Out now from Zenescope Entertainment, this is a large sized annual from the realm of Oz. My thoughts on Oz Annual: Patchwork Girl.
Dorothy was once a young farm girl from Kansas, but it has been many years since she has been that person and even longer since she has returned to Earth. Now, residing as the queen of Oz, ruler of the Emerald City, she and her people have gone through their hardships but she has been there to protect them.
Writer: Jenna Lyn Wright
But when a magical tornado rips through a prison, bringing one of most evil of creatures to ever walk among in Oz, to a small town in our world, Dorothy and her friends must set out to protect a place she once called home. And what she will find will change the very fabric of her identity.
Artwork: Alessio Mariani, Eman Casallos,
& Dario Tallarico
The annual format allows a longer story to be told, and this is a good example of this. Building first with the problems of ruling a kingdom. Dorothy is having doubts over her choices made as a queen.
She has her advisors to help her, and they do – assuring her, that she is making the right decisions. It works well and adds some extra padding to the story. It comes good towards the end too.
Then we see the villain of the piece – I like the way that this works out, with the prison, and the fault in nature sending this evil twisted character to our earth. This is were the longer storytelling comes in. I like the background of the Patchwork Girl, the change in the art style works out well – with some nice emphasis on her power.
This all leads up nicely to an elongated battle between Dorothy and her companions and the puppets of the evil witch. It’s a longer sequence, but works well with a good break in-between to refresh. The battle was well done, and well shown with a nice showing of the puppet townsfolk. Pretty creepy.
The ending was predictable enough, but there is enough there to keep this character interesting and maybe set things up for the future….
