Fables #147

Let’s count up the cards on the table as we near Fables‘ endgame. There’s this Bigby problem which should be resolved now that Leigh Duglas is dead, but for some reason isn’t. There’s the remaining threat of Brandish, who seems set to be our final outsider villain. Far above either of these plotlines is this seemingly inevitable conflict between Snow and Rose, one that increasingly feels like the very definition of manufactured.

These are two characters who’ve already spent a lot of time in the series at odds with each other, time which is only the tip of the iceberg that is their eras-long animosity. They’ve finally come to a place of understanding with each other, as well as good places for themselves as individuals. Snow has mellowed out in the process of raising her (relatively) happy family, and Rose has stepped up to a position of ultimate authority. What cruel fate is forcing them to abandon all that?

That said, it’s Rose who has more to lose if the duel with Snow comes to pass. She hasn’t exactly accomplished much to be proud of during her time on the series, especially not during her rule over the new Camelot, which is still in its gestation phase.* This issue seems to place the ball squarely in her court as to whether the duel will happen, and she chooses to pick it up and move forward. Sounds to me like it’ll be her fault if this thing happens, and that’s a bad note for her to end on.

Not to say that she necessarily made the wrong choice here. After all, what gives her cricket guide the right to impose on her the choice of staying in an idyllic (but dull and restrictive) Eden or murdering her sister? If destiny is driving the two women to something neither want to participate in, they have a right to know why. So you can’t blame Rose for choosing information over ignorance in this case, even if it’s a step towards tragedy.

Really, if we’re going to pass around blame, it should go to Willingham for executing this hastily conceived plot in the first place. It just feels like too big a sea-change for the characters to handle at the last minute. All this magic being suddenly thrust into their lineage changes the nature of their existence as Fables into more pedestrian fantasy characters. It’s going to take a real good explanation to sell this dramatic revision to their backgrounds, and this issue only gives us a questionable taste by starting with Rose and Snow’s mother, Lauda, the youngest of thirteen sisters who “even at an early age…knew she’d have to kill each and everyone one of them, in order to come into her power.”

Meanwhile, Brandish is in the middle of what you presume to be his last hurrah by challenging Lancelot, a match-up that has the potential to be epic but which is turning out to be one-sided—only you don’t know which side that’ll be. Lance is able to behead the bastard prince within a couple panels, but being unkillable, Brandish is able to put himself back together eternally. It’s an amusing sequence with overtones of Monty Python’s Holy Grail, but sort of ruined by Lance’s strict moral code. He may be doing the right thing in refusing to kick around Brandish’s head so the body can’t find it, but you don’t respect him more for it.

Rather than falling back on my usual comment of Buckish for the art, allow me to praise how well he captures the fairy tale idyll of Rose’s childhood home, a beauty that becomes biblical once she starts walking naked among lions and lambs. I can’t say I’ll miss Buckingham’s work when the series is all over, but he’s always held his own on it.

This issue’s “Last Story” trails after Beauty and Bliss, which you actually are likely to be curious about, given Beast’s sad end in #144. It’s nice to see the two of them getting along well in their Homeland, with Bliss full-grown into both her beautiful and beastly characters, each charmingly illustrated by Terry Moore. Willingham, being Willingham, leaves mother and daughter on a less than perfectly happy note, with Bliss warning ominously that “the monster part wants what monsters always want. My growly nature will almost certainly have its due someday.” Beauty briskly replies, “We’ll see,” which is what a mother ought to say when her daughter starts toeing the line, but we all know how well that turns out.

Some Musings:

* Let’s not all forget the wash that was the “Clamor for Glamour” arc on Fairest.

– Hey, Ambrose and Morgan—how about instead of gabbing about the impossibility of killing someone without a heart, you put all that magic to good use and find that heart? You know, instead of letting a troll-as-bluebird do all the work?