Fables Vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover Author: Visit Amazon's Bill Willingham Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1401225721 | Format: PDF
Fables Vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover Description
From Publishers Weekly
The appeal of
Fables has always been the reimagining of fairy tale characters as if they were as messy and screwed up as real people; the characters are divorcées, drunks, womanizers, and overall flawed beings. In this crossover of all the Fables characters from various spinoff books, Kevin Thorn, the creator of the world and its stories, is angry such liberties were taken with his characters and is determined to destroy the Fablesverse and start over. The regular Fables cast, Snow White, Bigby Wolf, and Jack (the one with the beanstalk)—with a few additions such as gun-toting embodiments of the library sciences and Thorn's son, Mister Revise—try to stop Thorn before he writes them and the rest of the world out of existence. Unfortunately, most of what could be good ideas becomes burdensome, with zigzagging plot twists that bog down the pace. There are a lot of meanwhiles, and interesting side points and characters, but the overall plot is lacking.
(Feb.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Taking a breather from Fables’ main action, Willingham teams with fellow scripter Matthew Sturges for this story that occupied three monthly installments each of Fables, Jack of Fables, and The Literals, which was created for the occasion. It’s a frayed, comics-medium in-jokey yarn centered on a comics author (one of the Literals) determined to rewrite the Fables’ history, deleting characters he dislikes with a pen that makes what he writes real (at least in the world of comics). His straitjacketed twin, Writer’s Block, prevents him from whole-hog renovation but not from thwarting the posse after him by recasting its leader, Bigby Wolf, as a chimp, a pink elephant, a donkey, and a little girl. Fortunately, Wolf’s personality remains constant and, with the help of the kick-ass librarian Page sisters (from Jack of Fables), prevails. Meanwhile, when Jack drops in on the Fables’ Adirondacks farm, he’s hailed as the messianic second coming of the martyred Boy Blue; as Daffy Duck, whose Duck Amuck is surely one inspiration for this arc, might say—what a revoltin’ development! --Ray Olson
- Paperback: 232 pages
- Publisher: Vertigo; First Printing edition (February 9, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1401225721
- ISBN-13: 978-1401225728
- Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 6.6 x 0.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
The Great Fables Crossover spans three titles- Fables, Jack of Fables, and The Literals (a mini series released to complete the crossover)- so it is indeed a Crossover. It does star Fables (perennial favorites Bigby and Snow are more at the forefront here than they have been recently). But I'd hesitate to call it Great.
To summarize where we are at the start of this (minor spoilers to follow)- the characters of both ongoing books have been ousted from their homes- Jack and co. from Golden Boughs, destroyed in the battle with Bookburner, and the Fables are up at the Farm following the collapse of the Woodland building by Mr. Dark's evil magics. Kevin Thorne, a longtime background character in the Fables book, was revealed to be one of the Literals- embodiments of literary devises- and an important one at that, the embodiment of storytelling itself. He's decided his creations- the Fables/the universe?- has gotten out of control and he's going to end it all and start over. The crossover begins with Jack calling the Fables for help, and they dispatch Snow and Bigby to head out west and investigate Jack's claims. When they arrive Jack leaves in a huff and heads to the Farm (and the main Fables book), leaving Snow and Bigby (and the Jack of Fables supporting cast) to deal with the Literals.
This swapping is probably my favorite element of the crossover. Snow and Bigby are out of their element in Jack's book, and Jack's been apart from the main Fables for so long that there are a lot of interesting character beats to be found.
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