Fables #102 – Review

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

The Story: Ozma begins to assemble a super team under the guidance of Pinocchio as the Dark Man threatens Haven.

The Review: As weird as it seems at first, and as dubious the reasoning is behind it, this whole Super Team thing is really, really enjoyable.  It feels new and fresh for Fables and makes for some smart reading as well.  It allows Fables to discuss superhero comics and, by extension, comics as a medium.  The end result is an intelligent comic that almost feels self-conscious of its own medium.  It allows Willingham to think over some of the tropes and absurdities of superhero comics by bringing it into a comic that is anything but.

The whole superhero element also allows for a good deal of comedy as well, much of it thanks to that absurdity.  There’s also a good deal of hilarity in seeing Willingham’s piss-takes here and there, for instance, with Pinocchio’s dressing up as Professor X/Chief.  As you might suspect, it also leads to Mark Buckingham’s getting to do some really cool stuff.  His costume for Ozma is both gorgeous and humorous and quite honestly, even seeing the always-serious Ozma dressed up in such a get-up is all kinds of awesome.

As I mentioned, however, the reasoning for this whole Super Team is a bit questionable.  I can see where Willingham’s going with his reasoning, but it seems like a sort of ad-hoc explanation, as though Willingham just really, really wanted a superhero team in his comic and tried to come up with the reasons afterwards.  Furthermore, it’s a bit of a strain seeing someone like Ozma buy into the whole thing and dive in so completely.  That said, the visual and intellectual places that the comic is allowed to go as a result makes all of this fairly forgivable.

Fables #99 – Review

by Bill Willingham (writer), Inaki Miranda (art), Eva De La Cruz (colors), and Todd Klein (letters)

The Story: Mr. North confronts Mr. Dark and tells him of Totenkinder’s challenge to single combat as the Dark Man continues to build his domain.

What’s Good: I wasn’t particularly impressed by the Rose Red arc.  Overall, it meandered a bit and the result was that I wasn’t anywhere near as excited for Fables #100 as I should be.  All of that changed with this issue, which had me salivating for #100.  This comic should serve as a template for how to construct an effective build-up issue.

Much of this is because Willingham spends much of this issue showing, and not just telling, what is at stake.  We get a disturbing peek into Mister Dark’s transformed New York City, one that’s rife with irrational violence, cruelty, apathy, and, well, zombies.  It’s a dark and diseased place and instantly, next month’s climactic issue feels all the more important.  More than that though, Willingham hypes #100 by basically telling us exactly what that book is going to be about: an epic duel between Mister Dark and the suped-up Totenkinder.

Willingham relays this purely through a tense dialogue between North and Dark.  I love it when writers have immensely powerful entities just… talk.  It’s great to have scenes where characters who are essentially gods only imply their powers and merely converse, while showing a certain respect for one another.  It’s always an awesome dynamic and Willingham does it well.  More importantly, by merely talking about what will, or might, happen next month without actually giving us any action this month, Willingham ratchets up the tension and makes us want #100 all the more.