Fables 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers

Comic Info

Fables: The Last Castle #1

Reprints Fables:  The Last Castle and Fables #19-21 and #23-27 (November 2003-September 2004).  War is coming to Fabletown.  For the first time since the evacuation of the Homelands, the gates have been reopen and the Adversary is attacking anew.  Fabletown has been infiltrated and could fall as a secret war erupts in the streets of New York.  The Fables find themselves fighting for their lives against the Adversary’s forces and the trth behind the Adversary could soon be revealed.

Written by Bill Willingham and illustrated by Mark Buckingham, Craig Hamilton, and P. Craig Russell, Fables Volume 4:  March of the Wooden Soldiers follows Fables Volume 3:  Storybook Love.  The story collects the oversized standalone issue Fables:  The Last Castle (November 2003) and the Eisner Award winning eight issue “March of the Wooden Soldiers” storyline running in Fables #19-21 and #23-27.  Not included in the collection is Fables #22 which is part of Fables 5:  The Mean Seasons.

Fables has it all.  It has classic characters that you know (or think you know), action, and mystery.  This volume has it all.  It dives into the fall of the Homelands and the mystery of the Adversary.  It is smart and well written entry in an already smart series.

Fables #25

The comic never has revealed how the Adversary took control.  This volume doesn’t show how it happened, but it does show the final evacuation from the Homelands through the perspective of Boy Blue.  It is a nice break from the “modern day”.  It also does a great job setting up the “March of the Wooden Soldiers” by explaining why Boy Blue is so “blue”.

The “March of the Wooden Soldiers” finally gets into more “plot” by finally setting out to begin to resolve the Homelands story.  The comic started to essentially be about the attempts to reclaim the Homelands, but by taking a step in that direction so early in the comic, it shows that Willingham has more up his sleeve than simply ending with “we have the Homelands back”.  It feels like the war in New York City is really working toward something.

This volume of Fables answered a lot of questions about the fall of the Homelands.  With one giant issue focusing on that and the hints and revelations about the Adversary in the “March of the Wooden Soldiers” story, Fables 5:  March of the Wooden Soldiers is one of the better entries in a good series.  Fables 4:  March of the Wooden Soldiers is followed by Fables 5:  The Mean Seasons.

Preceded By:

Fables 3:  Storybook Love

Followed By:

Fables 5:  The Mean Seasons