A Lot Of Subplots To Keep Straight

Fables 132
DC Vertigo
Bill Willingham, writer
Mark Buckingham, artist

This issue is the second chapter of the "Camelot" story arc, and man, is there ever a lot going on.

The title refers to Rose Red's efforts at inspiring hope. She has decided to re-create the Round Table from Arthurian legend and has sent emissaries out into all the known worlds to return with knight candidates. As part of that effort, she is getting help and drawing together characters from throughout the Fables universe. Not only is she contracting construction of the Round Table and a Great Hall to put it in to Haven's King Ambrose and Weyland, but one of the emissaries she invites is Briar Rose from the first Fairest story arc, Fairest being the new Fables spin-off title.

In addition to that, we see the continuing efforts of the Fabletown witches to piece together all of the shards of the destroyed Bigby. Their plan is that if they can find and reassemble every single bit of the glass Bigby was turned into before he was shattered, they can use the fact that he is a natural shapeshifter to bring him back. To that end, they are employing all of the tricks and spells at their disposal, and even call in a favor from the Lady in the Lake. Lake, as she prefers to be called, is also the proxy along with Sheriff Beast (of Beauty and the ...) in the current marriage negotiations between Gepetto and the Blue Fairy. Of course, that's a whole other subplot as those two characters are now mortal enemies and Beast cooked up the formal marriage proposal as a way to stall for time when Gepetto's and the Blue Fairy's clashes threatened all of Fabletown.

There's also the unfolding bits of Therese's return. She's one of the children of Bigby and Snow White who was lured into Toyland to be the broken toys' new regent. The now adult Therese (time works differently in Toyland) has come home for a visit to tell her parents what happened to her when she disappeared and also to tell them how her brother, Dare, died trying to rescue her. But she has made it very clear she must return to Toyland soon.

And lastly, we have the latest developments with Prince Brandish. He's the rogue who claimed to be betrothed to Snow White and transformed and shattered Bigby before Snow ran him through with his own magical sword. We get a few glimpses of his past to shows us just how twisted a creep he really is, and the surprise of his resurrection during his autopsy. His heart has been magically removed and stored away in a safe place, making him effectively immortal until or unless something should happen to his heart. Of course, immortality isn't all it's cracked up to be for Brandish if Rose Red has anything to say about it.

I know all of these various twists and turns and subplots that interweave and build upon each other don't make it easy for a new reader to pick up an issue and understand what's going on. But as a longtime reader who has followed the story from the beginning, it is one of the things I love about this series. There are almost always little things of importance going on in the background and even a stand-alone issue is very much a part of the larger whole.

There Be Unhappy Spoilers Hereabouts!

Fables 128-129
DC Vertigo
Bill Willingham, writer
Mark Buckingham, artist

In case you missed the header: ************SPOILER ALERT!************

I believe these issues are the last ones of the recent "Snow White" arc in Fables, all of which I have enjoyed reading, as always, except for one major plot point: They've killed off one of my favorite characters -- Bigby Wolf! To paraphrase the Emerald City coroner from "The Wizard of Oz," he's not only merely dead, he's really most sincerely dead. I say that because while Snow and several of the Fabletown witches believe there might be a chance to revive Bigby -- who was turned to glass then shattered -- this entire story arc has been narrated by an adult Ambrose, one of Snow and Bigby's children, and right after the shattering occurs, Ambrose says, "And that's how my dad died."

Now these are magical characters, so anything is possible down the line. But Ambrose's pronouncement seems to be a final nail in Bigby's coffin. To top it off, Bigby would not be the first major character to be killed off in the course of this series. Prince Charming died previously, as did Bluebeard, and both have remained dead ever since. And let's not forget Boy Blue, a major fan-favorite character of this series, killed off in the war against the Adversary. He's still dead, too.

There have been hints in recent months that bad things were going to befall the Wolf family. One of Snow and Bigby's kids has already died and another was forever changed, and not necessarily for the better. Now it looks like Bigby has died. He can always appear again in flashbacks, but it will be sad to know he is gone from the series in such a final way.

As for the rest of the issues, this arc has had Snow treated pretty poorly at the hands of Brandish. Bigby interrupted his search for the pair's missing cubs in an effort to save his wife, but did not fair so well against Brandish's trickery. Naturally, she's sad at Bigby's loss, but Snow is happy to be the one to strike down the villain as she vowed to do early in the arc. And she fulfills that vow with panache and style.

The artwork by Mark Buckingham is one of the highlights of this series, and he doesn't disappoint this time out. Both the fight scenes between Brandish and Bigby in No. 128 and between Brandish and Snow in No. 129 give a clear sense of the action and swordplay.

All in all, nicely done; I just wish they hadn't done that!

UPDATE: Just this past weekend, before this post went up but after I'd written it, news came out of ComicCon revealing the cover to Fables No. 134, which depicts -- Boy Blue and Bigby! No other details accompanied the release of the cover image, but there is renewed cause for hope. Especially since Prince Chaming has also recently been brought back from the dead in the pages of the Fables sister title, Faiest.