Fables #112 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (writer), Mark Buckingham (penciller), Steve Leialoha, Andrew Pepoy, Dan Green (inkers), Lee Loughridge (colorist)

The Story: Santa, that toy boat better not have my name on it.

The Review: I have quite a few friends of diverse religion and some of no religion at all.  While most of them find the materialistic and holly-jolly parts of Christmas annoying cloying, none of them are untouched by a sincerely given gift, happy holiday wishes, or a good rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”  I suspect this holds true for most people; whatever your feelings of the holiday, it’s the time of year when you take comfort in the simple things in life.

So it goes for the exiles of Fabletown, who after a couple years of anxiety and persecution can finally return home and celebrate.  No matter how cynical you may be, I’m sure you can’t begrudge the sweet sight of this motley crew of talking animals and certified weirdos exchanging presents, making merry, and simply enjoying each other’s company.  Seeing them come together like one massive, oddball family reminds you how much they’ve grown over the years.

And speaking of growth, Rose Red does some of that in this issue as she is dragged by a cricket (who remains nameless, so hard to say if he’s the one and only Jiminy) to meet Hope’s other paladins, or at least, the ones who survived.  Seeing the paladins, the hopes they represent, and what they do to enforce them, offers plenty of the clever and compelling interpretations Willingham so excels at.  Santa Claus as the hope for justice?  Brilliant, as is his reasoning: “I reward those who do good punish those who do bad.  That’s the story of justice in a nutshell.”

Not all is fun and games in this Christmas Carol-like journey, however, as you discover that hope isn’t always strictly a positive emotion.  The meeting with the False Bride proves quite grim, a bitter antidote to the silly, even saccharine portions of the issue (including a pretty funny bit where Santa’s reindeer gossip about his having a fling with Rose Red).  Ultimately, the Bride has the most practical advice for Rose’s future career as a paladin, but she also makes it clear that sometimes the most sinister hopes are the ones that have the greatest chance of fulfillment.

Fables #111 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (writer), Mark Buckingham (penciller) Steve Leialoha & Shawn McManus (inkers), Lee Loughridge (colorist)

The Story: Get ready to see who’ll be the new North Wind—he (or she) will blow you away!

The Review: Reading this series occasionally reminds me of something I often wondered when reading Harry Potter: for all the drama going on in the magical world, all the normals just went on their merry way, eating McDonalds and drinking Starbucks without ever becoming aware of the disaster on the verge of crossing over into their lives.  The same goes with the Fables; for all their perils, we really have no idea what tangible effect it’ll have upon the non-fictional world.

Take this choosing of a new North Wind.  The late Mr. North’s servant can talk all he wants about how “Entire worlds can live or die” depending on the choice of successor, but we don’t really know what he means by that.  “Worlds” as in other planets or fictional realms?  Why would the North Wind have such a critical effect on other worlds?  Without that information, it just seems he’s trying to play up the drama since the action is rather clearly lacking here.

At least we have assurance of real drama to come.  Spoiler alert—Winter, by reaching the Homeland of the North, reveals herself as its new “king.”  In some ways, we could have foreseen this; she bears the name of Boreas’ former wife, after all.  But as the most childlike and innocent of the Cubs, she seems totally unfit for the role.  Besides that, there’s the anxious question of how this will affect the family dynamic (aside from Darren’s obvious outrage losing kingship).

Winter’s age and personality also make her peril in her new status all the greater, as the other three cardinal winds don’t look all too enthused about the development either.  Though the East Wind seems conciliatory enough at the event, telling his fellow winds to “Mind the occasion,” don’t forget his earlier remark about the Cubs possibly killing themselves off during the testing: “[T]hat’s fewer we’ll have to winnow out when we’re compelled to step in.”  The West Wind seems determined to step in regardless, saying, “In the end we’ll still have to finish things.”

Fables #110 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (writer), Mark Buckingham (penciller), Steve Leialoha & Shawn McManus (inkers), Lee Loughridge (colorist)

The Story: If you’re an enemy of the state, prepare to be pooped by the Yoop.

The Review: Having multiple running plots can be a handy way to keep your story from stalling in one place too long, but it has its downsides too.  Split them up too much and you have the reader not only regrouping to keep track of them all, but you also risk shortchanging each plotline to the point they only inch forward with each episode.  Even worse is when they all hit that big, fat middle of exposition, which can be deadly in the best circumstances.

That is pretty much the situation Willingham brings upon himself here.  He essentially has four stories going on at once, each pretty much its own thing and not obviously related to the others.  The real problem is they all tend to hit the rises and falls of their action at the same time.  When they reach major turning points, the whole thing sings; when they reach the talky portions of the story, suddenly the whole issue becomes an endless cascade of text.

Fables #108 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (writer), Mark Buckingham (penciller), Steve Leialoha (inker), Lee Loughridge (colorist)

The Story: Oh, they just can’t wait to be king!

The Review: If you have a series that reaches a hundred issues, and haven’t accumulated a whole slew of engaging, enjoyable characters by then, you’ve done something wrong.  Not so for Willingham, whose epic title has a cast to beat the band.  With such a huge stable to choose from, yielding an endless combination of backgrounds and personalities, it’s quite possible that Fables will never run out of stories to tell.

Of course, the emotional center of all these characters is Bigby Wolf and Snow White, who, after a close save from the armies of Mr. Dark in the previous story arc, now have to face something of a family crisis.  The loss of Bigby’s dad left a major vacancy in the hierarchy of winds, and unless someone fills it soon, things are liable to get ugly, fast.  And so the servants of the late North Wind turn to the Cubs, young and unspoiled enough to take the position with honor.

Thankfully, Willingham doesn’t give too much focus to this question of succession, allowing the family some time to express their mix of emotions at the North Wind’s passing.  Among the Cubs, Darien is unsurprisingly more fixated on the idea of becoming king, much to the chagrin of his siblings, while Ambrose mournfully reminisces on all the good times they had with their “Grampaw.”  Sweetly sincere, these scenes offer an important glimpse into Mr. North’s soft side.