Comic Info
Comic Name: Fables
Publisher: DC Comics/Vertigo
Writer: Bill Willingham
Artist: Mark Buckingham/Tony Akins
# of Issues: 7
Release Date: Release Date
Fables #28
Reprints Fables #22 and #28-33 (April 2004-March 2005). The Adversary has been driven back, but King Cole has lost the Fabletown election to Prince Charming. With Charming in charge, things in Fabletown are changing and Bigby is out as sheriff. Snow White is on the verge of giving birth, and Snow is about to discover being a mother might be more challenging than she thought. Plus, Bigby’s secret espionage weapon is revealed, and Bigby finds himself fighting Nazis in World War II in a plot right out of a monster movie!
Written by Bill Willingham, Fables 5: The Mean Seasons follows Fables 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers. The book was illustrated by Mark Buckingham and featured additional work by Tony Akins. The issues were also reprinted in Fables: Deluxe Edition Book 3 and Book 4.
Fables really takes a different direction starting with this volume. Much of the previous storylines involved the quest for the Homelands and how they can defeat the Adversary, but this volume really starts to show that though defeating the Adversary is important, life continues. We get a big change for Bigby and Snow, and it changes a lot of the story’s characters and directions.
Fables #30
The story isn’t as dramatic as March of the Wooden Soldiers, but it still is good. There is a one shot which introduces Cinderella (Bigby’s assassin) who has gone on to her own mini-series and stories, and it also has the two part “War Stories” which shows some of Bigby’s past. The “War Stories” also is important in that it is the tie-in story for the stand-alone Fables: Werewolves of the Heartlands. At this point in the series, background on Bigby is good, but as the series progresses I’d like less Bigby background since there are so many rich characters.
The “Mean Seasons” has the four season storytelling of the coming of Bigby and Snow’s cubs. The cubs become important characters as the series progresses. The big shocker comes at the end of the volume when it is revealed that Snow had seven children and one of the children is unfortunately an unintentional killer (later named Ghost). The scene at the end of the book between Snow and her invisible child makes the story worthwhile.
Though the events of Fables 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers were monumental, Fables 5: The Mean Seasons might actually be a more significant volume. The story introduces the cubs (a major factor in later storylines), sets up Fables: Werewolves of the Heartlands, and forces Bigby and Snow even closer together (by separating them). Fables 5: The Mean Seasons is just another great entry in a great series. Fables 5: The Mean Seasons is followed by Fables 6: Homelands.
Preceded By:
Fables 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers
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