Mel (Epic Reading)'s Reviews > Belle: Beast Hunter

This was very different from what I was expecting. Grimm Fairy Tales from Zenescope tend to me totally bizarre takes on the classic fairy tales; and all their women are busty and kick-ass, yet Belle was not at all like the Belle I know. Not only is this Belle a warrior, she's a tough girl who is not afraid of monsters. Sadly there is no real reference to her liking books either though. I think that is what I missed the most here was finding at least one common Belle personality trait that I could connect with the original stories or Disney version (because let's face it we all instantly see Disney's incarnation when we think of Belle). All that made this really just feel like another warrior fighting book.

Story
What was nice here was we are seeing Belle right from the beginning of her story towards being a fighter. I did appreciate the backstory and the transformation in the art of Belle getting her fighting outfit and taming her hair to make it more manageable when she has a sword in hand.
There is a twist at the end that I didn't really see coming; but it was clear something was going to be quite different about this version of Beast. The last comic in the collection, of course, leaves the door wide-open for more Belle stories; and/or for Belle to join the league of ladies that fight in the Grimm Fairy Tales universe.
I should recognize that Belle has never been my favourite fairy tale princess. This may have played a part on how much I liked this one. I wouldn't be sad to see Belle join our main girls in a large universe battle; but if they left her out that'd be okay too. The art was wonderful here, as always with Zenescope. I really appreciated the time and energy that went into Belle's hair and Beast's fur. The detail is really great, and of a high value like all Zenescope art.

Overall
In all not bad, but not mind-blowing. I think Grimm has much better characters (Robyn Hood is my favourite) to follow along with; but if you just want some classic Zenescope busty girl fighting you will find it here. This collection does still make it to my Zenescope print shelf; mostly because I don't like reading comics/graphic novels on tablets or computers so far (maybe if I had a high-rez tablet that was the same size as a comic book page... maybe).