Fables #96 – Review

by Bill Willingham (writer), Mark Buckingham (pencils), Steve Leialoha & Andrew Pepoy (inks), Lee Loughridge (colors), and Todd Klein (letters)

The Story: The flashback tale continues, detailing how the two sisters were separated and what exactly happened to Snow White thereafter.

What’d Good: It’s always relatively good fun whenever Willingham gets to tell a good old fashioned fairytale.  His narrative voice is well-suited to the required old timey tone and so, the narration and dialogue is solid all around.  You get your witches, kings, royal intrigue, magical creatures, and all the necessities of the genre.  The curtain also gets peeled back a little on the magical nature of Rose and Snow’s mother, which was definitely both a slight surprise and a cause for interest.

As always, you also get that little wink of generic self-awareness.  Seeing hordes of princes-turned-into-animals pondering whether Rose Red is their saviour or not is a prime example of this.  Indeed, seeing various archetypal fairytales passing Rose by was a nice touch towards the end of the issue.

On art, I really do feel that Buckingham’s able to stretch his legs a little bit more whenever he traverses the older worlds of the Empire.  The fantasy elements suit him well and his depictions of magic and fantastical creatures are always pleasing, so heading into a fantasy realm obviously makes for a good time.

Weekly Comic Book Review’s Top Picks

DS’ Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Captain America #606 – Brubaker has always delivered stellar writing and Butch Guice is a great artist and the two of them served up some exciting work in Captain America #606. Bucky. Is. Awesome.

Most Anticipated: Brightest Day #4 – Brightest Day has been at times great and at times a game of patience. Some of the arcs, delivered in their micro-bits, have been very compelling, but issue #3 seemed to have turned a corner. Despite the short arcs, Johns gave us a sense of things starting to come together. We are getting to Act II – the best one and the pace is picking up. And Ivan Reis is one of the artists! Brightest Day #4 tops my pull list.

Other Top Picks: Batman Beyond #1, Atlas #2, New Mutants #14, X-Factor Forever #4

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Secret Six #22 -This was an incredibly grim, ugly, and somewhat depressing read yet somehow Simone manages to avoid the trap of unintentional comedy or unbelievability that many of these sorts of books fall into.  Instead of pure depressive excess and caricature, we got something that was actually touching and human amidst all the muck, trauma, and spandex and that alone is a major accomplishment.  Also, how this continues to escape having any sort of “mature readers” warning on the cover continues to amaze me.

Most Anticipated: New Avengers #1 -For whatever reason, I find myself looking forward to this more than anything else.  What will the final roster be?  How will Bendis justify this title’s existence?  Why the heck is the Thing on this team? My curiosity is piqued and the preview looks like Stuart Immonen is bringing his A-game to the art.!

Other Picks: Birds of Prey #2, Brightest Day #4, DMZ #54, Fables #96, Unknown Soldier #21

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Daytripper #7 – The entire Daytripper series has been a clinic in storytelling and issue #7 was one of the best so far.

Most Anticipated: New Mutants #14 – The Second Coming event really got kicked back into higher gear last week in Uncanny #525 and there are only three chapters left after this issue, so this should be all action.

Other Top Picks: Forgetless #5, The Walking Dead #73, Amazing Spider-Man #633 & #634, New Avengers #1