The Wishful Walk

"The Wishful Walk" is the third issue of the Marvel Comics serial for Beauty and the Beast.
==Summary==
"When Belle decides to go for a walk on the castle grounds, will the Beast join her or will his bestial side keep him in the dark castle? In town, a line of women has formed to take Gaston up on his proposal of marriage; is Belle one of them?
==Synopsis==
The morning following the events of Madame de la Grande Bouche's birthday, the castle household's senior staff, (Cogsworth, Lumiere & Mrs. Potts), start to discuss as to how to bring their Master the Beast & Belle together and break the spell on the castle; and meanwhile, upstairs in his quarters in the West Wing, their master, the Beast is wallowing in the dispair and the fear that he would never be able to catch Belle's affections.
Belle comes down the main staircase, about to step out onto the ground for a walk when Chip and the senior staff spot her and, feeling that getting their master and Belle to spend some time together might help, each try talk her out of going by herself, but she assures them that she just going out for som fresh air, and that she won't go far or be out for long. While Belle steps out, the senior staff puzzle as to how they can get the two together--and Chip asks why not simply tell the Beast that Belle has gone out for a walk, so that maybe he'll want to go out too?
Meanwhile, down in the Village square, a large crowd of eligible girls (including the Bimbette Triplets) stand waiting, admiring Gaston, while they await his decision on who will be his wife. LeFou points this out, and Gaston's response to all of the attention they're all paying him is "And why shouldn't they? But where is Belle?" Laurette, (the Bimbette Triplet dressed in amber colors), plots behind her sisters back to get Gaston all to herself by disguising herself as Belle using a wig and a purloined change of Belle's clothes.
Back up at the castle, the Beast is still mopeing in his quarters when the senior staff and Chip come in and try to 'encourage' him on what a good idea it would be for him to go out for a walk. None of their encouragements work—until Chip simply mentions that Belle is currently out taking a walk, (for which the Beast demands to know why they hadn't simply said that in the first place). The senior staff each try to advise the Beast on how to behave, which only causes him to snap at them, and they point out his temper.
Down in the village square, Gaston barrates LeFou for his 'hair-brained ideas', having waited all day and seen no sign of Belle. LeFou tries to talk him into choosing from the girls present, but Gaston won't be persuaded. Lifting LeFou above the crowd of girls, Gaston orders him to see is he can spot Belle amongst the assemble girls, and LeFou spots Laurette-as-Belle and points her out to Gaston.
Up in the castle's garden grounds, Belle is revelling in being out in the fresh air after being cooped-up in the castle; and unbeknownst to her, Belle is being spied upon by the Beast from behind a tree. An inadvertent noise from the Beast (whilst shooing a way a bird) draws Belle's attention towards the tree the Beast is hiding behind and steps over to investigate, and while the Beast tries to avoid being caught out, the accidentally bump into each other. Belle apologises, but the Beast unthinkedly snaps at her to watch where she's going; Belle points out the he was the one lurking behind trees in the first place, and the Beast retorts that she can't talk to him like that; Belle responds that, Master of the Castle or not, he can't just go around growling at people for no reason. Watching the whole scene up from within the castle through a window, the senior staff are at a loss as to what to do next.
Down in the village square, all of the assembled girls, all in a line, walking past Gaston as he stands by the village square's fountain, only for him to reject them one-by-one, until it's Laurette-as-Belle's turn. Gaston greets Laurette-as-Belle as she walks forward, and tells LeFou that since Belle has been 'playing hard to get', he's going to toy with her first before he pronounces her as the winner of the 'wife auction' and his future wife. After questioning her being giving the answers he wants to hear, Gaston declares 'Belle' the winner—only for Claudette and Paulette (the Bimbette Triplet dressed in red and green colors respectively) to reach forward and grab at Laurette-as-Belle to pull her away from Gaston, only to tear away the wig and the dress Laurette was wearing over her own, inadvertently exposing her ruse. Fustrated, Gaston takes out his anger on LeFou when he makes a stupid, ill-timed comment.
Back up at the castle gardens, Belle, seeing just how depressed the Beast looks now, decides to give him another chance, at which the Beast not really knowing how to respond, recalls the senior staff earlier advice, apologises for his earlier behavior and asks if he could accompany her on the rest of her walk, to which Belle accepts. With the earlier tension broken, the Beast is able to enjoy the time outside with Belle, and even enjoy the serenading birdsong with her, to the relief and delight of the senior staff.
Back down at the village, in Gaston's Tavern, Gaston fumes over being foiled again on getting his hands on Belle, declaring that "Nobody says 'no' to [him]"; LeFou's attempts to appease Gaston only serve to make angrier—until he starts appealing to Gaston's ego. Stoked-up again, Gaston convinces himself that Belle simply must not have known about his wedding plans, and that he'll still marry her, "if it's the last thing [he does]."
==Trivia==
* Although most issues feature the village as a side story to the main story, this is the only comic to effectively focus on the village as the primary story, due to the cover focusing on the possibility of Gaston actually winning "Belle's" hand in marriage, and also the comic ending with the village tavern.
** On a related note, the solicitation for this issue included in Issue 2 implied that the servants somehow were aware of Belle potentially being one of the village maidens seeking Gaston's hand in marriage, but the issue itself doesn't have the servants interacting in any way with the villagers.
* The ending of the comic suggests the time period of the events of that comic to be around the time of Something There.
**The ending of the comic has Gaston and LeFou exchanging similar dialogue to the beginning of the Gaston song from the film.
* The Tavern in the ending is erroneously depicted as the Café.
*Ironically, besides Laurette disguising herself flawlessly as Belle enough to fool her sisters and Gaston, there was at least one other woman who looked like Belle in the first page of the village segment, conflicting with the claim that Belle's looks were unparalled in the original film.:File:NovemberIssue_006.jpg
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Category:Beauty and the Beast
Category:Comic stories
Category:Beauty and the Beast books