Fables: The Great Fables Crossover (2010)

This is volume 13 of the Fables paperbacks and it collects issues 83 – 85 of Fables, issues 33-35 of Jack of Fables and issues 1-3 of The Literals. It was written by Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges and the art was by the usual collection of artists involved with the ongoing comics.

The story continues on from volume 6 of Jack of Fables with Jack bringing word of the Literals and the threat of Kevin Thorn to the rest of the Fables at a time when they are regrouping after the destruction of their home in New York. Kevin Thorn has the ability to rewrite the story of this world and intends to do so as he does not like how his characters have turned out just as soon as he can get over his writers’ block.

Fables is normally a very strong book but this has to be my least favourite volume so far. The story is developed from a minor plot strand in the Fables comic and resolves a major plot line in the Jack of Fables comic. And so Jack gatecrashes the book he was thrown out of and it feels like a Jack of Fables book rather than a Fables book. Normally this would be fine as the Jack stories are funny but in this book his treatment of the distraught Rose Red shows the extreme nature of Jack’s egotism and power of self-delusion. He is turned from a loveable rogue into a fairly despicable character to such an extent that it is difficult to see how he can ever win over the audience again. There has to repercussions to this storyline in Jack’s own book or I can’t see how I will be able to continue to read it.

As far as the regular cast of Fables is concerned, their problems regarding the attack and destruction of their New York home have to be put on hold as they deal with the more immediate threat to their whole world. The use of the Literals allow the writers to make some amusing remarks on the act of writing and its tropes and genres but, like a lot of crossover stories, the story felt a little too long and drawn out and could have been tighter and pacier if it had been confined to the ongoing books without the introduction of The Literals mini-series. I am looking forward very much to a return to business as usual with the next volume.

First published on RevolutionSF on Sunday Mar 20, 2011