Fables #137 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Mark Buckingham (layouts), Russ Braun (finishes), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Winter shows her oft-quoted discontent.

The Review: I may be a cold fish in a lot of ways, but even I hate to see the innocence of kids disturbed.  They already have the rest of their lives to grow cynical, bitter, and pessimistic, right?  So I’ve been distressed to see so many of the Cubs saddled with depressing fates.  Darien committed suicide and has passed; Therese is a grown queen of discarded toys; and Winter has become a force beyond reckoning, with all the burdensome responsibilities that entails.

And now we see that beneath all our noses and against Snow’s extra vigilance, Winter has already taken up those burdens in full.  The North Wind exists on countless worlds, which requires not only her power, but her presence, the experience of which in turn accumulates in her.  “Against my wishes, I’m already old and wise,” she tells the other Cardinal Winds, but more than that, she’s already gained the capacity to be ruthless.  When the other Winds attempt to horn in on her command, she takes the form of the tyrannical North Wind she dreamed of in #114.  She successfully resists their ascendancy, but she also takes a step forward to becoming the fear-mongering dictator her grandfather used to be.