Review: Bill Willingham et al: Fables: Wolves

Wolves, the eighth collection of Bill Willingham's Fables, hits the title from several different directions, as well as bringing us into a story of black ops, missing persons, family reunions, and general, all-around intrigue.

Prince Charming, who may not be much of a mayor but is revealing himself to be a first-rate strategic thinker, has decided that it's time for the Fables of Fabletown to take the war back to the Adversary -- now that they know who and where he is. Unfortunately, a key player in PC's plan is missing: Bigby Wolf has taken off for parts unknown. Because of the cubs' shape-changing abilities, which they can't control very well, Snow White has taken them to live at the farm; Bigby, because of past history, is barred from setting foot on the place. Since he's no longer the Sheriff of Fabletown, Bigby has opted to get lost. Prince Charming has, however, the ideal Tourist to hunt him down: Mowgli, who himself was raised by wolves. The good Prince also has something to sweeten the deal for all concerned: Mowgli's reward will be the liberation of his old friend Bagheera from confinement, his sentence for his (unwilling) participation in the ill-fated revolution led by Goldilocks; and Bigby gets to be re-united with Snow and his family -- just how is a surprise. Key in all of this are another of the Prince's undercover agents, Cinderella, Jack's magic beans, and "the Israeli option," a matter of unacceptable consequences.

Along the way we learn that, in spite of his general fearsomeness, Bigby is not good with heights.

We've gotten back to a good, solid, complex story line in this one, with some good character building. Snow White, in particular, reveals new facets -- we see, in the way she deals with her somewhat unruly litter, including maintaining the fiction that their father is in touch via letters, the qualities that made her the very effective Deputy Mayor she was, but she's mellowed. Bigby, likewise, adds a couple of new dimensions, mostly involving his feelings for Snow. Mowgli is the prize here -- he's revealed as a dogged, resourceful tracker of lost Fables, and tough as nails when need be. (He's also about as pretty as it gets.)

There is one part of this story arc that stuck out, and at the risk of spoilery, here it is: Bigby and Snow get married, a huge, lavish affair, with all the Fables who can be found in attendance. Given the time of the original publication (2006), it's hard to think that Willingham is not making a political statement on the religious nature of marriage ("created by God"), which is hard to justify historically. And it doesn't really fit -- it's more than a little out of tune with the characters and the context -- neither Bigby nor Snow are really given to grand public gestures, and given the general spikiness of the characters in general, it's a just a little bit too transparently "feel-good."

There is a wonderful side story detailing Cinderella's work in negotiating the alliance between Fabletown and the Sky Kingdoms. Cinderella is just as prickly and impatient as they come, and as she informs Prince Charming in no uncertain terms, no more diplomatic assignments -- she's had it.

The art is up to the usual standard, and stylistically consistent throughout. This collection also contains maps of Fabletown and the Farm, and a script for issue #50.

(Vertigo, 2006) Collects Fables, #48-51.