Fables: Legends in Exile, Volume 1
The Fables series, Issues 1 - 5
Bill Willingham, illustrations by James Jean and Alex Maleev
Vertigo
Fiction, Fantasy/Graphic Novel
Themes: Anthropomorphism, Canids, Fairy Tales, Girl Power, Hidden Wonders, Locations with Character, Portal Adventures, Twists, Urban Tales, Witches
****
Description
A long, long time ago in a land far, far away, the denizens of the myriad realms and kingdoms of Never lived out their fairy-tale lives, largely unconcerned
with the fates of their neighbors... until the Adversary rose. His conquering armies destroyed everything they could not enslave. Only a small population managed
to escape to a strange and distant land known as Earth. Here, forced together by circumstance, they banded together to create the community of Fabletown, granting
amnesty for past mischief and crimes. Unaging, living among the mortal "mundy" population in secret, they wait for the day they can reclaim their former lands.
When Snow White's sister, the wild child Rose Red, disappears, her apartment covered in blood, her former boyfriend Jack (of beanstalk fame) is the first suspect;
he may have been pardoned like the rest of them, but he's still a trickster at heart, and if he could slay giants then killing a girlfriend isn't a seven-league step.
But as Bigby Wolf and Snow investigate, they find the truth isn't as neat as a fairy tale.
Review
This award-winning series re-imagines fairy tales into the modern world, retaining many of their original, darker quirks; those expecting watered-down Disney versions should probably look elsewhere, as the writing draws off the older, more twisted versions of tales. (This is not a children's graphic novel by any means, with gore and sexual content.) Bigby the wolf, struggling to stay on the right side of the law, wouldn't be out of place in a noir novel, a grizzled detective always ready to see the dark side of any given situation, who knows full well that past amnesty did nothing to eliminate the less pleasant aspects of his fellows' personalities. His partner of circumstance, Snow, has risen far since divorcing her cheating husband Prince Charming (who is up to his old ways again, earning a spot on the suspect list), technically the second most powerful person in Fabletown under the largely-figurehead King Cole. Side roles go to familiar figures such as the last surviving member of the three pigs, the former Frog Prince (who still snacks on the occasional fly out of habit), and Snow White's assistant Little Boy Blue, among others. The illustrations are nicely detailed, with many imaginative touches. As for the mystery of Rose Red, I found the conclusion a trifle unsatisfying, but overall it worked, and it did fit with what the reader knew, even if Bigby held a few details of his deductions close to his chest until the final reveal (in a self-confessed "parlor scene" without a parlor, because he so rarely has a chance to gather suspects to reveal a culprit in his line of work.) At the end, a written backstory fills in Bigby's past in Never, and hints at what compelled him to follow the others to Earth and ultimately try his hands (or paws) at heroism after a lifetime of unrepentant villainy. A nice read all in all, though I'm not sure if I feel compelled to follow the series or not; this one reads fine as a standalone, with touches of "pilot episode" setting establishment.