|
Still his points were usually subtle enough or at least well-integrated enough to be things I could agree to disagree on. I could tell from early in the series that Willingham was fairly conservative with his hearty use of the death penalty (Animal Farm), torture of captured enemies (Baba Yaga), some hackneyed shots at left-wing ''radicals' (Goldilocks) as he imagines them, and the supposed moral decay of the Mundy's in taking a more nuanced perspective on crime (Snow White's characterisation of modern values as blaming the victim). Heavy-handed is an understatement and worse detached from the actual nature of marriage in the social and cultural context of the characters, historical or modern.
At that point Willingham just went almost comically conservative. Ridiculous.Most unforgivable of all, characters from continental European, pre-modern, even pre-Christian contexts carry out the most overbearingly trite, Protestant, Anglo-American wedding ceremony imaginable, including an absurdly out-of-character promise by Snow White to "obey" Bigby. ***Potential Spoilers***I loved Fables until issue 50, as contained in this TPB.
For a series that had studiously avoided religion with the exception of the Arabian Fables (with some fairly cliché portrayal of Islam), the wedding was a blatant shot at the notion of civil marriage and thus marriage equality for gays and lesbians (Willingham literally has his character talk about marriage as a sacred institution handed down by god). With Fables 50, he just went over the deep-end and frankly spoiled two characters, Snow White and Bigby Wolf, that I had really come to love.A very sad ending to my interest in this series. He concludes a drawn out romance between Snow White and Bigby Wolf in the most hurried and unbelievable fashion where they settle down in proper wedlock in a McMansion-looking house (not kidding).
Willingham wants us to accept that Bigby Wolf, who has been roaming about completely out of contact with six of his seven illegitimate children and their mother for years and was 'shacking up' with some random woman a mere one issue back, is suddenly ready for a settled, nuclear-family arrangement.
As usual, the art contained within this volume is top-notch, especially the beautifully detailed inserts of the original cover art for the individual issues. With Fabletown, under the leadership of Prince Charming, gearing up for the inevitable conflict with the Adversary, solidifying alliances and making preemptive strikes, the direction of the series promises to be one of grand conflict, and I can't wait to read it. While the overlying feeling of this book is one of an interlude, with the primary focus being on wrapping up Snow and Bigby's tale, this volume does set the direction for the future of the series.
Here we finally learn what happened with Bigby, and reach an acceptable conclusion to the long-running storyline of his and Snow White's love story. However, one good aspect of this volume is learning more about the development of Snow White's cubs. This volume will please most fans of the series, being a gratifying read.
This is a group of characters that are just starting to capture individual traits and that should provide a great source of material in future stories. Overall, while this isn't the best of the series, its still great, and certainly cannot be missed. That being said, this is one of the shorter TBPs of the Fables line, and doesn't contain very many exciting or surprising elements (with the notable exception of Bigby's mission into the Homelands, which is actually one of the best sequences of the entire series).
Neither Mowgli's quest to track down the ex-sheriff or Cinderella's work in the Cloud Kingdoms did much for me, just sort of dragging on, and containing only brief moments of glory.
Cinderella, who prefers a dash of skullduggery in her missions, really doesn't have a good time with this one. And we all know that James Jean's covers are wicked cool.For the completist in you, this trade also offers a map of Fabletown and of the Farm, as well as the entire script to issue #50. This naturally still doesn't sit too well with Fabletown's new mayor, Prince Charming. Charming hungers for retaliation, and his plans involve a secret mission in the heart of the Adversary's Empire. And, oh, did the invisible seventh child ever find his dad. Those who can't pass for humans live on the Farm, Fabletown's isolated annex located in upstate New York.Some catching up: Back in Fables Vol. His kids have never seen him.So cut now to FABLES Vol. Most of them live on a little residential street called Bullfinch (heh)., but those in the know call this community Fabletown.
Some minor SPOILERS, for Volume 8 and especially if you haven't so far read the preceding FABLES trades (and what's wrong with you that you haven't yet).Fans of FABLES and, more pointedly, of Snow White and Bigby Wolf are in for some fine reading. Issues #48 & 49 mostly intersperse Mowgli's sometimes harrowing year-long search for Bigby with goings-on at the Farm, and specifically with how the cubs are faring. 8: WOLVES, this volume. Cinderella undertakes a diplomatic assignment up the giant beanstalk and in the cloud kingdoms. Except that the only one qualified to pull off this special ops, Bigby Wolf, has vanished.Why Bigby took off is explained in Fables Vol. 5: The Mean Seasons. Since Snow and Bigby happen to be two of my most favorite characters in this series, the issues collected here in FABLES Vol. 8: WOLVES were something I'd particularly looked forward to.
And that artists Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha continue to really bring Willingham's stories to life. All that is a set up for the big 50th issue, which treats us to Bigby's perilous mission in the Homelands, then a homecoming and a reunion. Reprinting only issues #48-51, this is one of the shortest FABLES trades out there, but since it marks the return of Bigby Wolf, consider me assuaged. quandary.Finally, issue #51 focuses on Cinderella, one of Fabletown's most capable Tourists (Tourists, by the way, are Fabletown's agents sent out to the mundane world to keep tabs on fables living abroad). What sucks is that their father, Bigby Wolf, is banned from ever setting foot on the Farm (Bigby was and is the Big Bad Wolf, so a lot of the Farm's sentient animals are rightfully wary of him).
I'll settle this time for saying only that the man can write like the dickens, and that his cast of fables makes up some of the most involving, three-dimensional characters I've ever read in comics. Well, yes. But the reader might.So I'm done talking up Bill Willingham (mostly 'cause it's getting hard coming up with new ways to praise the dude). And for those who'd been on pins and needles regarding what's up with Snow and Bigby and their love story and their cute but impossible kids, well, the title of the 50th issue, "Happily Ever After," whispers a clue.For those new to this remarkable, sometimes subversive comic book: Bill Willingham's modern-day twist is that the characters in all those classic fairy tales and stories from folklore and literature are alive and well and, having been driven out from their Homelands by the Adversary, are now hiding out in New York. And the kids get to meet their dad for the first time, and there's a resolution to the whole Bigby-Wolf-shan't-be-in-the-Farm-like-ever.
Bigby, in a tiff, skedaddles for parts unknown. 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers, Fabletown managed to fend off an attempted invasion by the Adversary's army of wooden soldiers. In this, Snow White, having given painful birth to seven cubs, is forced to relocate to the Farm, there to stay until the children learn to control their shapeshifting.
Collections 1 through 7 set the background of events and characters taken for granted in this, the eighth. The story moves smoothly, with all the things that a long-lived series needs: old threads to wind down, new ones to explore, and continuity to pull us along. Another new element arises near the end of this collection, when emissaries form a tottery alliance with the cloud kingdom at the top of Jack's beanstalk. It turns out that his unique skills can help Fabletown in a daring counter-attack against the nearly-unstoppable opponents.
Willingham and crew continue to do a great job with this entertaining and imaginative series. I really just recommend that you read them, though. Continuity comes from Jack's family, the charming litter of six-plus-one children and their mother, Snow White, and their new life together.I recommend that you read these books in order. For those of you who came in late: fairy tale characters are real - and living in exile in New York.
A year-long search ends his absence and, at the same time, starts a new phase in the ongoing war. The series sustains its energy well and, even more than at the beginning, I really want to follow the lives of these wonderful characters.-- wiredweird War has driven them from their homelands, and inner divisions have threatened their secretive society in our mundane world. The old involves Bigby wolf, living in self-imposed exile.
Can't wait to get the next one. Things readers have been waiting on since book 5 come about and there's romance and violence and politics and general badassery from my favorite characters. My second favorite of the series so far. So much happens in book 8.
|
