Fables Vol. 8: Wolves
by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckhingham, Shawn McManus
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Book Summary Information
Author: Bill Willingham, Mark Buckhingham, Shawn McManusBrand: DC / Vertigo
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-12-06
ISBN: 1401210015
Number of pages: 160
Publisher: Vertigo
Book Reviews of Fables Vol. 8: Wolves
Book Review: Return of the Big Bad Wolf - a feel-good story arc
Summary: 5 Stars
Some minor SPOILERS, for Volume 8 and especially if you haven't so far read the preceding FABLES trades (and what's wrong with you that you haven't yet?).
Fans of FABLES and, more pointedly, of Snow White and Bigby Wolf are in for some fine reading. Since Snow and Bigby happen to be two of my most favorite characters in this series, the issues collected here in FABLES Vol. 8: WOLVES were something I'd particularly looked forward to. And for those who'd been on pins and needles regarding what's up with Snow and Bigby and their love story and their cute but impossible kids, well, the title of the 50th issue, "Happily Ever After," whispers a clue.
For those new to this remarkable, sometimes subversive comic book: Bill Willingham's modern-day twist is that the characters in all those classic fairy tales and stories from folklore and literature are alive and well and, having been driven out from their Homelands by the Adversary, are now hiding out in New York. Most of them live on a little residential street called Bullfinch (heh!), but those in the know call this community Fabletown. Those who can't pass for humans live on the Farm, Fabletown's isolated annex located in upstate New York.
Some catching up: Back in Fables Vol. 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers, Fabletown managed to fend off an attempted invasion by the Adversary's army of wooden soldiers. This naturally still doesn't sit too well with Fabletown's new mayor, Prince Charming. Charming hungers for retaliation, and his plans involve a secret mission in the heart of the Adversary's Empire. Except that the only one qualified to pull off this special ops, Bigby Wolf, has vanished.
Why Bigby took off is explained in Fables Vol. 5: The Mean Seasons. In this, Snow White, having given painful birth to seven cubs, is forced to relocate to the Farm, there to stay until the children learn to control their shapeshifting. What sucks is that their father, Bigby Wolf, is banned from ever setting foot on the Farm (Bigby was and is the Big Bad Wolf, so a lot of the Farm's sentient animals are rightfully wary of him). Bigby, in a tiff, skedaddles for parts unknown. His kids have never seen him.
So cut now to FABLES Vol. 8: WOLVES, this volume. Reprinting only issues #48-51, this is one of the shortest FABLES trades out there, but since it marks the return of Bigby Wolf, consider me assuaged. Issues #48 & 49 mostly intersperse Mowgli's sometimes harrowing year-long search for Bigby with goings-on at the Farm, and specifically with how the cubs are faring. All that is a set up for the big 50th issue, which treats us to Bigby's perilous mission in the Homelands, then a homecoming and a reunion. And the kids get to meet their dad for the first time, and there's a resolution to the whole Bigby-Wolf-shan't-be-in-the-Farm-like-ever! quandary.
Finally, issue #51 focuses on Cinderella, one of Fabletown's most capable Tourists (Tourists, by the way, are Fabletown's agents sent out to the mundane world to keep tabs on fables living abroad). Cinderella undertakes a diplomatic assignment up the giant beanstalk and in the cloud kingdoms. Cinderella, who prefers a dash of skullduggery in her missions, really doesn't have a good time with this one. But the reader might.
So I'm done talking up Bill Willingham (mostly 'cause it's getting hard coming up with new ways to praise the dude). I'll settle this time for saying only that the man can write like the dickens, and that his cast of fables makes up some of the most involving, three-dimensional characters I've ever read in comics. And that artists Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha continue to really bring Willingham's stories to life. And we all know that James Jean's covers are wicked cool.
For the completist in you, this trade also offers a map of Fabletown and of the Farm, as well as the entire script to issue #50. And, oh, did the invisible seventh child ever find his dad? Well, yes.
Summary of Fables Vol. 8: Wolves
Collecting issues #48-51 of writer and creator Bill Willingham's award-winning Vertigo series, WOLVES also includes newly-created maps of Fabletown and the Homelands illustrated by Willingham and, as a special bonus, Willingham's complete script to the double-sized issue #50.Fantasy Books
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