Zenescope Entertainment Announces Age of Darkness Official Release Schedule

Zenescope Entertainment has announced the official release schedule for the AGE OF DARKNESS titles.  The “AGE OF DARKNESS” titles are the books which have the unmistakable red AGE OF DARKNESS banner across the top. These particular titles bring together the universes of Grimm Fairy Tales for the epic release of the Grimm Fairy Tales 100th issue. Every Universe Has An End…

November 2013 Quest 1 of 5 December 2013 Code Red 1 of 5 Quest 2 of 5 January 2014 Grimm Fairy Tales 93 Code Red 2 of 5 Quest 3 of 5 Dark Queen: Age of Darkness One-shot February 2014 Grimm Fairy Tales 94 Wonderland Clash of Queens 1 of 5 Code Red 3 of 5 Quest 4 of 5 Robyn Hood: Age of Darkness One-shot March 2014 Grimm Fairy Tales 95 Neverland: Age of Darkness 1 of 4 Wonderland: Clash of Queens 2 of 5 Code Red 4 of 5 Quest 5 of 5 April 2014 Grimm Fairy Tales 96 Neverland: Age of Darkness 2 of 4 Wonderland: Clash of Queens 3 of 5 Code Red 5 of 5 Inferno: Age of Darkness One-shot May 2014 Grimm Fairy Tales 97 Grimm Fairy Tales 0: FCBD Edition Grimm Fairy Tales 2014 Annual Neverland: Age of Darkness 3 of 4 Wonderland: Clash of Queens 4 of 5 Dark One: Age of Darkness One-shot June 2014 Grimm Fairy Tales 98 Neverland: Age of Darkness 4 of 4 Wonderland: Clash of Queens 5 of 5 Wonderland 24 OZ: Age of Darkness One-shot Wonderland: Age of Darkness One-shot Godstorm: Age of Darkness One-shot July 2014 Grimm Fairy Tales 99 GRIMM FAIRY TALES 100 Grimm Fairy Tales Giant-Sized 2014 Realm War: Age of Darkness 1 of 12 Wonderland 25 Realm Knghts: Age of Darkness One-shot …to be continued.

For more information about the AGE OF DARKNESS titles, be sure to check the official Zenescope blog, or follow the updates on the Zenescope Facebook page, or Twitter feed by searching #Zenescope.

Realm Knights

With Cindy and her entourage of evil holding the United Nation hostage, only one formidable fighting force can stop them.  Enter the Realm Knights, a team of Highborns and Falsebloods, put together by the United Sates government, to bring an end to any threats that spill over from the other realms.  Written by Pat Shand, Realm Knights is a special one-shot precursor to the all-new Realm Knights mini-series coming this fall from Zenescope.

Cindy is back and she’s brought some friends.  After her run-in with the Being, Cindy is set on causing a little chaos and destruction at the United Nations, just because she can.  With the world’s security force hopelessly outmatched, the US government knows there’s only a select few who can truly stop Cindy and her comrades of chaos before they destroy any semblance of world cooperation.  Brought together by Shang, Sela, as well as Robyn, Hook, Red Riding Hood and Hecate form the new defense force known as the Realm Knights.  Now Zenescope is truly delving into the superhero genre.  It’s a team of superpowered individuals, complete with colorful uniforms and code names.  This time it’s not just a team-up due to coincidence like in Bad Girls, but they’ve all been purposefully brought together in order to combine their strengths against a common threat. It’s Zenescope’s version of the Avengers and it’s truly something spectacular to behold. 

Now we delve into one of my true loves of the comic book genres and that would be the classic superhero story.  A lot of what I liked about Bad Girls, I liked about this: the action, the team-ups, the superpowered chaos, but what really stuck out to me was just how much this story really pulled from the hero books.  This one truly delves into that genre and doesn’t try to mask it (pun intended) in any way.  Reluctantly brought together, some more so than others, they all have pasts that they would be more than happy to erase.  However, through much arguing, they finally learn how to work as a unit and bring down the evil that has leaked into the Earth realm.  That right there is the pure essence of what makes a good superhero story, or at least it does in my book.  Plus, you gotta admit that this is a much sexier version of the Avengers.  Now I’m really looking forward to the mini-series that comes out this fall.

So, I can tell you right off the bat that I wasn’t too thrilled with the artwork in this one.  Yet again, it was decided to put two different pencillers on this book, and the transition wasn’t that smooth.  The first few pages weren’t too bad, everything flowed real well and it looked crisp and clean.  But then you get to the latter half and everything seems to break down and get rather sketchy.  Things just don’t look as good and it takes away from the story a little bit.  I don’t know, perhaps I’m too much of a stickler when it comes to art, but it just didn’t look complete.  However, this is a Pat Shand story, so don’t let my negativity deter you from a well written story.

Skewing away from the horror genre, Realm Knights opens up new opportunities for more magically powered teams to spring up throughout the Zenescope universe.  I mean wouldn’t it be awesome to see Calie, Tinkerbelle and the soon to come Dorothy breaking hearts and kicking ass in their own spin-off series?  For now however, this one-shot is a great introduction into one series I’ll definitely be looking forward to in the fall.  So, go check out Realm Knights, it’s a sure fire hit that you won’t need to assemble a team to handle.  For more info on where to pick up 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 100% those of the individual reviewer.

Zenescope Entertainment Announces All-Star line-up in Realm Knights

Zenescope Entertainment has announced plans to bring together a cast of its most popular Grimm Universe characters for the upcoming mini-series which will be entitled Realm Knights. The company best known for re-telling classic stories with a unique blend of horror, tongue-in-cheek humor and great action, is bringing out its heavy hitters for this brand new four issue mini-series that teams up its fan-favorite characters such as Robyn Hood, Van Helsing, Red Riding Hood and Sela Mathers. Together the group forms the Realm Knights, a powerful modern day team of heroes that is chosen to help eliminate daunting supernatural threats against our world.

“It's a great mix of fantasy, action, horror and humor.” says writer Patrick Shand. “It's a blast to take these characters out of their separate titles and allow them to come together against common threats while also trying to get along with one other. For Grimm Fairy Tales fans, the elements will be familiar but also feel fresh and different.”

The first issue of Realm Knights is available now for pre-order in Diamond's June 2013 edition of PREVIEWS and will be released both in print and digitally in August. The #1 issue will feature covers by Anthony Spay, Marat Mychaels, Alfredo Reyes and will also include a unique “suiting up” connecting cover by Anthony Spay that will spread across all four issues of the first mini-series. For more information on Realm Knights or any other Zenescope title, visit www.zenescope.com or follow their updates on Facebook and Twitter.

Zenescope Entertainment was founded by Joe Brusha and Ralph Tedesco in 2005, and has quickly grown into one of the top comic book and graphic novel publishing companies in the world. Zenescope's Grimm Fairy Tales and subsequent spinoff series such as Wonderland, Neverland and Robyn Hood, which put a dark twist on classic fables, are some of the best-selling and longest-running original independent comic books on shelves today. Zenescope publishes and develops both original and licensed material and has worked with dozens of clients that include Discovery Channel, History Channel, CBS, Lionsgate TV, Mandalay Vision, New Line Cinema, Titmouse Studios and many others.