out with all the action and excitement that you’ve come to know from Zenescope.  Just a few pages in, we already see a firefight, albeit lopsided between the witches and the Crusaders.  The witches put up a brave fight, but without warning or preparation they appear easy pickings for the cowled zealots searching for a particular witch, with a particular mark, who heralds the beginning of a prophecy the Crusaders are determined to keep from happening.

Everything looks to be going the way of these New Crusaders with their prize in the bag, but someone else is looking for this new Chosen one, and what Baba Yaga wants, Baba Yaga gets.  Before long she forges a dark alliance with both the Crusaders and a dark witch named Liza.  Tune in to see if playing both sides works for her.

The art team of Galindo and Bartolo deliver the goods with bright, bold visuals.  The colors are crisp and vibrant, the panel work is sharp and punches the reader in the face with stereotypical Zenescope precision.  This is a very pretty book, but the first issue doesn’t really stand out to me from the publisher’s other works.  In most cases I applaud consistency, but here I feel that Coven just doesn’t distinguish itself much from other Grimm Fairy Tales books.

The story doesn’t help.  By the end of the first issue, we don’t know anything about the chosen one other than her name, Avril Williams.  The Crusaders are either misguided zealots, or the heroes of mankind, again we don’t really see enough to gauge for sure.  Baba is of course fun, but she only gets a few pages toward the end of the issue.  Action is great, action is good, but without a sense of who the characters are, and what their all about, it is just some meaningless battles between two factions that the reader doesn’t connect with.  This book definitely has possibilities, but readers will have to wade through a couple of issues to get a sense of the story.  Hardcore Zeno-phytes will love this title, but those not in the Know might feel a little left out.

For more information on Coven or other releases from Zenescope, visit their website: Zenescope.

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.