Fables

• Title: Fables #140
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Bill Willingham
• Artist: Steve Leialoha

After burying what they believe is all that’s left of Puss in Boots, Briar Rose leads the rest of the group onward defeating one enemy by less than chivalrous means and to a final battle against the evil witch Baoban Sith and her demon dogs. Wrapping up the two-issue arc, one member of the group will indeed give his life for their cause, however it turns out not to be Puss who keeps finding ways to survive (and even convince unlikely allies to join their cause).

Along with both action and witty dialogue, writer Bill Willingham also reveals the unexpected cause for the end of Fabletown (and for Fables itself as the comic is now down to its final ten issues). Neither old enemy nor new it seems will be the refuge’s undoing, but the mere fact of its populace realizing it’s now same, and time, to return home as Seamus does here.

I’m happy to see Puss and Boots return, and even survive his second death scene, but there’s certainly a tinge of melancholy hear and Willingham begins revealing the end of a comic I may have come late to but have grown to love. Worth a look.

[Vertigo, $2.99]

• Title: Fairest #25
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Marc Andreyko
• Artist: Shawn McManus

After her stepsister is quickly dispatched by the timely arrival of Rama and Veruna, Cinderella returns to Fabletown along with her friends to report her findings to Snow White setting up next month’s conclusion of “Of Men and Mice” and the fallout between sisters that threatens to shake the Fable Universe to its core.

I enjoyed the latest issue of Fairest, even if I was surprised how quickly the issue dispensed with the threat of Cindy’s evil stepsister (but Veruna was pretty damn cool). Bringing in the feud between Snow White and Rose Red from the main Fables comic continues to blend the two titles more strongly together in what is sadly their final year of publication.

The uprising of the mice which ends the issue sets up next month’s conclusion to the arc, but its the few panels involving the return of the Fairy Godmother’s memory which adds a new wild card to both the end of this arc and the stories still left to be told. Worth a look.

[Vertigo, $2.99]

• Title: Fairest #24
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Marc Andreyko
• Artist: Shawn McManus

Cinderella‘s search into the army of rat men leads her to reconnect with two characters from her past. The first, the simple-minded mouse turned man Marcel, it seems is responsible for the birth of the rat army but not the nefarious purposes they have been put to recently. The second, however, is an old enemy who very much wants Cindy dead (I guess what they say about evil step-sisters is true).

After surviving the attack of her step-sister, Cinderella and Marcel escape on a boat bound for home, but (as the last couple of panels illustrate) getting away from an insane step-sister turned assassin is harder than it looks.

Although we don’t get much in the way of answers (which will likely be coming in next month’s issue), the latest issue of the arc delivers a pair of action sequences between Cinderella and perhaps her oldest nemesis as the story arc reaches its penultimate issue next month before concluding in Fairest #26. Worth a look.

[Vertigo, $2.99]

• Title: Fables #138
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Bill Willingham
• Artist: Russ Braun

In a break before beginning the series next arc in Scotland, Fables #138 gives us a glimpse at the evil machinations of Gepetto who has grown tired of his recent position on the Farm and regain a bit of the power now lost to him. To that end he sends a small wooden soldier into the magic grove which he is barred from entering to retrieve the villain a bit of magic which may aid in his mischief somewhere down the line.

Presented mostly from the view of the noble and faithful knight Gepetto sends on a suicide mission (whose real purpose on the tinkerer truly knows), we see the wooden solider fight off a variety of obstacles (or to his view vicious monsters) before entering the heart of the grove and leaving with a tiny bit of magic which he returns to his master.

Slow simmering, the single issue lays the groundwork for Gepetto’s possible return to power sometime down the line while, as he notes, all eyes in Fabletown and the Farm are on threats elsewhere. Worth a look.

[Vertigo, $2.99]