Fables: Legends in Exile (Volume 1)

Vertigo

Fables:  Legends in Exile (Volume 1)
Bill Willingham
Lan Medina
Steve Leialoha
Craig Hamilton
2002

The Summary
"Who killed Rose Red?

"In Fabletown, where fairy tale legends live alongside regular New Yorkers, the question is all anyone can talk about.  But only the Big Bad Wolf can solve the case--and, along with Rose's sister Snow White, keep the Fabletown community from coming apart at the seams."

The Good
Fables:  Legends in Exile is an interesting concept, but it also succeeds with the execution.  I really liked the idea of fabled worlds, these literary lands where stories and their characters--like Snow White, Rose Red, Prince Charming (who I really dislike, just FYI), Beauty and the Beast, Briar Rose, Bluebeard, and even the Big Bad World--and it's incredibly fascinating to see these characters coming to life and mingling together.  It's a literary stew just brimming with all my favorite stories and fairy tales.  How could I not enjoy it?

I liked Snow White.  I like that she's basically in charge of Fabletown, that she has the capability to run a government and run it well.  She's smart, she's tough, and she's really quite amazing.  But I also like the Big Bad Wolf--or Bigby, as he's now known.  He's a cross between a hard-boiled detective noir and a werewolf, which, confidentially, makes him quite interesting.  Plus, he seems like a genuinely good guy (for the most part anyway).

Overall, I enjoyed it.  Although I'd tried to read Fables in the past and didn't care for them, I find now that I'm older--and, perhaps, a little more jaded when it comes to comic books and what is permissible in graphic novels--and a more knowledgeable of fairy tales, I enjoy Fables.  It's a catchy series with intriguing characters, complicated relationships, and fascinating stories.

The Bad
Admittedly, I wasn't always intrigued with the course of the plot.  It's an interesting story, don't get me wrong, but it was sometimes a little dry.  Plus, I couldn't always discern the relationships between the characters, unless it was spelled out for me, and I always closed the book feeling like I was missing something.

All the denizens of Fabletown have a history with one another  Everyone fears Bigby, because he was once the Big Bad Wolf who gobbled up unsuspecting travelers in the forest, and yet he's Fabeltown's enforcer; Bluebeard is a homicidal maniac who has managed to ingratiate himself into the political and social scenes of Fabletown; Snow White is sister to Rose Red, first wife to Prince Charming, and right hand to King Cole, mayor of Fabletown; Little Boy Blue is an assistant to Snow, helping to keep Fabletown running smoothly; Jack (of Jack and the Beanstalk fame) is a con-artist and computer hacker with a less-than-stellar record.

There's more, I assure you, and it's all very complicated.

The Ugly
These characters are not the saccharine sweet Disney characters fans of fairy tales have come to know and love.  They are tough, they are jaded, and, in some cases, they are homicidal maniacs.  In fact, they are closer to their roots in Brothers Grimm and Hans Christen Anderson than their modern counterparts.  Their stories are painted with a little more blood and gore, riddled with a little more tragedy, which is decidedly unpleasant.