Fables #143 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Mark Buckingham (pencils), Steve Leialoha & Andrew Pepoy (inks), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Bigby threatens to bring down Fabletown, with neither huffing nor puffing.

The Review: One of the many ways I’m a little off in the head is the way I treat stories like people. On first acquaintance, I’m open-minded, relatively forgiving of small quirks and flaws, and cautious to make any hasty conclusions. If it rubs me the wrong way, my judgment can become scathing, and it can be quite difficult to return to my good graces. If I really take to one, my loyalty is steadfast; even if things don’t go well for a while, I’ll still be by its side.

To me, Fables is a bit like my clique of coworkers at a transition job after grad school. We met somewhat late in life and I’ll always remain a bit of an outsider, but we get along well and make each other’s lives that much more pleasant. When we part, it’ll be with regret and hugs, but not tears. This is all a roundabout way of saying that even though I haven’t known the Fables that long, I’m fond enough of them to be really grieved when bad things happen to them. And Willingham seems set to unleash quite a lot of bad things on many of them, even the most beloved.

Fables #142 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Mark Buckingham (pencils), Steve Leialoha & Andrew Pepoy (inks), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Sisters, sisters, never where there such destructive sisters.

The Review: Last issue, when Maddy came around Wolf Manor declaring that war between Snow and Rose was practically inevitable, I wondered idly how Maddy expected Snow to fight a war all by herself when Rose had an entire kingdom at her back. I had forgotten about Winter’s preparations for this very possibility back in #137, which goes to show just how involved and sprawling and foresighted Fables can be. [It also goes to show my memory is shot since bar prep began, but I digress.]

But what are Winter’s plans, anyway? There must be something more delicate going on than a meet-force-with-force strategy, otherwise she wouldn’t be so threatened by Maddy’s interference. Then again, considering the forces she’s gathered (which now includes all her wolfish uncles), the outcome can go either way: mutually assured destruction or stalemate by threat of the same.

Fables #141 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Mark Buckingham (pencils), Steve Leialoha & Andrew Pepoy (inks), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: No need for minutes—this is a witches’ meeting!

The Review: As a lover of most things magical, some of my favorite Fables by default are the Thirteenth Floor witches. In most respects, they live up to the typical spellcaster mold: distant and a little bit distracted, always with an air like they’re seeing something you’re not, which they probably are. But they also have an unquestioned loyalty to Fabletown that’s somewhat surprising for such powerful characters. Mages are not well known for their charity.

It made sense for the witches to ally with Fabletown when they had Gepetto as a common enemy, but that’s all over now. Not only has the war been fought and won, the need for Fabletown itself is fading, as even the witches recognize. Yet they continue to stick to their customary meetings, discussing various Fabletown concerns, and even going so far as to consider prospective replacements for their dead/missing/departed peers. With one exception, none of these topics of conversation hold as much weight as their passing remarks.

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.

Fables #136 – Review

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

The Story: Rose begins to regret all those times she ever dozed off during history lessons.

The Review: A few months ago, back when Rose started this new Camelot business, I questioned the wisdom of modeling her enterprise after a fable that so clearly went wrong in the end.  And considering the nature of these characters, you could guess that they’d be more susceptible to foreordained endings than most.  But that’s the nature of Rose’s virtue, isn’t it?  Always hoping that things might turn out differently this time around?

Not to disparage hope, but it’s clearly going to take a lot more than positive thinking to get over the doom of Camelot.  Rose would be wise to take to heart the wisdom and knowledge of no less than the original Lady of the Lake herself.  Although Lake states that fate itself—or should I say, the Fates themselves—poses the biggest danger to Rose’s plans, such forces require instruments to come to pass.  A lot of our interest in this storyline, therefore, is speculating who will take on the roles Guinevere, Lancelot, Morgan le Fey, and Mordred played in the first Camelot’s fall.

Fables #135 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Mark Buckingham (pencils), Russ Braun (finishes), Steve Leialoha & Andrew Pepoy (inks), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Rose realizes that castles don’t just grow on trees.

The Review: It doesn’t take too long in life before you run into that one person who teaches you about the danger of forgiveness, the one who makes you doubt the human capacity for redemption.  That’s the thing about second chances; not everyone makes good on them.  With some people, even third, fourth, fifth, a whole plethora of chances won’t do the trick.  And all the time, the people giving those chances are draining their lives to maintain their faith.

This is the risk of second chances that Rose doesn’t seem to have much appreciation for, which is surprising, considering how long it took and how many disappointments she caused before she finally got her act together.  Perhaps this lack of reflection is caused in part by the people she repeatedly disappointed.  Despite the current acrimony between her and Snow, she says confidently, “…Snow will forgive me eventually.  It’s what she does.”

Fables #133 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Mark Buckingham (pencils), Steve Leialoha & Andrew Pepoy (inks), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Lord help the sister who gets between her and her man.

The Review: The fact that we almost all love a good redemption story attests to our belief in the essential goodness of human beings.  But make no mistake that it is mostly faith that spurs on that belief, and much less in the way of evidence.  Your views on the merits of punishment and rehabilitation often turn on how changeable you feel people can be.  Before one ever get to the redemption stage, one often requires a lot of forgiveness and trust first.

You can see this conflict play out between Rose Red and Snow White as they bicker on the fate of Brandish, someone who both needs serious redemption and for whom redemption seems impossibly out of reach.  Rose is correct in saying that if Brandish can be reformed, then that is incontrovertible proof of the power of second chances.  But can a man who seems to have been a bad egg since childhood (see #132’s matricide), who’s allied with the most purely evil forces in history, who literally has no heart—can such a man even live with himself if he actually develops a conscience?

Fables #132 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Mark Buckingham (pencils), Steve Leialoha (inks), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Joining the Round Table is a bit like trying out for Glee Club, except less singing.

The Review: I took an Arthurian legend class once, and the one thing I took away from it was how grim most of the stories ended up.  In every version of the Arthurian tales,* Camelot, which stands as a shining city of ideals against the Dark Ages, ultimately falls to mankind’s baser instincts.  The chivalric code and the Round Table are undermined by the fatal flaws of the knights, the court, and Arthur himself.  Virtue crumples in the face of human weakness.

So how shall we take Rose’s big idea to bring back the Round Table and to establish “a new order of knighthood, here at the Farm, dedicated to the ancient ideals of chivalry”?  Given how well that turned out last time, can we possible expect Rose to succeed where King Arthur failed?  Erratic at the best of times, it’s clear she’s working out this plan on the fly, though hopefully inspired by, well, hope.  If Rose has one advantage over the legendary king, it’s a sense of realistic expectations.  Her first table looks more like a setting for an AA meeting than a future Camelot, but, as she points out, “This is a start.”

Fables #131 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Mark Buckingham (pencils), Steve Leialoha (inks), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: It’s pretty hard to do an autopsy when the cadaver keeps interrupting you.

The Review: The best thing I can say about this title is that even on its worst months, it always has something worth coming back for.  Mostly this comes from his ability to constantly juggle multiple plotlines featuring various characters at once, frequently setting one aside and then picking it up again later without breaking his flowing pace.  You suspect that he can probably continue in this fashion for another hundred issues at this rate.

This issue makes the perfect example.  You’ve got the fate of shattered Bigby in the witches’ hands, an undertaking that could take ages by their own accounting before it’s complete.  Obviously, it won’t be literally ages if Willingham intends for us to see Bigby’s revival during his lifetime, but the ongoing work of putting our wolf-man back together could be interesting to return to from time to time as the series inexorably advances.  As a fan of the magical stuff, I admit to having a particular interest in everything the witches do, no less because of the seeming altruism of their actions.  What benefit do they get from “magically track[ing] down each and every mote”?  There’s got to be some great need for it that we don’t see just yet.

Fables #128 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Mark Buckingham (pencils), Steve Leialoha & Andrew Pepoy (inks), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: It’s sad a woman can’t even depend on her husband to slay her ex-lover anymore.

The Review: What makes a good throwdown?  Two opponents of equal measure, because a one-sided fight just bores everyone.  Some real stakes in the fight, attached to something internal for the characters: pride, honor, vengeance, justice, etc.  Most of all, you want unpredictability.  You want to be shocked and surprised by a turn of events.  You want the things you least expect to happen to actually happen.  If you have all that, it hardly matters who wins or loses.

That doesn’t stop you rooting for one person or another, however.  In the matchup between Bigby and Brandish, I’m sure most of us would place our bets on our favorite big, bad wolf—or at least, we’d like to bet against the fastidious prince.  But I think going into this fight, we know that on a narrative level, the odds are against Bigby.  With an arc centered on Snow, it wouldn’t be right for her husband to swoop in and end the matter, rendering her no more than your typical damsel in distress.  Willingham would never let that happen.

Fables #112 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (writer), Mark Buckingham (penciller), Steve Leialoha, Andrew Pepoy, Dan Green (inkers), Lee Loughridge (colorist)

The Story: Santa, that toy boat better not have my name on it.

The Review: I have quite a few friends of diverse religion and some of no religion at all.  While most of them find the materialistic and holly-jolly parts of Christmas annoying cloying, none of them are untouched by a sincerely given gift, happy holiday wishes, or a good rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”  I suspect this holds true for most people; whatever your feelings of the holiday, it’s the time of year when you take comfort in the simple things in life.

So it goes for the exiles of Fabletown, who after a couple years of anxiety and persecution can finally return home and celebrate.  No matter how cynical you may be, I’m sure you can’t begrudge the sweet sight of this motley crew of talking animals and certified weirdos exchanging presents, making merry, and simply enjoying each other’s company.  Seeing them come together like one massive, oddball family reminds you how much they’ve grown over the years.

And speaking of growth, Rose Red does some of that in this issue as she is dragged by a cricket (who remains nameless, so hard to say if he’s the one and only Jiminy) to meet Hope’s other paladins, or at least, the ones who survived.  Seeing the paladins, the hopes they represent, and what they do to enforce them, offers plenty of the clever and compelling interpretations Willingham so excels at.  Santa Claus as the hope for justice?  Brilliant, as is his reasoning: “I reward those who do good punish those who do bad.  That’s the story of justice in a nutshell.”

Not all is fun and games in this Christmas Carol-like journey, however, as you discover that hope isn’t always strictly a positive emotion.  The meeting with the False Bride proves quite grim, a bitter antidote to the silly, even saccharine portions of the issue (including a pretty funny bit where Santa’s reindeer gossip about his having a fling with Rose Red).  Ultimately, the Bride has the most practical advice for Rose’s future career as a paladin, but she also makes it clear that sometimes the most sinister hopes are the ones that have the greatest chance of fulfillment.

Fables #109 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (writer), Mark Buckingham (penciller), Steve Leialoha (inker), Lee Loughridge (colorist)

The Story: Heavy is the crown the king must wear on his noggin—or whatever.

The Review: The last couple arcs spent a lot of time building up the tension for when Mr. Dark would rain down his nightmarish power over all the Fables and destroy them all, or at least most of them.  Since all that anxious anticipation pretty much came to nothing, both for them and for us, it now just seems like the title has been spinning its wheels for a while.  While all their current antics offer the usual good times, you also wonder where the next baddie will come from.

As much as Willingham wants to direct our attention to Nurse Spratt—I mean, Leigh Duglas—the idea of her as the Fables’ newest nemesis seems a major step down from the embodiment of bogey-men everywhere.  It’s obvious she’s determined to improve herself in the art of dastardly dealings (familiarizing herself with poisons and the like), and she briefly mentions that “others” will soon join her in an ostensibly spooky way, but it all seems very mundane and unthreatening.

Also somewhat disappointingly, Rose Red and her scouting team find nothing out of sorts on the Farm.  You’d think they’d run into at least one obligatory mystical trap worthy of a panther, crow, tomcat, and redhead armed with a dagger, but no.  In short, things seem to be going swell for all our Fables at home—meaning some horrible disaster must lurk right around the corner, just out of sight, but that doesn’t really do anything for our suspense in the herenow.

Most of the action comes courtesy of Bufkin et al, still getting up to no good in land formerly known as Oz.  We know they plan to start a revolution and to do it they need to sneak out some of the goodies from a bunker full of the most powerful magical weaponry in the Homelands, but everything in between remains a mystery.  The odds certainly are stacked against them, as before they even take their first step, they run into “the Yoop!  And ravening monkey-eating kalidahs!”

Fables #108 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (writer), Mark Buckingham (penciller), Steve Leialoha (inker), Lee Loughridge (colorist)

The Story: Oh, they just can’t wait to be king!

The Review: If you have a series that reaches a hundred issues, and haven’t accumulated a whole slew of engaging, enjoyable characters by then, you’ve done something wrong.  Not so for Willingham, whose epic title has a cast to beat the band.  With such a huge stable to choose from, yielding an endless combination of backgrounds and personalities, it’s quite possible that Fables will never run out of stories to tell.

Of course, the emotional center of all these characters is Bigby Wolf and Snow White, who, after a close save from the armies of Mr. Dark in the previous story arc, now have to face something of a family crisis.  The loss of Bigby’s dad left a major vacancy in the hierarchy of winds, and unless someone fills it soon, things are liable to get ugly, fast.  And so the servants of the late North Wind turn to the Cubs, young and unspoiled enough to take the position with honor.

Thankfully, Willingham doesn’t give too much focus to this question of succession, allowing the family some time to express their mix of emotions at the North Wind’s passing.  Among the Cubs, Darien is unsurprisingly more fixated on the idea of becoming king, much to the chagrin of his siblings, while Ambrose mournfully reminisces on all the good times they had with their “Grampaw.”  Sweetly sincere, these scenes offer an important glimpse into Mr. North’s soft side.

Fables #106 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (writer), Mark Buckingham (penciller), Steve Leialoha (inker)

The Story: Things come to a head for the man with a tophat and the man with a fur coat!

The Review: All along Willingham has built up Mr. Dark’s street cred, what with spending so many issues having all the Fables work themselves into a veritable lather of tension and fear as they prepare for their final (literally so, since none except the Boy Blue devotees have any hope of survival) confrontation with their infallible foe.  Now that the showdown’s come at last, you can only have high hopes it’s the spectacle you’ve been led to expect.

And once you’ve turned the last page, you’ll probably think, Well, that was something of a letdown.  Last time, Bigby’s dad set himself up to take care of Mr. Dark—Duladan, as the North Wind knows him—by himself, a rather lucky midnight-hour save for the Fables.  For the same reason, it also seems like Willingham chickened out in a way, as he’d already established any battle with Dark could only lead to innumerable Fable deaths, and goodness knows he doesn’t want to depopulate his cast in one fell stroke.

That’d be fine, except the battle between the Misters North and Dark winds up as nothing more than a few splash pages of Bigby’s dad keeping his vampiric opponent in a chokehold as they twirl through an icy wind.  It’s a far cry from Dark’s claim that “a battle between two such as we would crumble this frail world in its wake,” and feels all the more anticlimactic for it.  Since North takes the trouble to drag their fight to a separate realm, you’d think they’d have more freedom to go all out on each other, living up to their formidable reputations.

It feels like Willingham set up a very easy way out for this story arc.  How convenient it is that just before the Fables’ Ragnarok, North shows up vowing to kill Bigby’s son, then changes his mind, except the only way to get out of his spontaneous vendetta is to do away with himself, which—surprise!—confronting Mr. Dark would accomplish quite neatly.  Talk about killing two birds with one stone.  It’d be a noble moment, except you have to remember he was the one who inexplicably wanted to kill off his own grandkid in the first place.

Fables #98 – Review

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

The Story: Rose Red takes control of the farm and does some restructuring while Bellflower/Totenkinder learns a secret about Mister Dark.

What’s Good: After months of lying bed, this is the first issue where Rose Red finally returns to her old self.  I hardly think that I’m the only person to have Rose Red as one of my favourite characters, so this issue should make the fans happy in that respect.  It genuinely feels good to see Rose Red back in action and even better see her, and the book, moving about again after having meandered with flashbacks for several issues.  There’s a sense of forward movement with this issue, both for the series and Rose herself, and it’s definitely welcome.

Rose’s return works well because of how quickly Willingham goes about it.  There are no moments of self-doubt and there’s no navel-gazing.  She grabs the reigns of the farm and slaps it back into order, with dissenters, the dryads in particular, being dealt with in short order.  I’m really happy that this consolidation wasn’t prolonged and it made the Farm, and Fables in general, feel suddenly more dynamic.

Better still are Rose’s changes to the power structure.  Her adopting the blue neckerchief and forming a privy council are both interesting, yet natural, developments that just feel right.  Furthermore, Rose ends up in a more politically powerful position than she’s ever been in.  After months of hiding, she’s now the most central of Fables characters.  All of this leads to promise for the future, as does the new information about Mister Dark.

Mark Buckingham’s art remains consistent, with Fables readers knowing exactly what to expect.  That said, his work on Rose’s facial expressions is particularly good, working to make her all the more lovable.

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.

Fables #95 – Review

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

The Story: A childhood adventure from the past lives of Snow White and Rose Red is recounted.

What’s Good: I’ve always enjoyed it when Willingham stretches his legs a little and gives us a good old fashioned fairytale, even if it means a digression from the main story.  That’s exactly what we get here; Willingham writes a fanciful tale in the homeworld which, thanks to its talking bear, grumpy villain, and child protagonists truly feels like a classic childhood yarn.  It has just enough whimsy, innocence, and gleefulness to capture that energy.  With its narration and tone, it also has a very “constructed” feel, only further heightening its “once upon a time” nature.  The narration, for example, is very well done and surprisingly light.

This’d probably even qualify as an actual fable, were Willingham not so smart as to leave its actual moral message ambiguous, left to pieced out by the adults in the present.  Certainly, the issue’s ending is a laugh if only because it apes the typical fable/fairytale pay-off by placing the usual princely transformation and marriage proposal in an utterly ridiculous context.  In a stroke of genius, “happily ever after” feels more like “wtf.”

Despite this though, the majority of the tale is one of childhood energy and fantasy.  Rose Red and Snow White have a strong relationship and  Willingham populates their forest with a couple of amusing characters.

A talking bear serves as sympathetic character who again provides grounds for Willingham’s love of making those who appear ferocious end up as anything but.  The issue’s villain, on the other hand, is a dwarf so curmudgeonly and grumpy that he serves more as comedy than menace.  Of course, when the two clash, there’s an act of bloody violence that’s so contrary to the rest of the issue that readers are bound to have whiplash, though in a good way.  Only Willingham can make decapitation light-hearted, if only thanks to its randomness.

Buckingham’s art, meanwhile, is absolutely spot-on this month.  He gives the book the bright, cheery look that its classic fairytale nature requires.  His illustrations of the dwarf in particular are excellent and a source for laughs on more or less every appearance.  The poor guy looks like a demented garden gnome.

Fables #94 – Review

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

The Story: Beast makes a deal with the Blue Fairy, while Rose Red reunites with an old friend.  And no, it’s not Boy Blue.

What’s Good: Continuing its recovery, Fables offers up another solid outing that asks questions and opens doors.  As the first issue of a new arc, this does its job.

What will no doubt catch eyes are the very intriguing developments regarding the ghost of Colin the Pig.  We get strong suggestions that Colin may not really be Colin at all.  Rather, he seems to be some sort of shapeshifter.  The identity of this figure has already gotten me incredibly interested, and it’s only been one issue.  It really is quite the mystery and I hope that it ultimately pays off.

However, I’m sure most Fables readers are curious about how the Blue Fairy is handled after the cliffhanger that the “Witches” arc ended on.  While I wasn’t a fan of how the situation was resolved, the character herself was well done.  Her claiming to be Pinocchio’s mother was certainly a nice little twist; it was unexpected, but it made perfect sense.  Then there’s the fact that Pinocchio actually physically attacks her.  Yes, it looks as funny as it sounds.  The image of Pinocchio repeatedly punting her in the gut was something I felt that I shouldn’t find funny, but just couldn’t help smiling at.

This is also a strong outing for Mister Dark, as Willingham reveals a new level of evil and magical deviance in the character.  Apparently, the villain’s has powers we didn’t know about which are much more subtle, and malevolent, than what we’ve seen before.  The scene is very well-executed and very creepy, essentially acting as a slice of horror comic in this otherwise standard issue of Fables.

Oh, and Mark Buckingham is back.  I liked David Lapham’s work, but this is Buckingham’s book, and he asserts that here.  His depictions of the Blue Fairy’s powers in particular were pleasing, and the ridiculous brawl between her and her “son” was done with enough slapstick and mischief to steer it away from poor taste.

Fables #91 – Review

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

The Story: Geppetto makes a bid for power while Bufkin wages his final battle with Baba Yaga.

What’s Good: This was just an absolutely fantastic issue that shows that all those readers who claim that the series lost its heart after “War & Pieces” simply have no idea what they’re talking about.  This was engaging, intelligent, humorous, action-packed, fun, and generally everything you expect out of a quality comic.

Seeing Geppetto back in action and the closest we’ve ever seen him to his old posture was great.  The guy’s got charisma that leaps off of the page.  Willingham’s play on history was also quite good: Geppetto sounded like more or less every dictator in modern history to make a bid for power.  His call for unity, his protests against the inefficacy and corruption of the current regime, and his promises of security all felt very real.  It’s weird to see a comic so rooted in fancy give such an honest and close approximation to actual political history.

Geppetto’s rise also causes Ozma to step-up in a big way, and finally, Willingham has sold me on the character.  I’ve been on the fence about her, but this month, Willingham finally gives her the necessary appeal.

Then there’s Bufkin.  From his innocent bumbling, to his quoting of obscure passages, the character is simply adorable.  If you dislike Bufkin, you have no soul.  The fact that his one, and only, hand to hand combat technique is basically derived from his own penchant for clumsiness and pratfalls was simply golden, as was the unfolding of his manifold trap, which basically felt like a kid’s board game gone horribly wrong.

Fables #85 (Great Fables Crossover) – Review

by Bill Willingham & Matthew Sturges (writers), Tony Akins (pencils), Andrew Pepoy & Dan Green (inks), Lee Loughridge (colors), and Todd Klein (letters)

The Story: Jack meets his son, offering fatherly advice before he and Rose are shipped off to Wolf Manor.

What’s Good: Jack’s comedy seems to be a bit better than it was last issue. This still isn’t the funniest Jack issue, but it has its moments. Jack’s interactions and the “sagely wisdom” he offers Jack Frost is quintessential Jack and is all the more enjoyable for it. It’s funny, self-centered stuff. I also enjoyed Jack meeting the cubs and giving them an education in vice.  Not laugh out loud funny, but it’s a cute moment that shows Jack mentoring the kids around a poker table.

I also thought Jack’s manipulation of Frost at the end was smart stuff. It was interesting to see Jack reasoning and behaving exactly like a Literal and not realizing that he was. I really do enjoy it when Willingham and Sturges play up Jack’s Literal heritage, as this served as another method of breaking the fourth wall.

Akins’ work is as loaded with comedy as ever. He may be no Mark Buckingham, but he does have a unique style that works well with this story. Once again, Akins manages to draw a wide array of humorous facial expressions that lead to some really memorable panels– Jack’s expression when caught stealing Bigby’s booze is absolutely priceless.

What’s Not So Good: I tried to keep believing in it as long as I could, but the fact is that this crossover just sucks. It just doesn’t have the scope and nuance to demand nine issues to tell it. Fables #85 only provides further proof of this.

This issue is all but completely pointless. The only item of any importance is Jack sending off Frost, which takes all of a single page. That means that plot-wise, this is about 20 pages of filler. Nothing important happens.

What’s worse, nothing RELEVENT happens. For the most part, this issue has absolutely nothing to do with the crossover. Sure Willingham throws in a couple pages of Old Sam planning on stealing Thorn’s pen (and what a “no duh” moment that is) to make us think this is a crossover issue, but it’s not like those scenes were particularly vital either. It’s just the seventh issue of Thorn hesitating. What does the Boy Blue cult have to do with the conflict with Thorn? What does Jack’s arrival in Wolf Manor and his meeting the cubs have to do with the effort to stop the creative Literal? The answers are nothing and nothing; and unfortunately, most of the issue is spent on these two topics. The fact that Thorn isn’t even mentioned by any of the characters on the farm until the very last page certainly doesn’t help.

Conclusion: Fables is a cute, fairly amusing comic that has little to do with the crossover of which it claims to be a part of, having pretty much nothing of importance occurring within its pages.

Grade: C-

-Alex Evans

Fables #84 (Great Fables Crossover) – Review

by Bill Willingham & Matthew Sturges (writers), Tony Akins (pencils), Andrew Pepoy & Dan Green (inks), Lee Loughridge (colors), and Todd Klein (letters)

The Story: Jack returns to the Fables world, taking control of the farm, a weak Rose Red, and Stinky’s Boy Blue cult in the process.

What’s Good: For better or for worse, this was a Jack of Fables comic without Gary or the textboxes. While a lot of people can’t stand Jack’s Deadpool-esque breaking of the fourth wall, I love it. He only does it a couple of times in this issue, but both times, I laughed; it’s quite clever. What I like even more is that this issue finally explained Jack’s ability to do this, tying it to his being half-literal.

What’s-Not-So-Good: I am a huge Fables fan. Furthermore, I love Jack as a character and read his series as well. I find him incredibly humorous and am definitely not among the vocal “Jack hating” party. However, I do not exaggerate when I say that this is one of the worst issues of Fables/Jack of Fables that I have ever read.

The elephant in the room: Jack as semi-rapist.  It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this angry towards a comic. Willingham and Sturges, writers who I have long admired, have truly, utterly crossed a line here. I understand that Jack is without morals and I understand his Byronic sexual hunger. However, Byron, despite being somewhat incestuous like Jack, was not a rapist. Jack was always meant to be the “lovable asshole”, the self-centered twit who conducted himself with complete moral abandon, but always in such a way that we could still laugh and get behind him. I’m sorry, but I don’t see how I can laugh at something that nears on the rape of one of Fables’ most beloved characters. I don’t see how I can support a rapist. Willingham and Sturges have moved Jack from “affable rogue” to “depraved villain.” It’s absolutely sickening; this is disgusting stuff and a huge mistake.

What’s also bad, is Akins’ art. I normally love Tony Akins for his comedic potential and what he’s able to do with cartoonish facial expressions. However, when Jack spends half the issue in Rose’s bed, Akins’ art only makes it worse. His depictions of Jack’s face making the quasi-rape all the more nauseating; his depictions of the wasted-away, broken Rose making it all the more vile. Jack’s banter and Akins’ art try to extract comedy where there is none, and as a result, Akins’ comedic style makes the whole affair look like an underground European sex comic. Instead of bringing laughs, it brings vomit. It’s sad that Akins has an issue long struggle with drawing Beauty. He just can’t do it.

The other major problem is this “Great Fables Crossover” itself.  I had faith last month, but now, as we near the halfway mark, I finally admit that it’s floundering.  This issue is a complete stall, not advancing the major plot or the conflicts with Mr. Dark or Kevin Thorn in any perceivable way.  The fables don’t believe in the Literals…and that’s it.   Also, this issue proves that there are just too many disparate elements.  Crossovers NEED one, big central issue/conflict to drive them and to necessitate their existence. So far, we have TWO entirely separate conflicts in Mr. Dark and Kevin Thorn, but as if that’s not enough, we also have other issues like the Boy Blue cult and Jack Frost.  As a result, this issue moves forward with the latter two smaller issues, while throwing the two major conflicts on the backburner.  This crossover is turning into an aimless, and pointless debacle and I’m failing to see why keeping Mr. Dark and the Boy Blue cult in Fables and Thorn and Jack Frost in Jack wouldn’t have been better.

Conclusion: From a plot perspective, this issue is a waste of time.  Nothing moves the major conflict forward, and there are just too many damned minor issues going on at once.  However, if you are a Jack of Fables reader or are looking to be one, skip this issue. I’ve never said this before. Skip it. You don’t want to see Jack as a rapist, as it will ruin the character for you.

Grade: D

-Alex Evans