Alice is back in Wonderland with Alice Never After #1, the hotly anticipated return from Boom Studios and Dan Panosian. Alice Ever After, the 5 issue run, left Alice in a worse state than ever before.
In Alice Ever After, Alice needs a drug to visit Wonderland. She ends up at an asylum, where the people in charge, Mistress Hulda and Doctor Madsen, are up to no good. Despite learning that her father isn’t a very good man who wanted to keep her locked up in the asylum, Alice can still count on her sister to care for her. Edith is the one who has been trying to get Alice the help she needs. In Alice Never After #1, Edith has been to see every doctor she can find to help her sister. Alice doesn’t seem to have a grasp on reality at all anymore, spending more and more of her time in Wonderland.
Edith has run out of options and goes to see the one person she thinks can help Alice, Dr. Madsen. Little does she know, her father has also gone to the prison to visit Mistress Hulda. We know from Alice Ever After that Alice’s father is not exactly innocent when it comes to his dentistry practice, and it sounds like he isn’t visiting the prison out of the kindness of his heart, no matter what he says to his chauffeur.
Meanwhile, Alice is enjoying tea in Wonderland, until she gets curious about where the White Rabbit is always running. She starts getting lost and almost falls asleep in the middle of the woods. These few pages are absolutely stunning. You could spend minutes looking at all of the details that artist Giorgio Spalleta included. The forest is truly alive in Wonderland, and he captured every piece of it.
Thankfully, Alice finds her way out of the forest with the help of Dodo, but he tells Alice an interesting rumor. He claims that the Cheshire Cat is back, even though Alice banned him from Wonderland ages ago. Back at the palace, the rest of Alice’s friends have a present for her. They give her the dress that used to belong to the Queen of Hearts. They say that Alice is to become the new Queen of Hearts.
Alice Never After #1 picks up perfectly where Alice Ever After left off. There are so many questions still to answer. Will Alice be able to come back to reality? What will happen to Wonderland? Dan Panosian’s writing is always great, and the art from Giorgio Spalleta really brings the world to life. One aspect that I love is how different Alice looks when she’s in reality versus when she’s in Wonderland. It helps the reader to further distinguish the two worlds. The colors by Francesco Segala and the letters by Jeff Eckleberry allow the story to leap off of the page. I truly love how colorful this first issue was, and the letters made for ease of reading, especially when there was a lot of dialogue on a page. You won’t be disappointed if you pick up Alice Never After #1 from Boom Studios, in stores now.