FAMILYFANS Books & Comics

FABLES #83: The Great FABLES Crossover (part 1 of 9)

by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, and Mark Buckingham

(DC / Vertigo)

Reader Appeal: Teens to Adults

Genre: Fantasy Comic

The first time I picked up an issue of Fables, my reaction was something along the lines of “What on earth I this?”

Imagine a world where fables, the people of myths and fairytales, have come to life, and they’ve been chased out of their own mythical world into ours. Most of them are living on a farm in New York. Snow White rubbing shoulders with the Big Bad Wolf, Jack Horner, Peter Piper, and just about anyone else you can imagine (and whose character is public domain). It’s an unusual and interesting world, and each story arc tends to be slightly different (conspiracy, murder mystery, political thriller, character story). There’s a lot of fun to had in Fabletown.

Not that everything is wonderful here. At some point the series split to form a spin-off called Jack of Fables (starring Jack Horner). Fables #83 is the beginning of The Great Fables Crossover where these two books come together (and there’s also a miniseries coming in called The Literals that fits into the larger story arc). The Literals are embodiments of literary concepts (if I understand them correctly), and one of them has the ability to write the fables right out of existence if he wants. Meanwhile, the fables have been chased out of Fabletown and are living in exile, where the evil influence of Mister Dark is spreading across New York.

If you’ve never read any Fables books before, you might want to back up and read some of the early issues first, if you can find them. It’s a strange and complex world, and a little hard to jump into if you don’t know any of the backstory (and you might be tempted to think either you or the author has lost their marbles). If you can get a grip on the world and the highly unusual (but satisfyingly complex) characters, you’ll find that Fables is a very intriguing and compelling world.

In Fables #83, this issue is busy setting up the field for a major event that’s going to shake up the world a bit, so it might not prove the best entry-point, but as a beginning to a new major story it’s not too bad.

There’s some fun action here, including a fight between Bigby and Beast that's exciting, if short. There’s some weird stuff going on too, with some of the Fables starting a new religion devoted to the (recently killed) Little Boy Blue. Jack has turned up to warn everybody about the Literals, and the stage is set for a whole new kind of threat unlike anything the fables have faced before. It’s all a bit crazy (as Fables always is), but it’s interesting, and even though the writing is a little bit weird, it’s one of the more creative books out there.

The art is quite good and is very original, and that’s something that’s common for this series. There’s a lot of fun variety to it (in the crazy cobbled-together world) that I really enjoy.

Fables isn’t a kid’s book, and some people may find it a little strange for their taste. If you’re considering letting your kids read it, make sure you read through the issue first to see whether you consider it appropriate. The content is more like a novel than a comic, with tangled personal relationships, intrigue, and more human failings like murder and infidelity (rather than caped villains and killer robots). But it’s also more meaty, complex, and creative than the average traditional comic. At least as an experiment, it’s worth checking out. As for this particular new plot arc, things are looking promising, even if they’re not quite running out of the gate.

FAMILYFANS RATING: B

--MV

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