Fairest #32

Get ready for the shortest review ever produced by these hands, because at this point, concluding the arc (and seeing the series through to its finale) is entirely obligatory. While Buckingham has produced an adequate story, one that’s had just enough material each issue to get a passing grade, there’s still just not very much there. His intention may be purely to entertain, but he’s done nothing to make it memorable—at least, as a pleasant experience.

What started out as the story of Reynard’s self-actualization as a man has been hijacked by an at-times amusing but mostly dreary plotline about the non-human Fables and their desire for glamours. It all turns out to be a wash, of course. While a few of the neediest Fables, i.e., Pussycat and Mr. Webb, do get the pleasure of a human form for a while, the rest of the glamours are doled out to Fables you couldn’t care less about. Even the benefit of a Glamour doesn’t bring any kind of resolution to their stories; you never see Pussycat get any of her globetrotting and the Webbs are left even more traumatized than before.

All this for a few cheap jokes, which are of the kids’ menu variety. “Do us all a favor,” Rose says to Sunflower as she summons giant bees to punish him for compromising the glamours, “buzz off.” When Colonel Thunderfoot turns into a rabbit and starts to woo the lady bunnies around him, one excuses herself, “I’m washing my hare!” It would strain a saint’s patience, I tell you.*

At least Sunflower finally gets his comeuppance, but you care so little that even this small pleasure barely registers. Nor are you particularly warmed by Reynard and Meghan’s happy ending, cleared of the misunderstanding between them and Meghan’s family at last, and looking forward to life as the first Mundy-Fable union in ages, if not ever. It’s a shame, because there’s a potentially great story to be had from these characters and this premise, but it was just beyond Buckingham’s powers to tell it.

While Braun’s art has been consistently solid on this arc, it hasn’t been terribly impressive either. For this last issue, his effort seems to have just petered out. In contrast to Pussycat and Owl’s pseudo-world tour in #29, the visuals here are small, thin, and rather generic. I mean, Vulco Crow turns into a big, honking dragon in the issue and starts spewing fire all around, and even that looks like a bunch of action figures placed around a doll village.

Some Musings:

* The one joke that made me laugh was Meghan warding off an angry mob of Fables by holding up her child. “No! Look! Baby!”

“Awww!”

“How adorable! Can we hold her?”