Cindy Monroe is a pretty vicious answer to the idea that getting a fairy-tale warning automatically makes someone a better person. She comes out of the early Cinderella story, b…

Cindy Monroe is a pretty vicious answer to the idea that getting a fairy-tale warning automatically makes someone a better person. She comes out of the early Cinderella story, but the warning doesn't turn her into the sort of person Sela is trying to help her become. When she returns as part of the Dark One's world, that failure has become somebody else's opportunity. There is something especially nasty about taking a character from one of those smaller stories and bringing her back into the larger conflict. Her first appearance isn't just a lesson that disappears when the issue ends. The person who made those choices still exists, and somebody much worse is willing to give her power. Fenton recruits her, and her connection to the Horde gives her access to Carnage, a magical sword. The weapon's history connects to the unicorn that Sela and Shang were trying to protect. Something they wanted to save becomes part of the equipment handed to someone who will happily hurt them. That is a fairly ugly way to bring those separate stories together. Cindy's personality matters as much as the weapon. She can seem cheerful and excited while doing something appalling. There isn't always a grand speech about conquest or revenge. Sometimes she is enjoying herself, and that casual enthusiasm makes the violence more unsettling. People around her are dealing with consequences that she treats as entertainment. It also makes her different from someone like Orcus. He has political ambitions, territory he wants, and reasons to bargain. Cindy can be used by that sort of leadership, but she brings a much more immediate appetite for destruction. Giving her a powerful weapon doesn't create restraint or judgment. It gives her more ways to act on impulses she already has. Her attack on Shang during the battle around issue fifty shows how serious a threat she has become. This is someone with a central place in Sela's life and in the defense of the realms. Cindy is involved in taking him out during a disaster that already has the defenders stretched far beyond what they can manage. The character who might initially have seemed confined to a Cinderella retelling is now doing damage to the main cast. That is the part of her early history that gives her a strong place in a discussion of the Horde. Malec doesn't need every recruit to share his entire vision. He can use someone's existing cruelty and give it a weapon, a target, and permission. Cindy is dangerous on her own, but putting her into that machinery gives the people opposing him another unpredictable problem. She has that familiar fairy-tale name, a bright personality, and a weapon called Carnage. The combination tells you quite a bit about what these comics do with familiar characters. Recognizing where she started doesn't make her safe, and it definitely doesn't tell you what she's going to do when she shows up again.