Grimm Fairy Tales #39: You Have No Power Over Me

The “What Lies Within” arc continues in Grimm Fairy Tales #39, a curiously confined issue that leans heavily on the connected universe to thrust Skye into an all new realm-jumping adventure that threatens once again to be more than she can handle.

In the previous issue, we found Skye at the Arcane Acre dealing with a mysterious book and an evil presence that felt poised to get out of hand quickly. Now, it spirals further out of control in this issue, taking the story for an action-packed ride right inside the Arcane Acre. This offers a wonderful opportunity to explore the connected universe, even bringing in a personal favorite character Jasmine for a guest appearance!

Coming off of the rather expansive arc that ended in Grimm Fairy Tales #38, I’ve really enjoyed the more straightforward direction the series has taken. Skye’s characterization is still humorous and she brings a lot of fun into just about every story. The concern with this arc so far, although it is just two issues in, is the lack of context provided surrounded this mysteriously evil shadow entity coming from the book and claiming to have imprisoned Shang. For followers of the connected universe, this will be an even more interesting point considering Shang is currently trapped in the Myst with none other than Mulan. There are quite a few moving pieces, but it’s still not overly complex.

Abrera delivers some mostly enjoyable art aside from just an occasional panel of skewed anatomy. The action-packed sequences help to keep the pace quick and the layouts are easy to follow. It’s a simple story but the mystery present adds depth and the visuals bring those layers out in some impressive ways. Once again, Zenescope makes a great decision in bringing in Esposito to help bring clarity to the action and dialogue alike. It’s a great example of how lettering can take a book that’s pretty good and make it a lot better.

Grimm Fairy Tales appears to be delving into unknown territory with issue #39 and even does some great things in bringing together the connected universe. I would have loved to see Jasmine take more of center stage as opposed to Sam, who has had much more development, but it’s still something that fans can sit down with and really enjoy.