Fables #17: Inherit the Wind

It probably speaks to how long it took me to getting around to picking this up as to where my enthusiasm with this series is.  This was easily one of my favourite comic series for quite a while, and if I'm honest, I stick around because I've invested so much time in it already.  So there's that.  This volume didn't help that so much in that it was a big hallway towards what's hopefully to come - and I get that books have to do that - but when there's such a huge wait between instalments, I just need a little more to hang my hat on to keep me going.  The storyline with the cubs was fine enough, but the only real thing that got me excited in the entire issue was Rose Red's Christmas story and what appears to be Boy Blue telling her to get her shit in gear and figure out a way to revive him from the dead.  Sweet lord I've been looking forward to that for… geez… five or six volumes now…
So if you're a huge Fables nerd, you'll want to get this just because - but do NOT start here - it'll just confuse you. 

Fables #16: Super Team

I'll be honest, I hate the title for this volume - I get why they use it, but it just feels odd for the Fables universe to go here in the superhero parallel - mostly because it opens up a bit of a hornet's nest to me... because how Fables works is that the characters are from works of fiction that runs the gamut and the globe - anything and everything is up for grabs so long as it's a created character, really... so technically Superheroes are Fables as well in a way... am I right?  I don't think that Fables are subject only to fairy tale characters... although I guess it's pointless to hang onto this... I digress...
So this volume finds our friends getting ready to take down Mr. Dark for once and all, and Pinocchio takes a page out of superhero comics to assemble the perfect team to do so.  There's some fun to be had in it, but it doesn't really amount to anything and it's really just a way of filling time until the (anti-climatic) show-down.  Being that this is the sixteenth book of a series I think I'll have to throw down the SPOILER WARNING and talk more in depth about the volume below...

First off, I quite liked this volume.  I liked the story between Bigby and his father and the set-up to what's to come down the pipe, however I feel a bit cheated... if the North Wind could have come in and defeated Mr. Dark so easily at any time, why did it take this long?  It feels like for all the set-up and devastation that it was a really easy fix.  Although who knows... maybe that story isn't quite over... after all the (now smoking hot) Mrs. Spratt is still kicking around and maybe she's got something up her sleeve.  I'm still enjoying these books but I can't help but feel like we're getting to a point where they're not going to have anywhere interesting to go... I hope that Willingham has some new core-conflict up his sleeve to propel us into the next big arc(s), but it's feeling like it's going to start retreading.  Gepetto is going to try and start another uprising, etc... Right now the series is quite good, but I want it to be great again... Here's hoping...

Jack of Fables #8: The Fulminate Blade

I'm behind on this one (just realized that the next, and thankfully, finale book of the series is actually out next week).  I was a big fan of Jack of Fables, but I really feel like this series came to it's rightful conclusion with the Great Fables Crossover and that it's petered out ever since.  This volume was interesting enough, and a bit refreshing following Jack Frost instead of his father, but it really just felt like a tangent.  I'm happy to know that this series has come to an end and I do look forward to seeing how they rap it all up.  To people getting into the Fables world, at this rate, I'd almost recommend you not bother with this series following the cross-over (although after I read the finale volume I reserve the right to change my mind!
Jack of Fables Vol. 8: The Fulminate Blade