Fables #121

Note: this is a review of issues 114 to 121!!

I'm a big fan of Willingham's Fables, read all the issues and what I admire the most is his ability for delivering excellent dialogues, intricating plots and pulverizing the characters into millions of emotional fragments. I do believe that this 8 part arc story succeeded partialy to mantain this title run as interesting, unfortunately it wasn't as good as Sons of the Empire (issues 52 to 59), The Good Prince (60 to 69) or Witches (86 to 93) and I think it's mostly because the writer decided to focus mainly this story on the wolf cubs, like the previous arc story Inherit the Wind (108 to 113). I believe all the elements that make Fables such a good title, quoted above, are present, but reading this story wasn't as great as the stories involving Fabletown or even specific characters, like Boy Blue or Flycatcher. It's not only because of the grim and dark notes Willingham imput to this arc story, but because I wasn't as thrilled reading about the wolf cubs while the other fables are picking on the pieces that Dark left. I'm much more interested in knowing more about how the fables are going to move on with their lives than what happened in this arc story. Also, it was such a long story, that could have been compressed easily into four issues, instead of eight. Adventure in the land of Discardia was a great idea, totally not what I was imagining to this story: when I heard "Toy land" I instantly thought of happy and joy, but Willingham sold only misery, broken promises, punishment and the ultimate sacrifice. Like I said, the great elements of the narrative are all present, the drama of the cubs, their parents, difficult decisions, growing up, sure all things that will have repercussions in future plots, but again, could have been done in less issues. This is not a vital arc story, in the meaning of entertainment, not to the plot, so I don't recommend it. Also the back up stories are no good.