Fairest #19 – Review

By: Sean E. Williams (story), Stephen Sadowski (pencils), Russ Braun (art), Phil Jimenez & Christian Alamy (inks), Andrew Dalhouse (colors)

The Story: Nalayani’s village becomes a victim of serious huffing and puffing.

The Review: Of all the arcs on this series thus far, this one has been the least engaging, embodying all your worst expectations about a spin-off title.  Besides stretching a thin plot well beyond what it can actually sustain, the arc has accomplished shockingly little for it.  Despite Williams’ efforts—I would say “best efforts,” but I would be appalled if these were actually his best efforts—we remain unattached from the characters and the story at large.

I suppose it’s sort of an interesting twist on the usual chauvinistic dynamic in fiction that Prince Charming has turned out to be really a very thin character in this arc, largely defined by his relationship to Nalayani.  His professions of love last issue felt so unconvincing as to make you squeamish, but it looks like Williams won’t be dropping the subject anytime soon.  Through some eye-rolling plot developments, he confirms that Charming has finally experienced “genuine true love” (as opposed to just good ol’ plain true love, presumably), but still can’t manage to offer any evidence of it, or even a good reason why.