Even worse is that this whole literals garbage added a bunch of godly characters, which raises big questions about the nature of everything in the comic book, and then they just dumped those characters, as if they had no importance whatsoever. Yeah I said I was glad they were sent away, IMO that was the least harmful ending possible, but I wouldn’t be all that disapointed if Kevin had indeed destroyed the universe and put and end to Fables.

This crossover was a huge let down, full of plot holes, lazy writing, dumb childish situations. Fables used to be one my favorite series that I held with the same regard as classics like Sandman or Preacher, and then they screwed it all up.

I do agree with you to an extent and I also wouldn’t mind a non-Literal centred story, though that obviously has more bearing for the Jack series than Fables. That said, I’m still not certain that it was truly necessary. The Literals were actually fairly enjoyable for the odd metatextual gag, but as this crossover showed, having a story entirely centred on them can be disastrous. Strangely, the arc that was meant to remove them was the very thing that most showed that they had to go.

I guess my chief frustration in my feelings of pointlessness to the crossover comes from how needlessly extended it was. I suppose with this anticlimactic issue, I boiled over a bit after reading/reviewing issues that largely treaded water every week for three months.

I honestly believe this crossover to be the worst that Fables (or Jack for that matter) has ever been, but I do expect the book to bounce back. I also wonder if any of the sloppiness had to do with Willingham’s hammering out the details for Justice Society.

-Alex Evans

Second things second: If you’re looking for a point to the crossover, I think it was to remove the Literals from the story altogether and to do so in a way that made sense within the context of the larger story. The “Big Two” publishers have a very convenient way to get rid of major characters from past storylines: they simply ignore them. On one hand, that’s incredibly convenient, but on the other hand it’s extremely annoying.

I know it’s unwise — and possibly even rude — to speculate about an author’s intentions, but my gut feeling is that Willingham & Co. came to the conclusion at some point that the Literals were untenable as long term characters and tried to find the best way possible of creating a way for them to exit the stage permanently. And rather than take the who-gives-a-crap-about-past-continuity attitude of the Big Two, they actually addressed the abandonment of some majorly important characters within the story itself.

The crossover wasn’t my favorite Fables story, either. Far from it, in fact. But it had its moments, and I think what it achieved clears the way for getting back to telling stories that are a bit more grounded, and for leaving behind all the metatextual stuff. Maybe that’s wishful thinking on my part, but that’s what I’m hoping for anyway.

Charles