Gretel - Ben Meares

This is a story of witches. Or at least one that doesn't want to be. "Gretel" revolves around... well, Gretel (yep, the one with the brother and the witch, or at least one with the same name, also a brother and also a witch that wants to eat them... or at least their heart), a woman that became a witch hunter around three hundred years ago, after she and her brother were kidnapped (and the brother killed; back then she was just a child). Gretel was saved and then trained by a random guy with a beard and then, after she had become strong enough, started to rid the world of all those bad women of yore. However, after a while, you get tired of killing witches, and the same happened to Gretel. We find her in America, having given up on killing witches... or not exactly, because lately witches are trying to hunt her down. Why? And she has also had a vision that says her former mentor is going to be killed. Gretel will not allow this.

"Gretel" is an entertaining comic, with interesting characters (even though the bad are very bad and the good kind of bad too) and a simple but non-stop plot that never becomes boring, and keeps the reader turning the pages. It is actually so simple that sometimes one would desire a little bit more to chew on.

The only couple of downsides are a tendency for the story to travel in time that becomes a little bit too much the umpteenth time we are sent two hundred years ago for four or five pages of background, or the tendency of the story to add a lot of exposition to this. Luckily for us, the atmosphere, the darkness, the violence, the characters, more than make up for this shortcomings.

The drawing style fits perfectly the story, even if some of the strips make sometimes for difficult reading. It is clear, it develops well the action and it conveys the story perfectly. It is also attractive. However, as always, we could make a couple of commentaries around the choice of clothing of the females here, but that is not something only this comic is guilty of.

A guilty pleasure waiting to be read.

The best: the drawing style is nice; the plot, even if simple, is entertaining; acceptable action and gore

The worst: Too much jumping back in time for exposition time; the plot is sometimes too simple; the ending is a little bit abrupt

Alternatives: hmmm... "Fullmetal Alchemist", because

7/10

(English)

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the copy*