Eric Nguyen (1)

Okay, so I was kind of right... Crane was behind some of the drama that began in the last book, but it goes so much deeper than that. The mastermind behind it all is the Crooked Man (an interesting character if I ever saw one), but the real problem isn't just his criminal empire which ranges from prostitution to loansharking to murder. The real problem is Fabletown itself; no society functions entirely without rules and safeguards, and an integral part of most functional modern-day societies show more is a social security net that distributes wealth so that everyone has a reasonable quality of life (even if it doesn't work entirely, obviously). This kind of concept is entirely foreign to the residents of Fabletown, who largely come from very classist systems (often feudal, sometimes even more hierarchical) where the rich have little to no formal responsibility to care for the poor. The central theme of the book is obviously much more than a 2 volume series can handle (much less a video game), but I think it serves its purpose to get readers thinking about some of the political goings on in the Fables community. Willingham did not create a fairytale series that was all peaches and cream, afterall, so the writers' focus puts this series squarely in line with the original themes - bravo! show less

This book introduces yet another Sandman (DC's fifth, if we don't count the various incarnations of Dream), Keiran Marshall. When Wesley Dodds dies, Marshall acquires his gift of terrifying nightmares-- and when Marshall, a photojournalist, goes to Afghanistan, he acquires Wesley's gas gun. The story is sort of a gritty action thriller in the Middle East, but with four separate plotlines, it doesn't have enough time for any of them, and they all jump around too much. I didn't find Marshall show more or his supporting cast very interesting, and the portrayal of the dreams was a little too prosaic for my tastes. Eric Nguyen's art is great-looking, but his storytelling skills are lacking; I was often confused as to what had just happened.

Wesley and Dian cameo, in a series of flashbacks to their 1997 visit to Afghanistan, long after Wesley had retired from crime-fighting, but the dialogue doesn't ring true to the characters as written by Matt Wagner and Steven Seagle. Plus there's a lot of mawkish stuff about Dian dying of cancer. Overall, I don't know if importing pulp nostalgia sensibilities into the contemporary Middle East even makes sense. An okay idea with haphazard execution, and definitely a disappointing way for Sandman Mystery Theatre to go out.

Sandman Mystery Theatre: « Previous in sequence show less

For a graphic novel based on a video game I was a bit surprised that it wasn't completely obvious from the storyline, but clearly the writers of the video game did a decent job writing the narrative of the game for it to work so seamlessly in graphic novel format as well. Thus far I'm not sure where the story is going, as the murder mystery has too many suspects to pin down exactly who is running about Fabletown murdering Snow White look-a-likes, but my money is on Ichabod Crane. He's a show more creep of the worst sort, and he seems to have far too many machinations going on to be completely innocent! show less

After being so disappointed in how the main series ended, this spin-off was a pleasant surprise. Just a creepy murder mystery being solved by the Big Bad Wolf. No big deal.
Bouncing back in time to pre-requited Snow and Bigby reminded me of how much I liked the original series when I started it. I’m on board for more Bigby-centric tales.