Cinderella: Fables are Forever

In general, I've liked the premise of the Cinderella books—Cinderella as master spy—but the stories haven't lived up to my hopes. With this one, I just didn't find the antagonist to be all that credible. For all that we're told that "Silver Slipper" is a mercenary, it seems more that she just enjoys killing people. She doesn't come across as all that emotionally stable—in fact, I find her pretty interchangeable with Goldilocks—which seems like it would be a handicap in her chosen profession. Indeed, Cindy keeps beating her when they meet because Cindy can still think and strategize, while her counterpart just loses her temper and reacts. I liked the art, however, and how the plot was able to work in a few more non-Western show more Fables, albeit only in passing. show less

Cinderella's old arch-nemesis, "silver slipper," turns out to still be alive and Cindy needs to travel the world with Russian Fable Ivan Durak to catch up with her. This volume also includes Cindy's visit to the Cloud Kingdoms in her role as a diplomat. A fun installment with a great villain and beautiful art. It has a large number of flash-backs and gets a little confusing at times, but is still a very enjoyable companion to the regular Fables œuvre.

While this graphic novel is missing the linguistic and storytelling flare of Fables creator Bill Willingham, Roberson and McManus appropriate a style that mimics that of Ian Fleming which is very apropriate to the spy-style action. The narrative is very plot-driven, but they manage to get inside Cinderella's head enough so that the story is more than just the "good spy vs. villain" plot with added Fables characters and magic.

A few details worried me though; weren't Dorothy's slippers red? According to the internet, the slippers were ruby in the film, but silver in the book, which implies that the writers were staying true to the original material, but I'm sure many readers were as confused as I was. The ruby slippers from the film have show more changed the popular view of Dorothy's footwear, and they are arguablly more fitting to her character. Throughout Cinderella's battles with Dorothy, she is working for the Russian set of Fables, who subscribe to the Communist ideals propagated by the Russia where they made their home after escaping the Homelands. If Dorothy's code name was "Redslipper" rather than "Silverslipper" it would be a subtle nod to who her main employers are, but also to her rebellion against the Fabletown charter and to her rather bloody personality... show less

I enjoy these Fables spinoffs, and i think what they did to Cinderella by making her an awesome spy was a really cool thing to do to their character, but I just can not give this book 5 stars, it was lacking in something that I can not quite name. Not only that, but the twist with the Russian Fool made me go WTF. It definitely was interesting seeing her and Dorothy Gale against one another, and I liked the story here. A good collectible for any Fables fan.

This one was much better than the first volume because Cinderella fights Dorothy Gale from Oz throughout the book! Dorothy is a bad ass in it and it's awesome! I'm disappointed this spin-off series isn't continuing but there are more spinoffs to read. Excellent read!

The Fables universe has long been one of my favorite continuing comic stories and I just finished reviewing one of the spin-offs, Cinderella: From Fabeltown with Love. And now I’m back with the second collection, Fables Are Forever, again featuring super spy Cinderella and playing off aspects of the James Bond universe. Just like the last collection there are some twists and turns that even the most experienced Fables reader won’t be able to imagine (and in some cases I’m not sure they would want too.) But it’s a wild ride and the story is a great addition to the Fables universe. In this miniseries a foe Cindy thought long dead reveals herself to still be alive...and gunning for Cindy.

Cinderella, Fabletown’s master spy, has a show more new mission. One that may prove even too deadly for her. Every spy has one ruthless archnemesis and Cindy is no exception. Her nemesis is a rogue American Fable known as the Silver Slipper. Cindy was sure she was dead...but there's been a murder at the farm and the Slipper's calling card is left behind. Cindy is lead on a journey that even she may not be able to come back from. But she'll follow the clues wherever they may lead, talking to past enemies, and even going back to one of the homeworlds all in her quest to end the reign of the deadly Silver Slipper.

Just like the regular Fable series I love that the characters in this miniseries are turned on their heads and take different paths than what we expect them too, especially the big bad in this series The Silver Slipper. Just like Gepetto from the regular series, the Silver Slipper is a Fable that I'm not sure anyone would ever have pictured taking a walk down the dark side. But wow, is she a fantastic character or what? Chris really gives her depth, dimension, and a great back story to explain where it all went wrong. And I absolutely love Cindy's character she is the perfect females James Bond type super spy. The one thing that I do wonder is that The Silver Slipper is kept in a mysterious holding facility, seemingly built for Fables and I wonder...who runs that facility? Perhaps we’ll find out one day but it’s the one unanswered question that I have from this miniseries. I also wish that the last story in the collected edition wasn’t just a reprint issue from Fables, but instead was something new. Yes it features Cindy, but I would have liked to see sketches or a little short story...something different. But that’s a minor gripe.

The artwork is classic Fables capturing the characters in all of the style and elegance they deserve. Shawn’s action sequences are some of the best that I’ve seen in the Fables universe and I really enjoy seeing his design on popular characters, such as The Silver Slipper. Just as before the one weak point of the artwork, for me at least, are the depictions of the animal characters. They just appear too cartoony next to the human characters, the Cowardly Lion in particular. There are also times where certain characters appearances change drastically from one issue to another such as the Silver Slipper, even though it’s the same artist drawing them. It’s just a bit jarring to see them look so drastically different. Thankfully it doesn’t happen often. Overall I enjoyed Shawn's artwork in this collection.

I really enjoyed this collection and it’s a great addition to the Fables Universe and I can’t wait to see if Chris comes back to the Fables universe (although he did recently announce that he was stepping from the comics industry due to philosophical differences.) I recommend this collection to and fan of Fables and if you haven’t read Fables yet (why the heck not?) go read the regular series and then come and read this spinoff. show less

This volume continues with Cinderella’s adventures as Fabletown’s master spy. This time she is battling her arch nemesis and it turns out that these two have quite the history. This villain is to the dark side what Cinderella is to the light and while Cindy considers herself a patriot, this other one is all about the money.

I personally didn’t like this story as well as the first Cinderella finding it a little repetitive, and I would have liked a little more backstory on the villain so that her motivation was more clearly defined. Fables Are Forever was light entertainment but didn’t have enough substance to lift it much above the average mark.