Fables #85

Written by Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges
Art by Tony Akins, Andrew Pepoy, and Dan Green

There are only two chapters left in the Great Fables Crossover, and the story continues to somewhat spin its wheels, waiting for the main events to take place in the spin-off books, and leaving the regular Fables title as a showcase for Jack of Fables, perhaps with the intent of helping boost sales on that book.

In this issue, Jack gets spirited away to Bigby and Snow's house after his less than loving reunion with his son, Jack Frost. While there, he hangs out with Snow and Bigby's kids, teaching them poker and a few other less-than-desirable traits.

There is only a small peek at Kevin Thorn, the Big Bad of this crossover, and no sign of Snow, Bigby, Revise, and Gary, who when last seen, were getting close to Thorn.

I have enjoyed the individual parts of this crossover, but I feel that on the whole, it's a pretty disjointed piece of work. It feels like this crossover is as editorially mandated and sales-oriented as a Crisis or a Secret Invasion. I find that these titles work better being separate from each other, and look forward to this ending. I feel a little bad writing all that though, because I do still enjoy these titles, mostly as a series of individual moments right now though.