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Fables #75
War and Pieces, Part 3 of 3
Posted 10 Oct 2008
Writer: Bill Willingham
Artist: Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha
Artist: James Jean (cover)
Publisher: Vertigo
4.00 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Ian Chant
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The much anticipated
shooting war between the Fabletown refugees and the Adversary comes
to a head in “War and
Pieces,” culminating in the extra length seventy fifth
issue that sees a fragile peace finally return to the Fables
world amidst a storm of blood and fire. But as with almost anything
you’ve waited a long time for, the anticipation of the thing
can easily overcome the execution of it.
“Although pivotal, the war is
not the real story here.”
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Ultimately, though the war itself is pivotal to the long term plot
of Fables, it’s not the real story here. And it certainly
doesn’t seem to be the story that Willingham is interested in
telling. This seems to be the setup for a rethinking of the title, and
a new direction for everyone in it, foreshadowed by the glorious rise
of the lowly Prince Flycatcher in the preceding storyline,
“The Good
Prince.”
It’s not that the final battle isn’t impressive. Writer
Bill Willingham’s story deftly mixes action sequences with
tactical discussions and briefings that let the audience in on the
minutiae of war planning. He somehow manages to make documentary style
voice over about supply chains and wartime communication as compelling
as sniper combat and bombing runs. It’s to Willingham’s
credit that he’s just as interested in the ‘Hows’ of
combat as he is in the whys and wherefores, and it speaks volumes to
his skill that he’s able to pass along an infectious enthusiasm
for logistics and the minutiae of wartime planning to the average
reader.
While the story is
told through the same somewhat rigidly paneled format that
Fables readers have grown accustomed to, Buckingham opens up
the framing panels that have been a staple of the book, letting the
story bleed out of the confines that have been so long established.
Removing the presenting frames and allowing the action to move
freely from panel to panel gives the book a cinematic, wide screen
quality that nicely emphasizes not only the explosions and sword
fights but also the all encompassing scope of the battle and how
much is at stake for all concerned. But the war itself, taking
place over only a couple of issues, is settled in an almost casual
manner. The Adversary, the series’ big bad who has provided
the main foil for the story until this point, is dethroned and
rendered powerless.
But after this brief,
one sided, and ultimately sort of anticlimactic conflict is
concluded a whole crop of new questions arise all too soon, and it
becomes clear that those who won the day won’t have much time
to bask in their victory. Of course, there are the strictly pulp
questions, like what became of Prince Charming’s seeming
suicide mission – after all, the first rule of comic book
reading is that no one is dead until you’ve seen the body,
and even then you may want to keep a place set at the dinner
table.
But more and more,
the questions Willingham seems ready to ask are arising: are the
conquering heroes prepared to take over the day to day tasks of
running an empire that a vast bureaucracy once oversaw? Without the
centralized power of an emperor, what new (and ancient) threats
will emerge from the ashes of the Fable homelands? What’s to
be done with the inevitable flood of refugees and the other
civilian costs of war? And on the home front, with the war fought,
what’s to become of those veterans whose rasion d’etre
for years has been training for and waging combat?
Does any of this
sound familiar? Fables has long been one of the most
entertaining and well plotted books on the comics rack. But in
preparing to hold up a mirror to the state of the world and ask
“Where do we go from here?” it’s on its way to
becoming one of the most thought provoking serials in recent
memory, too.
—CCdC—
Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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