Fables #97 – Review

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

The Story: Rose Red gets out of bed, clandestine meeting for control of the Farm take place, and Rose’s sabotage of Snow’s first marriage is illuminated.

What’s Good: I’ve been somewhat aggravated by Fables over the last couple of months.  After the fantastic “Witches” arc, Fables had regained it’s momentum and the sky seemed to be the limit.  Then Willingham inexplicably squandered this through spending two straight issues in a flashback that was only tangentially relevant and a thematic left turn.  I’m happy to say that this month, Fables is righting itself and taking a big step back in the right direction.

Of course, a big part of this is simply due to the fact that halfway through the issue, the flashback ends.  Suffice it to say, this alone was enough to have me overjoyed.  When Rose got out of bed and started cleaning up and preparing herself for action, I almost felt like it was representative of the series itself; after months of wandering listlessly, Fables is preparing itself to get back to firing on all cylinders.  There’s a lot of excitement, as a result, in seeing Rose suit up and it left me very eager for what’s coming.

It’s not just Rose either; the power struggle in the Farm is also more interesting than ever.  The meeting in the forest, and the fragile coalition between Ozma, Stinky, and Geppetto is very interesting and foreboding as well.  It’s a volatile and unlikely mix of personalities, all of whom are combustible elements.  It’s the sort of thing that you know is going to blow itself, and maybe a great deal else, apart and, like with Rose, it really left me wanting to know what’ll happen next.  I’m especially interested in Stinky/Brock who is getting weirder by the second; he manifests some very weird magical properties this month and their source is very cool.