Every month Warlord of OZ out does itself. Issue 5 holds pivotal plotline that you will surely not want to miss. If I had any doubts about this arc they are washed away with this month’s adventure. I thought at first, the writers wouldn’t be able to cram an epic story with a resolution into just 6 issues but now I see I was so wrong. And we still have one more month to go with this arc. A lot of the questions I had going into this series are answered in this issue. Like, why Dorothy was even sent back to Oz in the first place and what happened to Glinda? It seems though that things are headed for an ugly turn for Dorothy and even though I’m hopeful I don’t see how she will be able to prevail with the evil Zamora awakened.
Last month I was hoping to see more of Thora and Tin and I finally got it. I’m stilling feeling like Tin might not be so keen on being evil. I think we will see tables turn before the end. While Thora and Tin are in cahoots with Warlord awakening Zamora, Throne is plotting to save his family from one of the sites. Issue 5 is one of the more tragic issues of the arc and I don’t want to spoil everything, but you should definitely see why.
Spoilers Ahead!
Dorothy and Smynth are on their way to Zamora’s burial grounds when Dorothy attacks an ally. Smynth encourages her to heal the beast and though she doubts herself she is able to restore him. Then Smynth turns into a giant beast and carries Dorothy to the burial grounds. And this is where I was totally caught off guard. Smynth betrays Dorothy and hands her over to Thora. That’s when Dorothy learns why she is in OZ. Thora informs Dorothy that they need her to finish the ritual. And then the issue concludes with Zamora saying “my prodigal daughter.” Like whoa back up a second, did she really say “daughter”? I was really not expecting that. There better be some explanation coming. But holy shit they know how to end an issue, right?
I really enjoyed the usage of space in the illustrations this month. The opening scene was a pentagram but it was used as the panels so the reader could see multiple scenes at once. The colors this issue seemed more creative than last. Not to say that they weren’t good then, but I really liked this month’s. The color seemed richer and brighter which bought out the dark magical side of Oz.
Score: 5/5
Writers: Jeff Massey Artist: Miguel Mendonca Colorist: Grostieta Publisher: Zenescope Entertainment Price: $3.99 Release Date: 9/24/2014 Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital