Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile

5 Responses to “Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile”

1. G. Morris says:

   July 8, 2010 at 5:17 pm

   This seems to be the latest book, following Planetary and League of Extraordinary Gentleman, that uses pop culture characters that we are all familiar with who’s copyrights have either passed or never existed. Now, as a replacement for of turn of the century Victorian Science Fiction characters and analogs of pulp novel men and Godzilla, we get the wonderful and fantastic world of fairy tales. All them lovable scamps and brutish rouges from our childhood all living together in a New York apartment building. Seem appealing enough.
   
   It isn’t.
   
   We’re introduced to this wacky and wondrous world of Disney sorts with the never-fail tale type of a murder mystery, that, silent frankly, fails in totality.
   
   Of the fleeting review that will soon follow, I will only give two tale points as I do not wish to go over the whole of the book, but this is the sign of SPOILERS here, so take note if you were hoping to avoid them.
   
   The tale reads like stereo instructions as it appears to have no soul and plugs on at a tedious and nearly mechanical pace. The tale is the death of Rose Red who is Snow White’s sister with loose morals. Snow is the current head hauncho of the fairy tale ilk, and though she and her sister disagreed on most things, she still wants her sister’s killer establish. This task is left up to Bigby, the huge terrible wolf now in human form, whose our gruff, constable apparent off to solve the mystery.
   
   At no point is the investigation appealing or engaging, but is rather just an excuse to introduce us to the current incarnations of fairy tales most memorable all-stars, none of whom are all that appealing either. Everyone comes off as reasonably dull and very much like cliched Soap Opera characters. Its as if the writer thought it’d be appealing to infuse the Brother’s Grimm with Days Of Our Lives. The only character really agreed any real meat to their, well, character is Bigby, but for all his bitter, disheveled, chain smoking, unshaven-nous, he just comes of as a generic John Constantine with lycanthropy.
   
   Now for the two tale points. I only point these out because they typified everything terrible about this book.
   
   See, when Rose Red was killed, all that was left was a bloody mess that covered the whole of her apartment’s living room, but no body. Now, the inquiries done by Bigby lead us from dull interview to dull interview that show reasons why this person or that person might want her dead, none of which are all that convincing or appealing, but the number one point in this tale that can only be described as dumb is when Ol’ Bigby really tries to do some forensic work.
   
   See, the human body only holds so much blood (I judge the number agreed is 8 pints). Nevermind that humans vary in size, mind you, every human body holds exactly 8 pints of blood. The writer assures us of this.
   
   So Bigby gets himself a clever thought. He gets 8 pints of blood and an apartment thats exactly the same size and with the same furnishings, then tells two hapless idiots to paint up this apartment to look the exact same and if they use more than 8 pints, then they’ll know that the murder was staged. Never mind the 8000 variables that could alter the two rooms blood stainings, the simplest being depth of pooling and that they’ll never be able to get it the exact same.
   
   I hold the mediocrity of this to be self evident. If you just read the above plot point and didn’t shake your head and let out a tiny groan, then maybe you would really like this book. But, if you function off of more than just your brainstem, then you see my point.
   
   The second plot point that I will give away is that of the shocking twist ending (DUN DUN DUN). See, I was reading this in the same room as my friend who read it previous to me and I place the book down right before the last part and said “she’s not dead, is she?”
   
   “What? How’d you guess that?”
   
   “Because it’s the lamest thing they could possibly do. It’d be the `shocking twist’ the clever writer would hit his audience with just to show how one-step yet to be he is.”
   
   Yep. She ain’t dead. All of it was for naught. There was some reason that her and her lover forged it all, but it escapes me as it wasn’t very memorable. But you read some hundred plus pages of why the harlot was offed just to have the pleasant status quo realigned in Fairy Tale world. The characters seem to give off a horrid “that Rose Red. She got us,” kind of “aw shucks” moment and you nearly expect them to laugh in unison like at the end of Super Friends. Its pretty terrible.
   
   The fact that this book is lauded by many just reassures me of the entropic state of comics. In a world where people pat this poorly conceived slop on the back and throw its name around with the likes of Watchmen just lends more to the argument that comics are a dying artform and, largely, the only one’s left reading them are the diehards who’d applaud anything just for being a comic. There are still excellent works out there being published. Read Planetary, 100 Bullets, Hellboy, Hellblazer, Goon and (loathe as I am to admit it) Daredevil. But if you have any respect for yourself as a comic fan, or even just respect for your collection, don’t bring down its total value by adding this crap to it.
   Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
2. Babytoxie says:

   July 8, 2010 at 7:00 pm

   After years of holding out, I gave in. Friends, acquaintances, and reviewers had gone on and on about how Bill Willingham’s FABLES was the latest greatest thing in comics, so I chose to give FABLES VOLUME 1: LEGENDS IN EXILE a shot. I was severely let down. While Willingham’s premise for this series is very appealing (storybook characters living in present day New York City, exiled from their familiar fantasy lands by “The Adversary”), it isn’t the main focus of this particular tale. As a replacement for, this collection of the first 5 issues in the series is a dull and honestly predictable murder mystery; specifically, the investigation into the murder of Rose Red. It’s been a while since I refreshed myself on fairy tales, so I have no clue who Rose Red is, and Willingham doesn’t provide much information on her, or any additional characters, in the book. So my main question upon finishing this book is: why am I reading crime fiction in the first tale arc of a title called “Fables”? Furthermore, am I supposed to be interested in the murder of a character with whom I’m not familiar? This is not enough to keep me interested in this series. I have told the various people who recommended Fables that I am not continuing with it, and they all say, “Well, it gets much better as you go.” Sorry folks, but I can’t afford to keep dropping money on more trade paperbacks in the hopes that something will get better. On to additional titles…
   
   Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
3. C. Goshorn says:

   July 8, 2010 at 9:36 pm

   100 Bullets had me very interested in the Vertigo comic series, that coupled with the fact the take in had reasonably nice art. Once I got in I establish the concept to be pretty sound: Fairy tales characters all lived in a giant kingdom that was conquered so now they live in modern day new york. All the characters were there too… but despite all this Willingham decides to mess with original tales a bit to make things more appealing I suppose. That set me off from the begining.

   I read on, hoping the end would justify the means. But, by the end of the book I felt all the characters were rather shallow, casting aside the myth behind them was fine, but not much work was done to erect up the new characters beyond paper-cutter archetypes. I will try the second volume, but my hopes for this series have been violently dashed against the rocks.
   Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
4. Kent T. Nelson says:

   July 8, 2010 at 10:35 pm

   This is a fantastic read. It is fun seeing childhood storybook characters in real world situations. Really a fun read.
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
5. S. Lee says:

   July 9, 2010 at 1:12 am

   this was a very appealing read.I loved it, it was a nice change form the predictable fairytale tale. The art work was descent and had a fare ammount of details.
   
   over all it was excellent…I can’t wait to read the whole series.
   Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5