I have a bitter-sweet relationship with Myths & Legends, I want to like it… but usually don’t. When the second story line kicked off for the series I had already checked out. In fact I didn’t stick around to figure out how the first story line even ended. But after being stuck on a plane for several hours I was desperate to read anything and thus I gave a lot of titles that I usually don’t read a chance. I can only describe this story arc as The Little Mermaid with a superhero godmother. I’m not sure who the character is, but she’s dressed like a superhero and she’s hot on Esmeralda’s trail. Unfortunately, when she dives under the sea (pun intended) she’s on Esmeralda’s turf. After being captured she’s privy to the secret origin of Esmeralda. Once she was a human that fell in love with the god of the sea. They raised a family, but then one day her husband’s true wife came and killed her children and cursed her to her octopus form.

The story was entertaining and even though I came in on the last issue of the story arc, I didn’t feel that lost. Sure I don’t know who this superhero chick is, or why Ariel was trying to kill her birth parents, but I enjoyed it never the less. Esmeralda’s back story was interesting and different. It was also very tragic which makes you feel for the character rather than just writing her off as a typical villain. Raven Gregory’s writing for the issue was very good and in general his storytelling has improved over the past year.

What was truly impressive about this book was the interior art. Sure Zenescope is known for its amazing covers, but a lot of the times the interior was nothing to brag about. Lately though, they’ve found some up and coming talent for their titles. A sexy octo-lady is not exactly something you have on your list to see, but you might want to add after looking at this book. There was a large art team on this book with probably helped the book come out on time, but all three artists keep a very consistent style. For the most part it looks like one artist, with the exception of the close-ups on the characters.

It may sound strange to recommend the end of a story arc, but that’s what I’m going to do. I really can’t say that it’s important to read every issue since you can more than likely read just the first issue and last. I didn’t get the impression that a lot happened in-between. The next story arc is “Beauty and the Beast” which looked more like a follow-up to Red Riding Hood than anything else. At the very least I’ll check it out on good faith from this issue though.

Score: 3/5

Story: Raven Gregory, Joe Brusha and Ralph Tedesco Artist: Matt Triano, Marlin Shoop and Ca Gutierrez Publisher: Zenescope Entertainment Price: $2.99 Release Date: 1/4/12