Shawn McManus

What elevates this volume for me is its elegant reshaping of the Persephone myth within the Swamp Thing arc. Abby’s descent to Hell during Arcane’s supernatural winter, and her ascension to Earth during natural spring, are clear parallels. Moore folds the ancient myth into a modern mythology in which Earth itself, through its elemental agent, wards off death, retrieves life from Hades, and renews itself in the consummation of spring. At its heart, this volume is a parable of panentheism, show more in which the new Eve eats of the new Adam’s fruit in a final rite that unveils Moore’s knowledge of good and evil: that the cosmos is all divine and all one. Life and death, love and hatred, God herself/himself, all are reversible patterns of the single deified reality that renews itself in an eternal cycle of horror and grace. Sure, we slogged through some purple prose and grotesque imagery to get here, but I can appreciate the artistry of cramming all this into a DC comic premised on a man turning into a plant. show less

Even though the Cinderella spin-off series was a flop I'm glad to see Cinderella's James Bond style antics and fashionable spygirl style back on center stage in the Fairest series. This time around her adventures are given a more integrated role in the larger Fables storyline as she goes up against a bunch of half-human-half-rat hybrid assassins, who are the offspring of one of her original mice-coachmen and under the control of Brandish - or so everyone thinks. It's actually Leigh Duglas show more (the former Mrs. Jack Spratt) who's behind the attempts on various leading Fables as we discover in the final pages. I'm not sure how she managed to get so much influence (she's now allied with the Huntsman, the mice assassins, and Cinderella's evil stepsister), but she sure does seem to have some nastiness planned for the Fable community. Whether it's long term jealousy against all the Fables for not valuing her service, a personal vendetta against Snow White, or revenge for the defeat of her lover Mister Dark, she seems to have plenty of motive and the brains to carry out her plans. Whether this will be a short-lived rebellion like we saw earlier with the "Animal Farm" storyarc or a prolongued seige of small battles fought in the shadows which culminate in a big showdown the results are sure to be dramatic as the Fables series is drawing to a close. show less

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

Now that the Jack of Fables spinoff has ended, I was intrigued by this. I had fairly good expectations for this book, and wow, these expectations were EXCEEDED. I was wondering what had happened to Lumi, given that Jack of Fables ended without telling us what had happened to her. Well, wonder no more - her fate is revealed in here as well as that of Sleeping Beauty, another character many of us have been wondering about. The artwork is stunning - STUNNING - and the writing is just bloody show more brilliant with how the story is presented, the details, the dialogue, and so on. I'm not kidding. If I could give this book ten stars, you better believe I would! If the next book is half as good as this one (and it is supposed to be about Rapunzel) then I will be happy. show less