Fables #138 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Russ Braun (art), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Geppetto proves that being a tree-hugger isn’t necessarily a good thing.

The Review: The superhero genre has plenty of belief-stretching conventions, but one worth discussing for the purposes of this issue is the constant cycle of defeat and revenge where villains are concerned.  I always find it incredible that the likes of the Joker, or Count Vertigo, or any number of evil nemeses, would be allowed to return time and time again to plague heroes and innocents alike.  It just seems logistically irreconcilable and fictionally futile.

No wonder that in most other genres, a villain that goes down more often than not stays down.  Once their big play is undone, everything else that comes after seems mostly like anticlimax.  This is why allowing Geppetto to live was a noble move on Flycatcher’s part, but one that could only lead to two predictable courses.  Either Geppetto makes a genuine effort to reform or he goes back to his evil ways, striking again when the other Fables are occupied with other matters.  The first option would be ideal, from a humanist perspective, but almost certainly cheesy and sentimental, defanging a powerful antagonist.