Mark Buckingham

The Fables series got a touch kitschy in this volume, even though it is clear that they were aiming for a farcical take on superhero comics. Unsurprisingly, Pinocchio, the comic book obsessed child (who claims he's got the maturity of an adult, but has yet to prove it), is the ringleader of the Fables "Super Team" who shall vanquish Mister Dark once and for all. His assumption is that if you lump together a bunch of people with some sort of supernatural power, put them in silly spandex show more costumes, and give them cliched superhero alias' they are sure to triumph.

Anyone in touch with reality (which surprisingly the Fables series usually tries to perpetuate) knows that Mister Dark can't be defeated by anyone but a peer, that is to say one of the "great powers" who are ideas personified into the world. Obviously these characters are few and far between, but it was mentioned in one of the previous volumes that the North Wind (aka Bigby's father) is one of these great powers, yet he's not even considered when the Fables try to come up with some sort of strategy. He may be a royal pain in the a**, but they could have at least asked, since he has a certain fondness for his grandchildren even if he doesn't really like the rest of the Fables community.

I wasn't very impressed with how quickly the battle with the Dark Lord happenned, and how easily he was vanquished. The solution was obvioius to me long ago, so instead of beating around the bush and creating doomed teams of superheros the Fables should have been capable of figuring it out too. At least Mister Dark is gone (he was a bit too predictable for my tastes), and some new plotlines were revealed. It seems that Miss Sprat has almost gotten what she wants, but we'll see if her newfound beauty will miraculously change her cantankerous personality. I'm also curious to see what happens with Bliss, Beauty and Beast's baby. Obviously she has inherited her father's curse, since Beast is now fully human, but it doesn't really seem fair to saddle a baby who can't find her true love until she's grown up some with a curse like this. Though maybe her changing abilities will be completely natural and less curse-based? show less

When Snow White goes on her semi-annual trip to The Farm, the community where all non-human fables live, she drags Rose Red along. But when they arrive everything is not as per usual. The deputy mayor in charge of The Farm is nowhere to be seen and when one of the animals is murdered shortly after Snow and Red's arrival, both women will have to take a side in a conflict no one saw coming.

I enjoyed this second volume in the Fables series just as much as the first. It is tremendous fun to see show more all of the animal and other non-human characters from various fairy tales and fables mashed up together in a single universe. I also appreciated that both Snow and Red got to be a lot more active and kick ass in this story arc. While I expected more allusions to Orwell based on the volume's title, the frequent allusions to Lord of the Flies were just as well suited to the narrative arc. show less

Summary: After a two-part story in which we learn what Jack did when he left Fabletown after the election - moved to Hollywood and became a movie producer, apparently - the rest of this volume gets down to the business of telling the story of Little Boy Blue. Blue absconded from Fabletown at the same time as Jack, taking with him the witching cloak and vorpal sword (of Jaberwocky fame). He's headed back into the Homelands, which have been controlled by the Adversary for over a thousand show more years, and while he's there, he means to find his lost love Little Red Riding Hood - the real one, this time - and kill the Adversary. Back on the homefront, Mowgli's back from travelling the world and has a new assignment, while the other Fables attempt to root out one of the Adversary's spies in their midst.

Review: After the more personal, emotional story of Volume 5, Volume 6 gets back on track, chugging the plot relentlessly forward. At the same time as we get forward plot momentum, though, we also get quite a bit of backstory filled in, with the revelation not only of the Adversary's identity (although I totally guessed right in Vol. 4), but also of how they became the Adversary and how things got to be the way they are. What I loved most about this volume in particular is how well Willingham is able to create many-dimensioned characters out of fairy tale staples, while still having it feel organic to their origins. That's been true throughout the series, but in Homelands I repeatedly found myself nodding my head and thinking "Yeah, that's right. If character Z *were* real, he'd totally be X and do Y." That's impressive storywriting, especially considering the disparate sources from which Willingham draws, yet he still blends it all together into a cohesive whole.

One thing that did bother me a little is that there's no reference to how much time is passing in the main story arc, whereas in the Jack story at the beginning, they're explicit about five years passing since Election Day, so it's unclear how the two fit together. Presumably we'll figure it out when the series gets back around to Snow White and the kids. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: While I missed the familiar main characters of Bigby and Snow, Homelands was still an excellent installment, and a chance to take the story and art into more fantastic arenas than we've seen before. Very enjoyable. show less

Another very strong volume. The war is finally over - probably? I don't really agree with Willingham's views on warfare, but they're certainly consistent with the series up to this point. Pleasantly, he's dropped the racist "comedy" around the Arabian Fables and Sindbad returns to play a vital, if not totally central, role. Nice to see Rodney and June brought to some closure, too.