"Grimm Tales of Terror (Volume 3) #6" Comic Review

When young women start disappearing from the streets of New York City, conspiracy TV show host Rachel Daley comes to town to investigate. Could the urban legend about alligators living in the sewers be real? She aims to find out or die trying.

This issue of Grimm Tales of Terror grabs you with a fantastic hook. How could you not be interested in something like that? Alligators crawling through the urban setting of Manhattan, nabbing women through sewer grates? That’s terrifying. I know people that won’t even walk over those grates, regardless of how packed the sidewalk is.

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Unfortunately, that hook takes quite a long time to pay off. You get the basic information through a discussion between a couple cops. The bulk of the issue is spent with Daley as she searches for clues with her ex-boyfriend, who just so happens to be a detective on the force. They find a lead incredibly fast, especially given the fact that they’re searching through hard copies of newspapers from the 1930s. It practically falls into their laps, so it’s a little too convenient.

Everything comes together in the final few pages, but by that point, you can see where it’s going. It’s pretty obvious, so the big reveal doesn’t pack a punch. There are some tense moments as the camera crew makes its way through the tunnels beneath the city, particularly when the lights go out. That’s a situation no one wants to be in.

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These last few pages are where artist Umberto Giampa really excels. The human characters look fine and nothing is out of the ordinary there. It’s when they get into the lair in the sewers that the book takes a big leap in terror. I don’t want to spoil it, but suffice it to say that these elements could fit right in at Leatherhead’s house. They’re very ominous and speak to the length of time these creatures have been active.

Marco Lesko’s colors are a little too bright at times, especially in the sewer scenes. This negates some of the unsettling quality built by the setting and Giampa’s artwork. Shadow could have been used more effectively to help heighten the tension.

Grimm Tales of Terror continues to be a fun anthology title. This one takes a while to ramp up and when it does, it jumps to lightspeed to an ending you can see coming. You can’t deny the compelling nature of the subject matter. I just wish we got a little more with the alligators and a little less with the TV show host.