Fables: Deluxe Edition, Book One
Fables the Deluxe Edition Series
Bill Willingham, Lan Medina, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Craig Hamilton
Nikki’s Rating: 3.5 Stars out of 5
Non-Spoiler Book Summary
This book was a recommendation by my boss, as we are both into graphic novels, we tend to make suggestions to each other. Fables is a comic starring the characters from Fairy Tales who are living underground in Fabletown a part of modern New York City. Book one reprints issues 1-10 which begins with a storyline surrounding a mysterious death of one of the Fables. The Big Bad Wolf is the stoic, tough detective and Snow White is the serious and cold Deputy Mayor. Together they try to solve the crime and punish the villain.
The second storyline of the book involves all the animals from fairy tales; any Fables who cannot pass as humans are hidden at The Farm. Without supervision, lots of free-time, boredom, and frustration about being locked up, the animals band together and revolt against the government of Fabletown!
My Overall Thoughts… MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!
I love the premise of the stories being centered about the characters from fairy tales. I usually really enjoy the retelling of fairy tales, so I thought I would really like this comic. Unfortunately, I was not impressed, I think I was bored. I was able to solve the mystery murder before the big “reveal” and I really didn’t care for characters on The Farm. I actually found most of them to be repulsive, no redeeming character traits. Because of this, I did not care for their rebellion, I was not sympathetic to their cause in any way. I felt like The Farm rebellion wasn’t a legitimate threat even, they were barely organized and were killing their own so I didn’t end up cheering the other side either cause there was nothing a stake; it literally had no effect either way.
Regardless of not being impressed with Book One, I’m not willing to write the series off just yet. I would actually continue reading the series because I would want to know background information and stories about the characters that were briefly introduced. It’s an easy sell with me actually, I really enjoy different interpretations of stories I’m familiar with. And then there is that curiosity in me where it’s not only “I want to know,” its, “I NEED to know!”
And that is the winning trait of the comic book, it has piqued my curiosity. I enjoyed the comic well enough that I read it relatively quickly so I was interested and entertained, I just wasn’t wowed but that is my opinion. I am not surprised that this comic series is very popular, I can see a lot of reasons for it to be a favorite among many, just not my exact cup of tea; it was good, just not delicious. I intend to continue to Book Two within the series but it won’t be a priority at any point.
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