World Famous Comics: Fables Vol. 5: The Mean Seasons
Fables Vol. 5: The Mean Seasons
By: Bill Willingham Publisher: Vertigo Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Vertigo Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 168 Publication Date: April 01, 2005 Release Date: April 01, 2005
Changes in Fabletown If you've been following along, you know that Snow White was due to give birth any moment. She delivers successfully, and the very special family goes home happy and healthy. Don't count on happily ever afters just yet - by this time in the series, you should know where that's ended up. It's a good time for her maternity leave, because a grasping climber has decided that Fabletown's fabled coffers are just the thing to line his pockets with. He makes extravagant promises about good things for everyone ... well, I write this during a real-world election year. You know what that means.
And, as long as you're here, this collection opens with a one-issue back story. Many of these characters have lived in our mundane world for centuries, including twentieth centiry and its real-world wars. Even if the Fables have no loyalties to the mundanes, it's their world too, and worth keeping livable. Wolf decided that he had some fighting to do in WWII, a we see one story from that era.
If you've followed the series this far, it's time to admit it: you're hooked. Well, there are lots worse things to get hooked on. And really, is it such a bad thing for a series to pull you in, even in over your head?
-- wiredweird
Another superb entry into one of the finest graphic series in existence The title of the fifth collection of the FABLES comics takes its title from the group of comics comprising the final three quarters of this book. The first quarter is taken up with a couple of standalone stories - a sting operation in which a would be betrayer of Fabletown is got red-handed attempting to aid the Adversary and a history of a WW II operation by the U.S. military that was undertaken by a squad of soldiers and one Bigby Wolf. The first story was OK, but not really deeply connected to the rest of the stories. It does reveal that there are possibilities of treason on the parts of some Fabletown residents and it reveals a bit more about how Bigby Wolf handles things. The second story, the WW II one, also doesn't mesh very deeply with the rest of the stories. He was nonetheless a nice change of pace and gives some nice background to Bigby. It also balances out his relative absence from the last half of the group of stories that make up the bulk of the book.
Most of the book is centered around a number of relatively small story arcs. Unlike previous books in the series, there is no overarching story. We see Snow White give birth to a litter of children with very unusual abilities. We see her relocate to the Farm (where she seems to be getting along wonderfully with Aunt Rose Red), which is unfortunately a place where Bigby is forbidden to enter. We see Bigby's father and Snow's children's grandfather make an appearance (Mr. North aka The North Wind). We witness a series of truly unfortunate and tragic murders of fables. The mayoral election is held and Prince Charming takes over, only to find out immediately that the many campaign promises that he had made were impossibilities. But while Prince Charming and Beauty both prove themselves to be inept administrators, Beast unexpectedly turns out to be far better in his job than one might have suspected. Oh, and Blue has taken the Witching Cloak, the Vorpal Sword (which will slice through anything it hits), and the body of Pinocchio presumably to the lands of the Adversary in order to bargain for the freedom of his love Red Riding Hood.
So, all in all, the fifth book is more of a pause in the action than a major act. Nevertheless, these issues represent a further deepening of the world of the Fables. More secrets are revealed, such as Gundrun, the goose that lays golden eggs, who is secreted away deep in the hidden dungeons and who willingly helps fund the espionage work of Bigby and Beast with her eggs. Mainly, however, the book sets up future arcs of a more epic nature. It remains one of the best and most vital graphic series in existence.
Fables Continus to Impress In this volume you get a lot of the ground shaking events all at once. King Cole finds himself out of office and Bigby and Snow refuse to work for Prince Charming. Therefore, putting Beauty and Beast in their posts. Snow gives birth to Bibgy's children and after moving to the farm meets Bigby's father. Willingham easily sets up one of the best scenes in the series thus far and really played with your emotions the art continues to look great. I highly recommend to anyone following the series.
almost four stars I like it much better when the storylines are bigger and we have to keep the focus on Bigby and Snow, but even the smaller stories contained within are up to the level of the previous volumes. It advances the stories of what were more side characters.
Kind of a let-down Storywise, this fifth volume in the series is not terribly successful. After two dozen issues of the original comic book, the author appears to be getting a little desperate. There are two independent stories, plus the continuing arc about Fabletown in general. The first story is a somewhat pointless teaser about Cinderella, apparently an underling of The Adversary, and her tryst in Paris with Ichabod Crane, who is enamored of her. (Crane is a deliberate literary creation, though, not a "fable" like all the others.) He's willing to sell out his people if he can jump Cindy's bones. It doesn't work out that way, of course, with Bigby Wolf showing up at the last minute to turn everything on its head. But what's with the hyper-American French-hating spew at the end? Why would centuries-old fables give a damn about current U.S. politics? The second story (under the heading "War Stories") is kind of a take-off on Sgt. Rock or G.I. Joe, with Bigby Wolf as a behind-the-lines civilian assisting an Allied squad during World War II in taking out a German secret research project at Frankenstein Castle. Yes, indeed, it's Frankenstein's monster vs. the Wolfman. But I thought Wolf said he had been head of Fabletown security in New York without interruption for two hundred years. Kind of lame. The third section is the best, though it requires you to know about earlier events. King Cole is voted out of office by Prince Charming, Beauty replaces Snow White as city administrator, Mr. Beast replaces Wolf as "sheriff," Snow White has her baby by Wolf -- more of a litter, actually -- and Mr. North Wind shows up at the farm upstate. After the first couple of volumes, this one is definitely a let-down.
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