Review: Belle Annual

From Zenescope Entertainment is a large-sized one-shot, this is the Belle Annual.

Anabelle “Belle” DiMarco is many things: teacher, daughter, friend, beast hunter-- but is she ready for what comes next?! From Goblin Queens and secret organizations to Headless Horsemen, Belle has seen her fair share of deadly encounters, but has it all been building to something? As her world has expanded the walls around her have been closing in, and what she is about to take on may be too much for the legendary hero! Is she up to the task? Find out herein this epic anniversary issue!

Writer: Dave Franchini
Artwork: Igor Vitorino

A BIG issue of Belle this month and this issue gives us a lot of history of Belle's family and some closure at some points.

Belle discovers that her family has links to something bigger - a competition set by the gods, and it is linked to her mother (still alive) and her role as a beast hunter.

This annual brings together many different aspects of her life, including her evil mother, her father, her brother (still in beast form), Candlestick and more. It works out nicely with some closure in some points and some links to her recent battle with Ares - I can see that this pantheon of gods is going to be an ongoing problem.

This issue with its larger size allows us to build more on the problems Belle faces. There is the family drama, as well as the battle she will have to wage. There are some good action and fight scenes and I enjoy the way they are spread out. Rose gets some more character building and it will be interesting to see where her character leads. Hopefully, Mel will be less of a damsel in distress in later issues.

The conclusion of this issue draws a good line under some of Belle's problems, while it does tease more of the future. Nevertheless, this was a good large-sized read.