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.

Review: Bill Willingham, et al.: Fables: Arabian Nights (and Days)

Yet again, from the late and sorely missed Epinions.

Volume 7 of the collected issues of Bill Willingham's Fables, Arabian Nights (and Days), introduces the Arabian Fables, in the person of Sinbad, who heads a delegation from Baghdad -- but it's the Baghdad of the Homelands, not of this world. The Adversary hasn't penetrated that far yet, and the Arabian Fables are taking care to insure that their flight is not the helter-skelter thing that the Western Fables were forced to suffer. There are negotiations to be undertaken, a task for which Prince Charming, the Mayor, is not particularly well suited; he's forced to call on King Cole, the former Mayor, to take over as chief diplomat. However, there's perfidy afoot that may bring the whole thing to ruin -- but you've got to be really sneaky to get past Frau Totenkinder.

While the dialogue and personalities in this one have most of the sparkle of the earlier volumes, there's a lot of this segment that's plainly expository -- we learn about djinni, for example, from two different sources. And some of the characters -- particularly Sinbad's vizier, Yusuf -- seem to occupy a ground somewhere between stereotype and caricature. The most refreshing parts of the action take place at the Farm -- Boy Blue's sentence for making off with magical artifacts has been commuted to two years' hard labor -- but again, there's a lot of exposition.

There are a couple of subplots that are fairly entertaining, but one is left with the inescapable conclusion that the story's a little thin.

There is, in fact, a side story involving two of Gepetto's wooden puppets, Rodney and June, who fall in love and beg Gepetto to give them real flesh. He agrees, but there's a price to be paid.

The drawing style in the main story is fully consistent with the rest of the series -- no surprise, it's still being penciled by Mark Buckingham. The story of Rodney and June, penciled by Jim Fern, shows a noticeable shift -- it's somewhat more abstract, but still very clean and clear.

All told, I can't really summon up a great deal of enthusiasm for this one; what there is is mostly on the strength of the subplots. The main story just doesn't have that much going for it.

(Vertigo, 2006) Collects Fables #42-47.

Review: Bill Willingham, et al.: Fables: Homelands

I reviewed most of this series at Epinions. Now you get to read the reviews here.

Bill Willingham's Fables: Homelands gives us the adventures of two of Fabletown's denizens who have gone missing: Jack, who is suspected (with good reason -- as Beast points out, Bigby Wolf told him "Always suspect Jack first.") of having made off with the contents of one of the late Bluebeard's treasure rooms; and Boy Blue, who seems to have made off with several of the town's magical artifacts, specifically the Witching Cloak and the Vorpal Sword.

We start off with another of Jack's schemes to make his fortune -- except this time he's starting off with a fortune. He heads to Hollywood to make -- well, with Jack, it's never quite sure what his goals are, since he can't go public -- but he's going to make a splash. He sets himself up as a production company, with layers of front men to keep himself out of the public eye, and begins work on a fantasy trilogy -- the story of Jack. (No one ever said he was short on ego.) He's brought Jill with him on this jaunt. She just wanted to get out and see the world, but winds up living in Jack office in a series of antique dollhouses (she's rather diminutive). She's not real happy about that.

If this is Willingham's take on Hollywood and its workings, it's a little heavy handed. Jack has set himself up to be the biggest shark in an ocean full of them, and pretty well succeeds: we get a picture of Jack's character in this one, and it's not pretty. He's forgotten, though, that there's always payback -- this scheme works out just like the others have.

Boy Blue's goals are somewhat different: he's busily carving his way through the Homelands to get to the Adversary. He wants the Adversary to be history, and he wants Red Riding Hood, the real one, the one he fell in love with. There are a few surprises, but Blue is up to them -- he's a lot sneakier than we thought. And he's working for someone even sneakier than he is.

We also get to meet Mowgli, of Jungle Book fame, who's one of the "Travelers," Fabletown's spies in the mundy world. The new mayor, Prince Charming, has a special job for him.

This one is a lot of fun, from the swashbuckling adventures of Boy Blue in the Homelands to the machinations of the Adversary (and we finally find out who that is) and Prince Charming.

The art is up to the usual standard, and there are even distinct shifts in style when the characters are telling their histories that set off the narrative into a real "once-upon-a-time" mode. There's one thing I haven't mentioned before, and that's the borders around a lot of the pages. They give the feel of an old story book and add a lot to the fairy tale feel of the books.

This volume takes us back to the main narrative, and although the Jack story tends to go on a little too long -- I mean, we know Jack's a creep, right? We don't really need the repetition of just what a piece of work he is -- the Boy Blue story line more than makes up for it. I'm calling it a solid 4.

(Vertigo, 2006) Collects Fables #34-41.

Review: Bill Willingham, et al.: Fables: Mean Seasons

Or, A Year in the Life. Another Epinions orphan.

Bill Willingham's Fables: Mean Seasons focuses mostly on Bigby Wolf and Snow White and their children, and some upheavals in the lives of the Fables of Fabletown.

The first two stories, "Cinderella Libertine" and "Dog Company," give us a view of Bigby's activities now and back when. It seems that Cinderella, after her failed career as a revolutionary (Animal Farm), has gone to work for Bigby, undercover, while Bigby himself is revealed to be no stranger to black ops, blowing a clandestine Nazi operation. (Think Frankenstein Redux.) "The Cruel Hot Summer" brings us back to Snow, who delivers six cubs (much to her surprise) coincidentally with the mayoral election, which results in a landslide for Prince Charming, because of his campaign promises. In "The Long Hard Fall," Snow is at the Farm with the babies and Bigby has made off for parts unknown, while Beauty and Beast, their successors as Deputy Mayor and Sheriff, respectively, of Fabletown, cope as best they can. We learn in "The Dark Killing Winter" that transition to the new administration is not all that smooth: Boy Blue, who knows how everything works, disappears, along with several magical artifacts. And Beast decides, as an act of clemency, to commute Flycatcher's (the Frog Prince) sentence of community service, much to Flycatcher's dismay. We also witness the first of a series of mysterious deaths, which seems somehow connected to a letter from Frau Totenkinder to Snow about her seven children. And in "Until the Spring," we learn that there was indeed a seventh child.

Although it's not clearly defined, in terms of a real "plot," there is an overarching storyline to this volume, but it grows in your awareness rather than being plainly laid out. Fortunately, Willingham's storytelling is engaging enough that I didn't feel the lack. The dialogue, however, sometimes goes flat: it's fairly matter-of-fact to begin with, but the situations are generally enough to carry it. That's not always the case in this collection.

The art, a team effort by Mark Buckingham and Tony Akins, pencils, and Steve Leialoha and Jimmy Palmiotti, inks, maintains its appeal, but once again, is somewhat constrained by the heavy scripting. The babies, though, are adorable.

It's a filler volume, really, a sort of breather before the next chapter of the fight against the Adversary resumes. It's still a good read, but I can't really put it at more than a 3, maybe just a smidge above.

(Vertigo, 2005) Collects Fables #22 and 28-33.