Comic Info
Comic Name: Cinderella: Fables Are Forever/Fables
Publisher: DC Comics/Vertigo
Writer: Chris Roberson/Bill Willingham
Artist: Shawn McManus
# of Issues: 7
Release Date: 2012
Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #2
Reprints Fables #51 and Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #1-6 (September 2006-September 2011). Cinderella learns her enemy Silverslipper has returned and now is in a hunt to find Silverslipper before Silverslipper finds her. In a rivalry spanning decades, Cinderella recalls her battles with Silverslipper and realizes Silverslipper and her agents are everywhere. Teamed with a Russian Fable named Ivan, Cinderella must locate Silverslipper…but Dorothy Gale has a plan!
Written by Chris Roberson and illustrated by Shawn McManus, Cinderella: Fables Are Forever collects the six issue Vertigo limited series. The series is a follow-up to the Roberson/McManus series Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love. Also collected in the volume is Fables #51 (September 2006) which features a Cinderella solo story previously collected in Fables Volume 8: Wolves.
Fables is fun and I do like some of the Fables spin-off titles. I like the idea of a super-assassin Fable and I like the spin on the James Bond series by having a female “Bond” who even has male sidekicks like Ivan. Despite my likes, Cinderella stories are good but could be better, but I do enjoy this outing slightly better than the previous Cinderella mini-series.
Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #3
The series is very formatted and follows a lot of Fables’ style. Much of the story involves flashbacks to Cinderella and Dorothy’s previous encounters and battles. Every other issue has an encounter with Dorothy in the ’80s and the following issue has the resolution. These flashbacks are kind of weak in that Cinderella ends up not doing something very exciting and pretty much just runs away. This carries on to the present day confrontation with Cinderella in the Deadly Desert of Oz. I found the ending of the series kind of anticlimactic and was a bit tired of Dorothy going out like a chump in each issue.
In Roberson’s defense, I will say that for the most part James Bond villains never get their just deserts and die weakly. If I thought that Roberson was really trying to emulate a James Bond villain death, I’d champion him, but I think that he just didn’t really know how to end the fights or the series.
Cinderella: Fables Are Forever isn’t a bad entry into the Fables mythos, but it also isn’t the strongest entry into the series. Shawn McManus’ art is strong and I have always been a fan of the Oz stories so it is nice to see them pop-up. I was a bit worried that Roberson would not tie in Dorothy’s role in Jack of Fables, but fortunately, her change in behavior is explained. As of now, Cinderella: Fables Are Forever is the last Cinderella spin-off, and with the end of Fables, I don’t know that we’ll ever see another Cinderella adventure.
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