Tony Akins

I have read these fantastic New 52 Wonder Woman books out of order, but they are no worse for that. What a splendid idea to link Wonder Woman's story to the magnificently dysfunctional pettiness of the Greek Gods! In this edition, Wonder Woman faces conflict, spite and betrayal from various of these beings as she strives to protect the unborn child of Zola, the last and latest mortal woman to be impregnated by mighty Zeus. Hades wants to marry her. Apollo and Artemis want to destroy her. But show more Wonder Woman is a child of Zeus too -- and she holds her own. Azarello and Chiang tap into the rich stories of the Greek myths, and mix in their own with great style. Oh yes, and having already read War in this series, I love it that Hades gives an intimation of what is to come in that book. show less

Summary: The self-proclaimed best of all Fables, Jack of the Tales (also known as Jack the Giant Killer, Jack Horner, etc.), is back with his own series. After briefly summarizing Jack's Hollywood adventures (from Volume 6 of the main Fables series), this story picks up with everyone's favorite ruffian turned out of his life as a media mogul and hitchhiking with a briefcase full of cash. However, Jack gets picked up by some folks from the Golden Boughs retirement center, where Fables are show more taken until they're forgotten about. Jack's not going to stand for imprisonment, though, so he orchestrates an escape plan... taking some new friends and familiar faces with him.

Review: I was a little bit leery about starting the Jack of Fables series - although I love the Fables universe, Jack was just about my least favorite character, and I didn't miss him at all once he was gone from the main series. However, I've read through all of the main series books that are out, and needed another dose, so I picked it up... and I needn't have worried; Willingham works his magic just as effectively here as in the main books. Jack's actually easier to take when he's narrating his own story, and his macho swagger and bravado goes from obnoxious to funnily obnoxious to almost endearingly obnoxious. I also enjoyed the introduction of the "nearly-forgotten" Fables, and seeing how many folklore details you can pick out of the background is one of the joys of any Fables installment. This hasn't gone rocketing to the top of my list of favorite Fables volumes, but it was a fun little adventure that satisfied my craving, and made me excited to read the rest of Jack's books.

Recommendation: I don't know that this would be understandable without having read the main series books first; a lot of the history and details about what Fables are and how their world works is taken for granted. For Fables fans, though, it's certainly a worthy addition to the universe. show less

I really got suckered in by the first issue and it fell apart pretty much from the beginning of the second.

I feel I monkey's pawed myself enjoying the dark, mythic, brutality of the first issue, the grim summoning of the centaur was pretty awesome, but the interesting quickly became edgelord with shades of how Snyder made Superman grim and gritty, but nothing else, and men writing women.

The narrative is...fine. The dialogue is OK to painful. The art has its moments, but is really dull, show more particularly with facial expressions, particularly Diana's for some reason. We also need to talk about nu-metal by way of Ali G Hermes...WTActualF?! Admittedly, Hermes' feet and the designs of Hades and Poseidon looked great. No notes.

Wonder Woman is a fascinating character with a rich backstory and mythology to draw upon. She occupies an interesting space in the Trinity, between Superman's wholesome light and Batmans grim darkness. All of this, not to mention her connections to the World Wars, have such wonderful potential for mixing the dark and light, the mythical gods with grounded human problems. She is the eternal fish out of a clay amphora in any sphere of her life. Her narrative potential is endless! But she was done dirty here on what seems like a cheap and easy way for her to be a cis guy's idea of want a strong female protagonist is.

A modern mortal becoming pregnant by Zeus is a story with legs, and one especially apt for a modern and feminist telling. One that eschews casting Hera as the hateful harpy-shrew scorned wife, women turning on and destroying each other over the actions of men (this couldn't be more appropriately portrayed as it is in this. It's almost comical), never ascribing/ Zeus taking no accountability for his actions, a discussion about the utter lack of consent that is his M.O (yes, taking the form of something a person literally "cannot resist" is a consent issue)*, but instead it's paint by numbers meddlsome gods and 'crazy bitches' shtick, which, as played out as it is, can still have legs if it's down well. This just isn't.

It's not awful and there's some interesting enough ideas among what is a surprisingly lazy and uninspired first volume of this incarnation of Wonder Woman.

*I am absolutely a intersectional feminist, Gender malconent, and alphabet imp, but I resent how basic and shitty this writing is to necessitate me sounding like some faux progressive wokescold. show less

Apparently our Jack of Fables is nothing but a cheap knock-off. He was created due to his original (John, who became Wicked John after he escaped from Hell) being killed, and the master storyteller's need for another trickster character asap. I'm sure in the actual stories there was the duplication of some names, as these are more fluid storytelling elements than events and large themes, so I'm sure that this is what Willingham has used as his starting point. But even after Jack and John show more become two separate beings, with no more shared memories, they still wind up having many of the same personality characteristics. They're both womanizers, they're both money hungry, they both end up collecting sidekicks of some sort, and they both end up conversing with (the) devil(s). Pretty sure that Jack's ongoing deals are going to get him into some brimstone heated water soon, since it looks like his latest deal is almost up, and he hasn't yet found another buyer for his soul. show less