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Briar Rose and her party of misfits continue their journey towards revenge! The evil fairy Godmother Grendrid, now Queen, forces the adventurers into a perilous land of traps, all while Briar and her friends take up odd jobs to pay for food and supplies. When Briar comes to realize that her quest will cause innocent casualties along the way, she’ll question whether or not she is herself a curse on her homeland.
- Written by Christopher Cantwell
- Illustrated by Alex Lins
- Colors by Luis NCT & Mar Silvestre
- Letters by AndWorld Design
- Published by BOOM! Studios
The Fairytale of Briar Rose
For those that don’t know, Briar Rose is Sleeping Beauty. This story is about what would have happened if her her true love never actually kissed her and dispelled her curse, but instead used this as a way to steal the throne. When she finally awakes, the world is a very different place and everyone she knows is dead. After exploring and meeting new people, Briar finds herself with new friends, all dedicated to helping her face her Evil Fairy Godmother Grendrid, the one responsible for her curse of sleep in the first place.
Briar and The Crew Ride Again!
Issue 5 opens with Briar and her mates retrieving a very sad looking cow from a couple of thieves to return to its owner. It’s a great opening scene full of comedy in the right moments that really bring on a good chuckle. When they return the cow to the owner he only agrees to pay a portion of the reward because he claims its “constipated”. Briar agrees to remedy that and it’s off to the tavern with coins in hand.
At the tavern we good a lot of good dialogue between the members of this adventure party. The discuss how much longer they have to do odd jobs to have enough money to continue their real journey. It’s obvious that they are struggling in this process. As they discuss what direction to proceed, each one brings up their concerns and suggestions, and of course they end up choosing one of the more perilous of the options, due to a lack of resistance along the way.
Once they begin, they’re stopped outside of town by the law claiming that they were causing trouble, and were under arrest for stealing a cow. Tensions rise as they protest and a fight ensues. It’s her that the stakes get raised as Spider accidentally kills one of them. It turns out she was just a young girl. It really effects Briar and once they finally flee, she questions her goals. Grendrid haunts her dreams, placing the seeds of doubt and fear her mind, and the death of the young girl furthers that feeling in Briar. It’s really a great trial for her character and I’m excited to see how she overcomes it.
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New Adventures in Art for Briar!
Briar gets a new art team for issue 5 and yet it continues to be excellent. Alex Lins’ style lends really well to a fairytale, Dungeons and Dragons style of story. It’s fantastic to see them swinging swords, stuffing their mouths with food and ale, and the nature scenes are a thing of beauty. The colors from Luis NCT and Mar Silvestre bring a natural feel to world. Colors feels so accurate to nature, lots of earthy tones. In contrast, they play with a lot of bright, rich colors in the background that bring a real since of magic to the world.
Everything Points to 8.5/10
I’ve been on this book since the first issue and it hasn’t managed to lose my interest yet. Issue 5 is the beginning of new chapter of Briar’s overall story arc, so new settings and situations are being established. That can sometimes make for slow pacing, but the dialogue between Briar’s friends feels real and authentic. What really surprised me this issue was the well times jokes. I found so many moments to be hilarious, all while not losing the serious tone in the background of this story. This a story that absolutely grabs you and keeps you in the moment, while still building something larger in the background. I love it and I can’t wait to see what happens to this merry band of misfits going forward!
