Fables #106

Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha

It's hard to tell, reading this issue, which concludes the 'Super Team' arc, and finishes off the long-running plot line revolving around Mr. Dark, if Willingham had written himself into a corner, or had always intended to end it thus.  You see, in the first few pages of the book, Mr. North decides to attack Dark, and already has made plans to box him again, with the help of Frau Totenkinder and her new husband.

It seems like a pretty quick and easy ending for a storyline that has taken a couple of years to tell, and in a lot of ways, it feels like a cop out.  This is mitigated by some excellent character work immediately afterward, as Willingham checks in on a number of the book's more prominent cast members, and drops a few hints that whatever is going to happen next, is going to involve Rose Red in a pretty big way.

This issue is an example of how cutting two story pages has hurt a few DC comics; specifically, it's hard to imagine that something as momentous as what happened in this issue would take place without getting the reaction of Gepetto, who does not appear in this issue.