Review – Grimm Fairy Tales Presents: Robyn Hood #3

Grimm Fairy Tales Presents: Robyn Hood #3 Story By Pat Shand Art by Rob Dumo & Adam Metcalfe Covers by Stjepan Sejic, and Giuseppe Cafaro & Ylenia Dinapoli Publisher Zenescope Entertainment Released: 11/28/12 Verdict: This story continues to get better with every issue, if you weren’t sure about this book put your doubts aside already.

Grimm Fairy Tales Presents Robyn Hood from Zenescope has been a pretty interesting book. Right now there are a lot of popular archer characters in media, we’ve got Hawkeye from the Avengers, Green Arrow in the surprisingly good CW show Arrow, and we’ve got this take on the original archer/hero. If you’ve missed the first couple of issues, then you’re definitely doing yourself a disservice. Robyn isn’t your classic dude in the woods fighting the sheriff and King John. She’s a teenage girl stuck in a realm of magic, fighting King John. Robyn’s not really what you’d expect her to be, she isn’t all about stealing from the rich to give to the poor, she’s about revenge. And because of that she actually ends up objecting to the treatment of people under King John’s rule.

That was all before though, issue 3 picks up about a year after Robyn made quite an impression on the villagers, soldiers, and by extension the King himself. She’s been hiding out in Sherwood forest, lying low, waiting for a chance to strike and take down the King. In the process of that she hopes to get a way home so she can repay a certain high school douche that wronged her. One of the best parts about this character is she’s likeable, but for all the wrong reasons. She’s not funny, and charming, making witty banter with her would be attackers. She’s a loner, quiet, and fairly straight forward. But she’s got a lot of tragedy so you can see why, and that makes you like her, and want to see her win.

We’re finally getting some supporting characters too, we’ve had a handful of friendly characters, but they’re either gone within a page, or dead within a page of meeting Robyn. Now though, Robyn has people she can rely on, whether she does or not, in the form of the Merry Men. Little John, Friar Tuck, Much, and Will Scarlet, the rebels of Sherwood forest who want nothing more than to bring down King John. The introduction of Little John is probably the best, it was just a fun way to start a book that hasn’t had a ton of action yet. Other than that though, we don’t get a ton of information about the other Merry Men, I’m interested to see where Will goes though. He’s been setup as a mystery player, maybe he’s actually a double agent!

Basically what I’ve been trying to get at is, with every issue of Robyn Hood it just keeps getting better. Pat Shand is doing a superb job with this book, and I can only hope it leads to some sequels. This is just one of those books that shines on a lot of different levels, it’s funny, tragic, violent, and sad without being heavy handed or ridiculously predictable. And the art this issue by Rob Dumo and Adam Metcalfe is great. Each issue so far as had different artists so here’s hoping next time is just a good too.

I am a little curious how a girl, who has no experience in this world, and is wanted dead or alive was able to get new clothes though. You’ll notice the issue starts out with Robyn wearing what she’s had on the covers since issue one. I know she’s been out there a year, so I guess maybe she got enough coin together to buy it? Either way it was interesting, as was the fact that her PJ’s were her jeans and hoodie from when she first arrived. This book was a lot of fun to read, as I’ve already mentioned, and well worth picking it up.

Chris talks a bunch on PodQuest each week. He's also been known to write about stuff from time to time. You can Email Chris or follow Chris on Twitter @Just_Cobb or Facebook

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