Fables, Vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover

What a fun crossover volume! Jack (of Jack and the Beanstack fame) has been exiled from the fables for a long, long time for his tricks and nonsense. But when he calls up Bigby and tells them about a new threat to Fables, the literals and who can rewrite the universe or destroy it, Bigby decides it's time to step in. Together they step in with a bunch of good literals: Revision, the Page sisters (badass librarian sisters), and others to try and save their lives and their universe. It's an ambitious and wonderful crossover. Rose Red is still a hot mess, Jack is up to his Shenanigans, and Bigby's temper is getting the better of him, and I loved every second of it!

Summary: Jack, the Page sisters, and the rest of the refugees from the battle at the Golden Boughs are holed up in the desert, and Jack decides it’s only fair to let the rest of the Fables – now all living at the Farm, after Mr. Dark destroyed Fabletown – about the newest threat: Kevin Thorne, erstwhile journalist and currently pissed-off Literal, with the power to rewrite the entire universe as he sees fit… or to erase it altogether. Kevin has recruited the Genres into helping him out, and even with Bigby, Snow, Jack, and all of the other Literals working together, how can they ever hope to stop him from rewriting their stories forever?

Review: I was sort of surprised at the balance of stories in this volume. Because it’s show more listed as Fables Vol. 13, but not Jack of Fables Vol. 7, I was expecting the focus of the story to be primarily on the Fables storyline, with Jack & Co. as supporting characters. In reality, it’s exactly the opposite; the story focuses almost exclusively on the things that have been happening in Jack of Fables, with the Fables story mostly sidelined – Mr. Dark is only even mentioned once or twice. While this surprised me, it didn’t actually bother me – I think the Literals are the most interesting thing to come out of the Jack of Fables series, and spending time with their stories was certainly interesting, enough so that I’m sad to see that arc come to an end. On the other hand, I can see this uneven focus really annoying a reader who had only been keeping up to date with Fables and not Jack of Fables – I don’t know whether anything that goes on in this book would be at all clear without knowing who the hell all of these characters are, and what they can do. For those in the know, however, this was a very satisfying volume – thicker than normal, with a greatly satisfying story arc, some real pathos (nothing on the level of The Good Prince, but still pretty intense), and tons of hilarious bits (watching the Genres interact is cute, Babe gets in a few good pages, and Bigby has the worst day ever.) 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Required reading for Jack of Fables fans, for sure. For those who just read Fables, I can’t really say yet if this one is skip-able if you really dislike Jack, or if any of the developments here will become important later on, but I thought it was enjoyable enough to be worth reading anyways. show less

I was really enjoying this book. It was a nice and thick volume - more pages are better! I enjoye3d reading about the Literals and the Genres, and Thorn's struggle with his writing. There's a lot of cool stuff in here. I enjoyed the myth of Boy Blue and the cult that started around him as well as the introduction of the Genres.

I was prepared to give this book five stars... if not for the disappointing ending. The first deus ex machina (Bigby Wolf jumping into the throng of Genres and dealing with them) was well-timed and appropriate. However, the second one - with what happened to Kevin Thorn and the Genres - was an cop-out. And I DO mean cop-out. It truly was one of the most lazy and uncreative endings I have EVER seen. I'm sure the show more writers thought it was a good idea, but it simply wasn't. I mean, seriously, the story had been going along so great, and would have been 5-star worthy, but then you get to the last few pages, and BAM. I am rarely so disappointed, and this was definitely one of these times

I mean, seriously??? That's how you deal with Thorn? Jack Frost had him dealt with, but no, Deus Ex Machina had to show up again - and this time he did a disservice to us (the readers) You see, THIS is why a deus ex machina is generally frowned upon in writing. I dearly hope that later on in a future issue, this stupid ending is retconned or otherwise canceled out, because honestly, it completely ruined what was otherwise an AWESOME and stellar volume. show less

lots of good stuff in here, but ultimately it doesn't have much of a storyline, the pacing screeches to a halt, and it spends way too long self-obsessing about the writer's block problem. maybe it fell head-first into some of the excesses to which the postmodern style all-too-easily lends itself? too bad, in a series that has never faltered in the previous 12 volumes of intricate and seamless storytelling. on the other hand, maybe the unevenness of this one is inevitable given its unusual form, collecting parts of three different series (Fables, Jack of Fables, and The Literals) from two different writers. still, there are a lot of clever bits herein, mostly deriving from the writer's dilemma and the personification of writing show more conventions from pathetic fallacy to deus ex machina and various genres, all of which the writer attempts desperately to make use of to find a way through the impasse he's written himself into. which is by now tending perilously to the writer's magic pen writing a final-solution sentence of "and then the world ended" - raising its own questions as to the nature of the creator's responsibility to his work, once it develops a life, many lives in fact, of its own. so, it's an interesting crisis, and an honest one for Willingham at this point, given the towering achievement of this series, but it seems there are too many cooks in this one, headed in different directions in the interest of too many disparate series, to make the volume work as a thing in itself. which of course is sort of the whole point of the writer's lament. luckily, he never quite writes with the magic pen onto the terrifying blank page that last desperate sentence, or this series would have been 13 volumes long instead of 22, and that's not even counting the spinoffs yet to come. show less

Crossovers rarely are good examples of the titles in which they appear, and this volume certainly shows the lack of direction in Fables since the end of the Adversary war. Unfocused and completely pointless, at least for the main Fables book, which ends the crossover with the same status quo it began it with.

A welcome respite from the near-unrelenting darkness and violence of the last few volumes. How thoroughly you enjoy this book may depend on how well you like the character of Jack. You know, Jack: Frost, Horner, the Giant Killer, Be-Nimble, etc. I stopped reading the Jack of Fables series, as I found him more insufferable than funny. And while he has some funny bits in this volume, especially his meta-textual intos and outros, anytime he was on page I couldn't wait for him to get off.

More entertaining, I thought, was learning more about The Literals, characters like Gary the Pathetic Fallacy, Mr. Revise who can edit stories permanently (ever heard of the four little pigs? He's why not.), and the Page sisters, who are kick-ass show more librarians with magic powers.

Kevin Thorn, who is able to write worlds in and out of existence, is struggling for the words to unmake the world, which has gone on so long without his intervention that he's appalled by how things have turned out: The Big Bad Wolf is in human form, married to Snow White, and a father? Gepetto became so much more than a puppet maker? As he struggles against his twin, Writer's Block, the Fables and Literals race to eliminate Kevin before he does the same to them.

Pink elephants! Theocratic badgers! Girls with glasses and really big guns! Babe the blue ox, insane and funny! Plus a little girl who's not as sweet as she looks. This is a fun, clever diversion, far too heavy on Jack, until we get back to the grim stuff, which I'm sure will happen soon. show less

Ever since discovering Fables I have loved each and every collection. When I review them I often run out of superlatives to lavish upon them. Sooner or later most creative endeavours have to hit a road bump and I believe that The Great Fables Crossover is one such obstacle for the Fables book.

In the comics world crossover is code for: we've run out ideas or we need to shift more of one particular title, sometimes both. Sadly Fables is no exception.

The collection started promisingly. With Brock the Badger starting a cult around Boy Blue and insisting that their hero would return from the dead with the unshakeable faith of the true fanatic. Bigby and Beast were going at it, blood and fur flying, until Snow stepped in and gave Bigby a show more right royal telling off. It was actually rather amusing to see this huge wolf, spattered in blood, with a shame faced look on his face allowing a slender, but angry woman to send him off like a naughty child.

The action briefly crossed back to Fabletown where it appeared that the sinister Mr Dark was launching a serious bid for control over more of the Mundy world than just the now ruined Fabletown.

The 2nd chapter saw the return of Jack and the real beginning of the crossover. Most of the story covered some nonsense that Jack had gottem himself involved in with some characters called the Literals, who wielded various measures of control over fictional characters. The main problem was that one of them; Kevin Thorn, had gone rogue and was trying to destroy the Fables.

For most of the collection it just felt like Snow and Bigby had been dropped into this for their Fables connection and the fact that they're popular with fans. The story could have been adequately covered in Jack's title with a guest appearance from some of the other Fables.

There was also a side plot about a child Jack had with the Snow Queen back in the Homelands, he was Jack Frost. Again this was a story that could have been quite easily accomodated within Jack's own title, as it concerned him more than any of the other Fables.

I had the feeling that Bill Willingham set everything up in The Dark Ages, but then having completed a major story arc he didn't quite know where to go, but still had to fill a few issues, so he came up with the crossover concept. Given how ultimately disappointing this collection turned out to be I think it would have been best to put Fables on hold for a while until it's new story arc could be properly written. As it stands The Great Fables Crossover is an unnecessary blight on Fables. show less