Fables #114

Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, and Shawn McManus

I really feel like Bill Willingham shouldn't be writing comics with young children in them.  This issue was not as cringe-inducing as the issues that had the children competing for the role of North Wind, but still, the kids in this comic do not come off as very authentic on any level.  They read like children in post-war British children's novels, which is to say fully manufactured.  The idea of using Bigby Wolf and Snow White's children is a very interesting one - with their mixed parentage and abilities, there are a wealth of stories that could be driven by them, but this isn't really working for me.

One of the kids is upset about the fact that she got a toy boat for Christmas, and the boat is, of course, eeeevil (read that with a creepy voice).  This plot kind of bores me, and so I'm done with it.

Much more interesting is the return of some of the Fabletown crowd to their old stomping grounds, which is now the site of Castle Dark.  In exploring the castle, they find the imprisoned and newly-skinny Nurse Spratt (of course, she too is now eeeevil). 

As well, there is some stuff about Bigby and the kid who is going to become the North Wind (who worries that she may, one day, turn eeeevil), and we return in a back-up to Oz, and the revolutionary army that Blufkin put together, although we are given no updates as to his fate.

Fables is always a good comic, although it feels lately like there are more mediocre issues than great ones.  The art, however, is always top notch.