Fables: Legends in Exile vol.1
The idea of fairy tales and their characters living in a modern day city is something I automatically fell on live with, which means I’m very biased towards it. The idea of the stories that have persisted through time and in a way are very much apart of our lives as they are today as they were when they were just folk tales before the brothers Grimm bound them in a book being brought together again by a new medium makes me very happy.
Needless to say, I was very disappointed when the individual stories were overlapped. “Rose Red and Snow White” is very different from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. Even though the names are the same, Snow White as a person is different in the stories. And it’s wrong to combine them as one. And then Jack suffers a similar issue. There’s “Jack and the Beanstalk” Jack and “Jack be nimble, Jack be quick…” Jack and its hinted that he’s one and the same person. And then there’s Bluebeard. Written by Charles Perrault, it doesn’t quite settle with all the Grimm fairy tales. But I doubt many others would be bothered by the discontinuity (nor be aware of it), because as a character, he fits the story quite well.
Prince Charming was another who suffered from the naming issue, but I love how it turned out. Most princes are referred to as “Prince Charming” and so like the others, he absorbed all the stories that go with the name, and thus making him a lovely man slut that so many of the princess characters hate. And it’s perfect.
And on the subject of princesses, they also had been transformed from their weak selves into strong women. Snow White for instance, works directly for King Cole, the leader of their organization, and basically runs all of Fabletown. It shows how the role of woman has changed through time and how they would be living in the modern world placed in that role.
Here’s a comic book reviews on Fables, it’s interesting. http://www.popmatters.com/comics/fables-legends-in-exile.shtml
Kingdom Come
First things first: it is illustrated beautifully. Everything is fully rendered and detailed to an extreme level. That being said, I couldn’t force myself to finish reading it. I saw no appeal in it.
When Wesley said he was the Sandman, my mind automatically went to King of Dreams Morpheous, and I was confused. Until they showed the older superhero Sandman, then it made sense. It bugged me, but I understand that there are Sandman fans, and they are probably disappointed with the Sandman I’m head over heals for, so I accepted Wesley as a decent super hero. And then they caught us up to speed with the current state of the Super Heroes. And I almost died laughing. Superman wimps out and runs into hiding, and Wonder Woman is just plain useless. Flash, the Green Lantern and a few others section off the world and protect theirs respectively. And then there’s Batman. He has robot bats that kick crime ass out of Gotham City. Oh the irony! The only super heroes I care for (Flash and Batman for the most part) don’t turn into pansies.
And there’s Americommando. Never heard of him, but his stand on foreign policy is just like many peoples’ and the governments currently. It’s a nice touch how the author can input the character to mock the current situation and not many would find it to be an attack nor a commentary on the current government and have people think nothing of it.
Many things left me rather confused. Why was there a giant penny in the Bat Cave? I couldn’t get that thought out of my head. And I absolutely love how Bruce Wayne verbally abuses Superman. But I was pissed the moment Lex Luther showed up as the main villain. He cannot be the sole source of all that’s evil in the world. He isn’t the only corrupting force, plotting a hostile take over. And then Wayne joins him. What. The. Hell.
I then placed the book back on the shelf and walked away. The art couldn’t save the story. And I’m no Superman fan.
http://superdickery.com/
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