Fairest #24 – Review

By: Marc Andreyko (story), Shawn McManus (art), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Marcel perfects the art of going to buy cigarettes and never coming back.

The Review: I was debating on whether to even review this issue, but in the interest of consistency, I couldn’t just sideline it without a word of warning to y’all first.  But make no mistake; the temptation to quietly forget this issue ever existed was quite powerful.  In fact, the issue would be fairly easy to forget since almost nothing of significance really happens in it at all, much like all the issues before it in this arc.

There is exactly one—count ‘em, one—piece of new information in this entire issue: Marcel didn’t make love to just one lady, but quite a many, each spawning one of several species of child: human, mice, and creatures in between.  Aside from explaining where all the rodent assassins are coming from (and perhaps who their mastermind is), this isn’t much of a revelation.  At best, you react with a raised eyebrow, perhaps with a tinge of disgust, but that’s a far cry from feeling genuinely interested.

Fairest #23 – Review

By: Marc Andreyko (story), Shawn McManus (art), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: One should expect betrayal in the Temple of Rats.

The Review: Any time you join the speculation game, there’s always the chance—a very likely one—that you’re gonna lose, which is why I don’t often play.  I lost big-time when I predicted, with great certainty, that the mastermind behind the ninja rodent attacks was Marcel Champagne, one of Cindy’s helper mice from her original fairy tale.  I couldn’t have been more wrong, in fact, since the mastermind is revealed to be targeting Marcel for as yet undisclosed reasons.

I was spared from total embarrassment by the revelation that Marcel and the sexually aggressive Isabelle du Lac really did get it on.  Now, I’m still holding out hope that perhaps their night of lovemaking spawned a line of descendants that currently ends at our fencing mastermind; if this turns out to be the case, then at least I can still take pride in my alternative theory.  But either way, Marcel’s dalliance proves to have some very interesting magical effects, allowing him to remain human when his brother mice changed back to normal.

Fairest #22 – Review

By: Marc Andreyko (story), Shawn McManus (art), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: When Cinderella’s away, the mice come out to play—and flirt with noblewomen.

The Review: I’d like to directly address Gregory Lockard, editor of Fairest.  Mr. Lockard, I know that despite being a paying consumer, I have no right—or, rather, no power—to critique how you do your job.  This being America, however, I’m gonna do it anyway.  The point I want to stress to you is there’s a limit to how hands-off you can be with a writer’s product.  Andreyko’s arc has been quite inadequate, a problem you could have easily prevented.

For one thing, last issue should have been a blatant red flag to you that Andreyko was having pacing problems with his story, requiring extra scrutiny to avoid the same here.  Instead, you were apparently content to let Andreyko keep on his merry way, resulting in an issue nearly as unproductive as the first.  Quite frankly, the actual contents of both of these issues could and should have been fitted into one, an obvious point I’m distressed to see that you missed.

Fairest #21 – Review

By: Marc Andreyko (story), Shawn McManus (art), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Cinderella discovers a love-hate relationship with mice.

The Review: When I finished reading this issue, I immediately went back and flipped through it again—not because it was so great that I had to experience it again, but because I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing pages.  Without a doubt, this is the thinnest issue, plot-wise, that I’ve ever read.  I’ve done some short reviews in my time, but I think this will have to be the shortest because there simply enough material to review.

I want to make it clear from the outset that this doesn’t mean the issue was bad, necessarily, only that it’s grossly inefficient.  The first three pages, for example, are a complete waste, a partial retelling of Cinderella’s original origin story that’s charming, but far less so than what you’ve seen from Disney pictures.  Why Andreyko decided to start here and not with the invigorating sequence of Snow White fending off an assassination attempt by a band of ninja mouse-men is baffling, to say the least.

The Witching Hour #1 – Review

By: Too many to list—or even to review.  Just check out the issue.

The Story: Will you catch any of these folks speaking with the devil?

The Review: These Vertigo showcases are proof positive that there really are an endless number of ways to look at the world, or even just one thing in it.  Both Ghosts and Time Warp offered stories that dealt with actual spirits and time-travel, but just as many stories that explored spirits and time as concepts, and a few that struck at the subjects on both a literal and figurative level.  It’s pretty amazing to see what the imagination will dream up when prompted.

Take Brett Lewis’ “Mars to Stay,” which in both substance and form resembles less like anything having to do with witches and more like a hard piece of science-fiction—the hardest kind, given how Lewis doesn’t take too many liberties with the fiction to deliver science that actually falls within the realm of possibility, if you have a cynical view of the way people work.  Maybe that’s where the witchcraft lies, in the slow, creeping way that the stranded crew’s psyches break down, as if infected with a curse.  Either way, it’s an impactful, haunting tale, despite having no clear connection to magical women whatsoever (and it doesn’t hurt that you get Cliff Chiang’s starkly sharp art illustrating the whole thing).

The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship that Sank Twice – Review

By: Mike Carey (writer/creator), Peter Gross (layouts/creator), Kurt Huggins, Al Davison, Russ Braun, Shawn McManus, Dean Ormston, Gary Erskine & Gross (finishes), Zelda Devon, Davison, Chris Chuckry, Eva de la Cruz & Jeanne McGee (colors)

The Review: While this OGN isn’t all I hoped, it is worthwhile to consider the status of The Unwritten franchise before really diving into any serious criticism.

For the first 49 issues of its Volume 1 run, The Unwritten told a story as complex and nuanced as any comic currently in publication.  In those issues, it dug deeply into the power of stories to shape reality, propaganda, religion, and what happens when humans lose the ability to create.  It was truly wonderful….but it never sold very well.  By the end of its 49-issue run, sales had slipped to ~8,000 issues/month and that usually leads to cancellation of the series.  However, what we got was not a rushed conclusion to The Unwritten.  Instead, Volume 1 run is ending with a (pretty terrible) crossover with the Fables Universe.  The crossover is a cute enough story, but it has absolutely none of the complexity of The Unwritten and has nothing to do with the first 49 issues.  Now we get this OGN (which I’ll discuss in a minute) and a relaunch of Volume 2 sometime this winter.

On one hand, I could complain that *they* aren’t finishing the story that I – and ~8000 other people – was enjoying for the first 49 issues.  On the other hand, I could be grateful that the series didn’t just have a rushed ending – The End.  Someone at Vertigo fought to keep this series going despite low sales and decided to try this as a strategy to bring in some new eyeballs because an audience of 8000 fans isn’t very profitable.

With that out of the way, it’s natural to expect this OGN to be “new reader friendly” and it is.  If you are one of those intrepid 8000 fans and you hoped this OGN would pick right back up with the story of Tom Taylor in Hades, you will be disappointed.

Fables #124 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Shawn McManus (art)

The Story: A flightless monkey and inch-tall dame prove that anyone can be heroes.

The Review: In all the many issues in which Bufkin’s adventures in Oz appeared, I’m not sure Willingham ever succeeded in making me care about any of it.  Reading Fables with that back-up was a bit like inviting your one friend with a kid to a dinner party; you wonder why they won’t choose a better opportunity to cart the extra baggage around while tolerating its obtrusive presence as well as you can.

Maybe if Willingham had simply collected all the Ozian material into one issue, it would’ve been easier to care, but I tend to doubt it.  Except for the one moment where Bufkin was right on the verge of getting hanged, there really wasn’t much drama to be had from his rather breezy and whimsical uprising.  Even from a comedic standpoint, “A Revolution in Oz” felt disjointed and a bit pointless, more of a series of random gags than an actual plot.

Fables #122 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Gene Ha (art), Art Lyon (colors)

The Story: The only thing that can make a giant wolf lose his appetite is his own ennui.

The Review: I’d never have predicted that of all the many comic book titles I’ve ever reviewed, Fables would end up being the one I covered the longest.  Granted, the DC relaunch messed with the numbers a little bit, but facts are facts.  At eighteen issues, it still rests solidly on my pull list and I imagine it will remain so for a long time to come.  The world Willingham’s chosen to explore has few real limits and enduring appeal; it’s as eternal as it makes itself out to be.

And when you have different parts of folklore meet, especially with the spin that Willingham puts on them, the possibilities are endless.  Some meetings, however, have more inherent story potential than others.  I’d say a chance encounter between the Big Bad Wolf in his primal glory and a woman “from the deep realms” with the power to assign fates falls into that category.  Is it even possible to write something unoriginal, given such a premise?

Fables #121 – Review

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

The Story: A dream come true for the lazy cook.

The Review: If I could sum up the message of Fables, given what I’ve read and what I know, it’s this: there is no “happily ever after.”  For us Mundys, our mortal lives give us the chance to end on a happy note, but for the Fables, living indefinitely means that inevitably, every happy moment will give way to tragedy.  The only thing that keeps this series from being a complete downer, then, is the flipside: even the lowest points will turn around to happiness again.

This constant cycle of joy and grief has the side-effect of giving our Fables wisdom and sense beyond the average Mundy, given enough reflection.  Therese goes through such a process here, dwelling on her misdeeds and its consequences, beating herself up for the way things ended up for her and Darien.  At the end of it, she does manage to achieve a kind of redemption, but the taint of the past lingers on, and she knows it: “Murderers don’t get forgiven just because we promise to be good from now on.”

Fairest #7 – Review

By: Matthew Sturges (story), Shawn McManus (art)

The Story: Your wife’s a hottie, but she’s also a real snake in the grass.

The Review: Now that fiction has become a largely manufactured business, storytelling devices have turned into commonplace—dare I say, cheap—products.  Along with cliffhangers, dramatic irony, and in medias res, the most overused and increasingly impotent fictional tactic is nothing other than the “twist.”  The bulk of these things turn out silly and artificial; a handful prove to be actually surprising; and then you have ones that teeter right on the edge of excellent and lame.

We have one such twist in this issue.  It’s a doozie, no doubt about it, but size really doesn’t make a difference with these things.  There’s no use beating around the bush, so—spoiler alert—the revelation that Beauty (as in “and the Beast”) is not actually one of the fairest maidens of the land, but rather a shapeshifting snake-woman in disguise hits that sweet spot between amazing in a good way and amazing in a bad way.

Fables #120 – Review

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

The Story: Evidently, no one ever told Dare about the downsides of heroism.

The Review: I have to confess that when I first picked up this series, I almost regretted it shortly afterward.  The story arc running at that time involved the Fables anxiously awaiting their doom by Mister Dark, only to have the North Wind step in and save them all at the last minute.  This development was deeply disappointing as it just sucked away all the tension Willingham built up over this impossible foe, basically concluding with two godlike immortals fading out quietly.

I figured if this was the kind of finish I could expect on a storyline with stakes this big, what could I expect with later arcs that had less scale?  Anyway, I stayed on; it would’ve felt a little silly dropping the title when after only three issues.  Since then, we’ve had quite a bit of soft material (the entire contest for the new North Wind was pretty much just for fun), and only now have we reached a point in Fables where you feel you have something to lose.

Fables #119 – Review

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

The Story: The therapist who works with these kids stands to make a fortune.

The Review: I mentioned a bit about my summer internship in my review of DC Universe #11, and as it happens, that experience has some relevance here as well.  Another thing I’ve learned is there is no age floor for when someone begins to internalize the pain around them.  Kids pick up all the worst things in their life long before they even learn to express it in words, and the damage is frequently irreparable; it never totally goes away, even if they manage to recover.

And the stuff Therese and Darien have to go through is quite a bit more serious than the usual set of childhood trauma.  If they ever manage to get back to their home and family, they will never forget this harrowing experience in Madland.  How can you expect them to when they’ve had their innocence crushed by choices that would defeat most grown-ups?

Fables #118 – Review

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

The Story: And now we know why we make kids wait until they’re 18 before setting them free.

The Review: In one of my favorite episodes of 30 Rock, harassed writer Liz Lemon snaps at melodrama queen Jenna Maroney, “…you’re so insecure you get jealous at babies for their soft skin!”  “And for all the attention they get!” adds Jenna.  Setting aside the ludicrousness of the scene, Jenna alludes to a well-trodden observation about children: no matter the context, they instantly and always get all our focus.

And deservedly so; being more vulnerable to everything dangerous or malevolent, kids really do need our extra attention.  Maybe that’s why the moment you have a child in a threatening situation, the tension suddenly becomes a lot heavier than you’d even notice with adults.  In this arc, we have not just one, but two children at risk.  One endures grievous injury and the other goes through a psychological wringer while physically wasting away.

Fables #117 – Review

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

The Story: On the bright side, Therese, pretend cake is less fattening than actual cake.

The Review: I have to say, it’s a nice change of pace that Willingham has scaled back his multiple storyline format for a more focused, and thus more driven, plot.  In some issues the constant gear-shifts from one Fable’s story to another could get frustrating, especially when they had no connection to each other.  Besides, when you only have so many pages to tell three stories at once, you can’t help feeling each one gets shortchanged a little to make room for the others.

So it’s been a real luxury to spend so much time on just two central characters whose respective plotlines are bound to each other anyway.  Aside from a one-page excursion to the returning citizens to Fabletown (who play right into Spratt’s hands by moving onto her home turf), and your usual dose of Bufkin & Co. (whose tale of revolution grows less captivating every issue, despite Shawn McManus’ charming art), the issue keeps the spotlight on the boldest of Snow White and Bigby’s children.

Fables #116 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Mark Buckingham (pencils), Steve Leialoha, Andrew Pepoy, Dan Green (inks), Lee Loughridge (colors), Shawn McManus (feature art)

The Story: If your own family can’t rescue you from the clutches of maniacal toys, who can?

The Review: When Ozma delivered her prophecy regarding the fate of the Cubs, it was natural to assume that however dire the foretelling, we could rest on the Cubs getting to grow up a bit before such anxious events come to pass.  Upon reflection, this is a very naïve belief.  When it comes to Fables, disaster tends to strike sooner rather than later, and the more unprepared the characters are, the better.

Although the prophecy’s temporal context is so loose that you can’t really trust that any particular event is actually fulfilling it, we might as well take a good stab at it.  Willingham wouldn’t give us the thing if he hadn’t meant for us to do some wild speculating.  Winter, by succeeding her grandfather as the North Wind, has become a king, so that’s one down.

Fables #114 – Review

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

The Story: Now’s the perfect time to say, “Toy boat, toy boat, toy boat.”

The Review: Fables has such a huge, sprawling universe, populated with so many prominent characters, even prominent feature characters, that when Willingham chooses to check in with even a handful of them at once, an issue feels more like a series of vignettes than a cohesive story.  This definitely applies when none of the running plotlines seem to mesh together, making you feel more than ever like you’re reading a triple-feature.

For a while now, the title has been simultaneously following the Wolf family as they deal with their inheritance from the North Wind; Bufkin and friends and their revolution in Oz; and the rest of the Fables cleaning up after Mr. Dark’s defeat.  No matter how well Willingham paces himself, he can’t do much to prevent the pace from feeling choppy and sluggish with this kind of format.  This time around, however, he hones in on the Wolf family, with only brief departures, letting your attention stay on one track with few derailments, which is a nice feeling, after all.

As it stands, the Wolfs must face two perils.  The first, more personal and immediate, but of lesser scope, involves Therese and the toy boat she received for Christmas in #112.  At the time, the boat seemed like a cute gag Willingham threw in for fun, but here it seems more malevolent than its primary-colored appearance would have you believe.  Aside from Toy Story characters, most talking inanimate objects bode very badly for their owners.  I must say, too, that for a personification of a fictional concept, Snow White’s a little too dismissive of the idea that a toys can have feelings.

The second peril feels more like a long-term complication, as it has bearing on Winter’s ongoing training to become the new North Wind.  On the one hand, she risks turning into a tyrant and fearmonger like her predecessor (who, despite his redeeming qualities, was a crusty old despot at bottom).  Yet if she manages to avoid that destiny, as Bigby insists she can, she opens herself up to the “ascendancy” of her fellow Cardinal Winds, whatever that entails.  What this means for the balance of power, we can only guess.

Fables #111 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (writer), Mark Buckingham (penciller) Steve Leialoha & Shawn McManus (inkers), Lee Loughridge (colorist)

The Story: Get ready to see who’ll be the new North Wind—he (or she) will blow you away!

The Review: Reading this series occasionally reminds me of something I often wondered when reading Harry Potter: for all the drama going on in the magical world, all the normals just went on their merry way, eating McDonalds and drinking Starbucks without ever becoming aware of the disaster on the verge of crossing over into their lives.  The same goes with the Fables; for all their perils, we really have no idea what tangible effect it’ll have upon the non-fictional world.

Take this choosing of a new North Wind.  The late Mr. North’s servant can talk all he wants about how “Entire worlds can live or die” depending on the choice of successor, but we don’t really know what he means by that.  “Worlds” as in other planets or fictional realms?  Why would the North Wind have such a critical effect on other worlds?  Without that information, it just seems he’s trying to play up the drama since the action is rather clearly lacking here.

At least we have assurance of real drama to come.  Spoiler alert—Winter, by reaching the Homeland of the North, reveals herself as its new “king.”  In some ways, we could have foreseen this; she bears the name of Boreas’ former wife, after all.  But as the most childlike and innocent of the Cubs, she seems totally unfit for the role.  Besides that, there’s the anxious question of how this will affect the family dynamic (aside from Darren’s obvious outrage losing kingship).

Winter’s age and personality also make her peril in her new status all the greater, as the other three cardinal winds don’t look all too enthused about the development either.  Though the East Wind seems conciliatory enough at the event, telling his fellow winds to “Mind the occasion,” don’t forget his earlier remark about the Cubs possibly killing themselves off during the testing: “[T]hat’s fewer we’ll have to winnow out when we’re compelled to step in.”  The West Wind seems determined to step in regardless, saying, “In the end we’ll still have to finish things.”

Fables #110 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (writer), Mark Buckingham (penciller), Steve Leialoha & Shawn McManus (inkers), Lee Loughridge (colorist)

The Story: If you’re an enemy of the state, prepare to be pooped by the Yoop.

The Review: Having multiple running plots can be a handy way to keep your story from stalling in one place too long, but it has its downsides too.  Split them up too much and you have the reader not only regrouping to keep track of them all, but you also risk shortchanging each plotline to the point they only inch forward with each episode.  Even worse is when they all hit that big, fat middle of exposition, which can be deadly in the best circumstances.

That is pretty much the situation Willingham brings upon himself here.  He essentially has four stories going on at once, each pretty much its own thing and not obviously related to the others.  The real problem is they all tend to hit the rises and falls of their action at the same time.  When they reach major turning points, the whole thing sings; when they reach the talky portions of the story, suddenly the whole issue becomes an endless cascade of text.

Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #6 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Shawn McManus (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist)

The Story: Clean the house, Cinderelley, kill off that assassin, Cinderelley.

The Review: Perhaps the most brilliant thing about Fables is how even though it’s a serious plot and character driven series, with quite a lot of dark material, because the very nature of its characters is childish, it can easily turn itself on its head and become fun and even silly.  It’s hard to think of any title that typifies this more than Cinderella: Fables Are Forever.  Though clearly a parody of many things, it never fails to demonstrate a sullenly grim streak, a potent combo.

Look at Dorothy.  This twisted version of the famous girl-child still works incredibly well.  Roberson seems to posit that instead of longing for home after seeing the big wide world, she has tasted the endless possibilities of the world and lusts for more, until only the challenge of killing keeps her interested.  But it would’ve been more interesting had Roberson explored a little further Dorothy’s amnesiac period, when she regressed to innocence, implying there may still be a small town farm-girl under that ruthless assassin’s persona.

In the end, perhaps what turns out to be Dorothy’s real weakness is that she is still a girl, despite her raw, sordid personality and lifestyle.  She exhibits with almost childish lack of control some of the most grating flaws of many young gals: cattiness (“You complete and utter bitch…God, will you shut up, already?!”), an unnervingly fickle temperament, and self-centeredness (“You don’t even know how smart I am!”), all of which prove her undoing.

Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #5 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Shawn McManus (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist)

The Story: Watch what you’re doing with that glass cat!  You break it, you bought it!

The Review: Does anything beat a good rivalry?  It’s a rhetorical question, because of course nothing does.  I’m quite a fan of the sitcom nemesis, the one who pops up every now and again to drop some mocking taunt just when the protagonist is at his lowest, but my next favorite is the ongoing, escalating face-offs between two enemies.  Done right, the stakes just get higher and the history between them even richer with each encounter.

And for an archenemy so recently introduced as Dorothy, it’s surprising how gung-ho you already feel for the big girl-fight with Cinderella to go down.  We can see from their first showdown in the past that even with Ivan’s help, Dorothy gets pretty much schooled by Cindy, who manages to take back the kidnapped Snow White and sucker-punch her freckled counterpart at the same time.  This incident will no doubt keep both women aiming for victory in their next match-up; Dorothy to avenge her defeat, Cindy to prove the last time was no accident.

The issue also calls attention to Cindy’s role as a career killer, a funny thing since the whole premise of the series revolves around that very fact.  But even in action she tends to be so darn cool and cute that you’re often inclined to overlook the grim implications of her day job.  Still, when Dorothy claims they both serve the same function, it speaks volumes that Cindy has no hesitation in denying it and making a clever distinction: one’s a mercenary, the other “a patriot”.

Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #4 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Shawn McManus (artist), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: This time, Cinderella’s taking the catfight straight to Dorothy’s face.

The Review: Fables has sprung off a lot of quality spin-offs since its conception, but none have quite the pure, unadulterated fun of the mash-up between Cinderella and James Bond.  Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love had such a strong execution of the idea that it was a pity it existed only as a limited series.  How great it is then to get another glimpse into the covert operations of Cindy—and with an even more apt title.

By now, every Fables writer has gotten to be an expert at taking our friendly, familiar fairy tales and turning them on their heads.  Roberson’s portrayal of Dorothy Gale as a professional hit woman works not only because of its twistedness, but also because of how much sense it makes when you consider the implications of her background.  After all, she was pretty much hired to assassinate the Wicked Witch; that she grew to love it shouldn’t be too implausible.

Cindy’s longstanding rivalry of sorts with Dorothy also gives us a welcome look into the former soot-covered girl’s history beyond her sordid affair with Prince Charming.  Whether she’s acting the bimbo in Fabletown or showing her real steel, Cindy’s kind of an oddball among the Fables. so it’s nice to see that in her world of allegorical espionage, she has a few counterparts—though lacking her fair appearance and disposition.