Fables #140 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Steve Leialoha (art), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Never get in the way of a cat-and-dog fight, unless you want to get bitten.

The Review: I almost decided against writing a review for this issue, so turned off was I by its predecessor and so disgusted by its lazy execution. But then I remembered that part of a critic’s job is to grapple with the trash with as much vigor as he revels among the gems. “Trash” is a harsh word, I admit, but keeping in mind that I rarely throw those kinds of insults around, it’s one I think is entirely appropriate for describing the quality of this issue.

I actually don’t think Willingham would disagree with me, either. At one point, Danny Boy reminds the others about the danger of the Brochan Weir, “He cannot be killed. Except by a creature called No Man, who’ll come ages in the future to slay him at a crossroads.” Anyone who’s read The Return of the King knows exactly how this particular plotline would turn out. It doesn’t take, as it does for Briar Rose, “decades of badly written television” or training “by a legion of hacks to always look for the obvious twist.” But doesn’t the fact that things play out exactly as she guesses suggest that this, too, is “badly written,” “obvious twist” by a hack?

Fables #139 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Steve Leialoha (art), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Oh, Danny Boy, the groupies are calling…

The Review: I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’ve reviewed Fables for nearly three years, which is a ghastly sort of time commitment to a venture which yields almost no profit whatsoever. But the enduring power of this series is truly a testament to its consistency. Though I have yet to read a truly extraordinary issue of Fables, nearly every issue has been well-crafted—at least, they’ve always given me something to talk about.

It’s impossible for any title to not have its duds, though, and this arc seems from the start to be one of those. Willingham started on the right note by featuring the Fabletown band, a collection of the most musically gifted Fables: Baby Joe Shepherd (drums), Peter Piper (flute), Briar Rose (guitar/vocals), Seamus McGuire (harp), and Puss in Boots (fiddle).* Had Willingham taken the band on some wild, silly adventure that involved travel by van/bus to a gig of expectedly unexpected danger, this could very well have turned into a very fun break from the main Fables narrative.

Fables #126 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Mark Buckingham (pencils), Steve Leialoha & Andrew Pepoy (inks), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: On the bright side, Snow has a husband willing to wait centuries to get to third base.

The Review: Although soap operas rightfully deserve all the jokes about their various and sundry clichés now, there’s a reason why they continue to have a place in our world, whether you’re talking about our American offerings, your Mexican telenovelas, or Asian dramas.  It’s all about their total fearlessness (or utter lack of taste—call it what you will) when it comes to throwing in plot twists that can upend the entire storyline up to that point.

Such was the case with the last-page revelation we got last issue.  Discovering heretofore unknown spouses is basically the bread and butter of your average soap, no?  Here, however, the nature of Snow’s “marriage” to Holt (or Brandish) is a little more questionable than we were initially led to believe, though Holt takes a rather stunted view of things: “[A] ceremony is meaningless in the high law of our land.  The promise is all that matters.”

Fables #125 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Mark Buckingham (pencils), Steve Leialoha (inks), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Lord help the pedestrian in the way when Bigby learns to drive stick-shift.

The Review: Being a latecomer to the Fables mythos, I probably don’t have as profound an appreciation for its characters and continuity as I should.  It’s hard to get the real flavor of anything from Wiki summaries alone.  Bu that doesn’t make me any less interested in an arc focused on Snow White.  Given Bigby’s more active personality, Snow can get a little sidelined, so it’s good to shift the focus on the only real contender for Fables’ female lead.

At first, you might be misled into thinking that Bigby’s search for their children will take center stage in this arc.  That kind of quest does seem like the more exciting kind of stuff, after all, and once you add Stinky the Badger for a road trip buddy and the promise of Bigby learning to drive a car (a “terrible day,” Ambrose recalls in his future writings), well—that’s about all you can ask for, right?  Besides, we know from #121 that Bigby’s quest will prove fruitless, so actually finding his kids won’t be the outcome of his story.

Fairest #6 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Phil Jimenez (pencils), Andy Lanning & Andrew Pepoy (inks), Andrew Dalhouse (colors)

The Story: It doesn’t take a genius to realize this Briar Rose can make you bleed.

The Review: A lot of what Fables is about has been taking the childish notions of the original fairy tales and holding them up to the light of current understanding.  We remain endlessly fascinated by these characters because they have all the means and knowledge to operate by modern standards, yet they’re still restricted, even frustrated, by their own essential natures, which were often crafted from superstition, ignorance, and wishful thinking.

Is it any wonder then that Briar Rose finds herself constantly disappointed by her failure to find true love, despite supposedly blessed with a magical guarantee of it?  Of course, she discovers along with her fairy godmothers that the definition of love, even true love, is a whole lot broader than any of them could have expected.  Panghammer’s ridiculous metaphors (“Waking you with true love’s kiss just means someone got the cake recipe right and successfully baked a very lovely, incredibly tasty cake.”) aside, Briar learns the kind of love she wants has to be earned.

Fairest #5 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Phil Jimenez & Steve Sadowski (pencils), Andy Lanning & Andrew Pepoy (inks), Andrew Dalhouse (colors)

The Story: Ladies, you are two bikinis and some mud away from a showdown of a lifetime.

The Review: We’re all still nerds here, right?  Does anyone know Mugen, that thing on YouTube where people would pit characters from various games and shows and see who would come out on top?  There’s nothing scientific to these things; it’s just a bunch of geeks playing out the most random speculations (“Wolverine versus Paine, Berserker Dressphere, from Final Fantasy X-II—who would win?”) to absolutely no point whatsoever.  Pure nerdery for its own sake.

If you get a big kick out of this issue, certainly far more than you did from any issue prior, it most likely has everything to do with seeing the Snow Queen face off against the great faerie Hadeon.  It definitely has that flavor of fantasy fulfillment—something which Fables does a lot, come to think of it.  It is never not enjoyable/hilarious watching two figures from fairy tale classics get all Rambo on each other.

Fairest #4 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Phil Jimenez & Steve Sadowski (pencils), Andy Lanning & Andrew Pepoy (inks), Andrew Dalhouse (colors)

The Story: A fairy tale who loves fairy tales.  A bit incestuous if you ask me.

The Review: Since Willingham is at bottom a talented writer with a lot of vision, I’m willing to believe he intended all along for Lumi the Snow Queen to assert herself as the central figure of this story.  But to me it feels more like one of those slow evolutions in the story itself, where Willingham found something that was really working—because honestly, much of this series so far has not—and let it grow.

This issue’s opening scene highlights just how diminished Ali Baba and Briar Rose’s presences have become, with Ali acting more like a featured distraction and Rose physically absent altogether.  Ali’s not even much interesting as a distraction either; most of his dialogue involves a lot of decidedly un-princelike whining, which does nothing for his already minimal personality.  Otherwise, you might be more interested that between the two women he kissed in the debut, it may not be Rose he’s meant to end up with (according to Jonah’s thus far reliable prognosis).

Fairest #3 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Phil Jiminez (pencils), Andy Lanning & Mark Farmer (inks), Andrew Dalhouse (colors)

The Story: You’re never too old—or tyrannical—for a good story.

The Review: Three months into this series’ run, it’s still not clear what role it’s meant to serve in the grand scheme of the Fables universe.  Though ostensibly a showcase for the most attractive individuals fairy tales have to offer, this doesn’t seem quite enough to support an entire ongoing.  As a supplement to Fables proper, it hasn’t quite established how closely it intends to tie in with the events of its sister title.  In short, you really don’t know what to make of this book.

The first couple issues definitely gave you no help in figuring any of this out.  The plot has largely meandered, switching suddenly from Ali Baba’s hustling adventures to a random retelling of Sleeping Beauty.  We haven’t really gotten to know any of our protagonists to like them very much—assuming they’re likable in the first place (I’m looking at you, Panghammer).  And although the return of the Snow Queen, one of the major Fables villains, suggests bigger stakes than what we’ve seen, we’ve gotten little sense of danger or tension.

Fairest #2 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (writer), Phil Jiminez (penciller), Andy Lanning (inker), Andrew Dalhouse (colorist)

The Story: Sleeping Beauty, you say “We’ll have to snuggle” like it’s a bad thing.

The Review: When you have a successful series, it’s natural to start thinking of spin-off opportunities.  After all, more of a good thing is always a good thing, right?  In mainstream comics, all you need is that one big hit or a character gets some sudden, widespread attention, and before you know it, you suddenly have four Deadpool titles on the stands.  Only afterwards does anybody consider whether there’s even enough material to spread that thin.

No one can deny that Fables easily ranks among Vertigo’s most popular and successful titles.  And as I’ve mentioned any number of times, the series has plenty of characters and stories to draw upon.  In theory, a second ongoing series from the property sounds like a very good idea, particularly since Jack of Fables was such a hit on its own right.

I’m just not so sure one featuring the many princesses and princes of legend has quite the same zing to it.  Jack Horner has such a complicated, twisted personality and history that Willingham can pretty much write him forever and never run out of new things to discover.  Our “fairest” folk, on the other hand, are pretty well-known to begin with and while they’ve revealed edgier sides to themselves in Fables, they make better ensemble characters than protagonists.

Like her fellow princesses, Briar Rose is more than just a pretty face, but so far she seems like an amalgamation of all the traits her peers possess: a little toughness (“I can run you into the ground on my worst day!”), a little sassiness (“Don’t get fresh.”), and a little thoughtfulness (“…if we don’t do more to get warm it won’t matter if she’s the one who gets us.  We’ll be just as dead.”).  In other words, she doesn’t feel flat as a character, but she’s just not all that striking in any way.  Her co-lead, Ali Baba, isn’t much more personable, but he proves surprisingly sensitive here.  To Rose: “[You’re] not my property.  I don’t treat women that way, nor anyone else for that matter.”  Despite this, neither he nor Rose can manage more than a rather tired, begrudging chemistry,

Fairest #1 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (writer), Phil Jiminez (penciller), Andy Lanning (inker), Andrew Dalhouse (colorist)

The Story: Hustlin’ ain’t an easy biz, even for the Prince of Thieves.

The Review: I’ve said this at least once, that Fables just has so much going on at any one time, with so many different characters in all manner of places, that it just doesn’t seem like one title can contain them all.  This series is no stranger to spin-offs, what with Jack of Fables being a successful ongoing in its own right, as well as the highly popular Cinderella minis.  A showcase title of all the non-principal Fables, however, has been long past due.

Now, taking Fairest on its face—judging by its cover, if you will—it’d be a stretch to predict whether this series will serve as that showcase.  Not that there’s anything wrong with a title of featuring all the lovely ladies (and gentlemen) from the Fables canon; as a lover of the original Kingdom Hearts, I can’t help feeling fascinated with the idea of seeing all these good-looking people, stars in their original incarnations, learn to live in peace and humility with each other.

Over time, it seems most of the Fable princesses and princes have grown enough to shrug off the cloak of their nobility.  A good thing, too; if Ali Baba, who bears only an ironic form of princeship, is any indication, the pride and self-concern of these people in their raw personalities would have been unbearable as a group.  Actually, even one on his own might not be the most tolerable person to hang around with, either.  Ali may redeem himself in part by his chops for swordsmanship and sneaking around, but such outright greed isn’t exactly a compelling quality for a protagonist—especially nowadays, when money is such a touchy issue in real life.

Another reason why this issue doesn’t quite capture your heart is the storytelling here is more straightforward than nearly everything Willingham’s ever done on Fables.  In fact, you can’t help noticing it evokes an almost Shrekish tone, mixed with a bit of Princess Bride, from its emphasis on pure action-adventure with plenty of hit-or-miss comedy thrown in.  By now, the fantasy spoof is a genre all its own, so you won’t be blown away seeing yet another series with fairy tale characters anachronistically making smart remarks using modern-day American lingo (Jonah the bottle imp: “If magic were moolah, a genie would be Bill Gates, or George Soros, where I’d be just some poor wage-slave two months behind on the car payment.”).

Fables #107 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (writer), Terry Moore (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist)

The Story: One can only imagine the morning breath of several years’ enchanted sleep.

The Review: A few of Vertigo’s titles do an interesting thing where after every major story arc or so, they’ll follow up with what we would call in mainstream comics a “filler” issue.  Like most fillers, the subject and structure of these issues are usually free-form, open to anything within the series’ extended universe, but unlike the typical filler, they tend to have some impact or shed a little light on the overall plot.

For a while now we’ve been occupied by the tense showdown between Haven and Mr. Dark, to the point where the Fables’ war against the Empire, for years the most important conflict on the series’ plate, has almost faded from our minds.  This issue serves as a kind of afterword to the last major event involving the Empire, when Briar Rose (better known as Sleeping Beauty) pricked herself to shut down its crucial administrative and sorcery arms.

Itching to get his armies back on the road to conquest, General Mirant needs to first revive his bureaucratic resources to run the empire again, but to do so, he must find a way to awaken the comatose lady who keeps them out of commission.  To that end, he and his right-hand sergeant cook up a number of elaborate, at times ill-conceived plans to produce a prince whose kiss of true love might break Rose’s spell.

As far as interlude issues go, this one sets out purely to entertain, a Shrek-ish sort of story that tries to apply a contemporary business attitude to the inexplicable, arbitrary rules of fairy tales.  The results of these efforts turn out disappointing, of course, though Mirant’s sergeant devises a fairly clever (albeit a bit cruel: “…I’ll isolate them from the fairer sex.  Never so much as a local milkmaid will they see.”) system that has a Hail Mary possibility of success.