Comic Reviews

Fables Volume 6 – Homelands

After Volume 5’s somewhat intermission-style, Volume 6 brings us back into the fray. Following the Wooden assault on Fabletown, and the year of recovery (which included the birth of Snow & Bigby’s pups, as well as the electing of Prince Charming), we come upon another arc that really propels the story forward, which is first preceded by a catch-up with a familiar face.

The volume begins with a tale concerning Jack of the Tales himself, who has run off to Hollywood to not only make himself rich and famous, but to increase his magical, Fable-allure by becoming more popular with the Mundy’s. He manages to do well until Fabletown’s sheriff comes to town. It’s a bit of a fluff story, and doesn’t hold much weight when concerning the Fabletown community, but Jack is such a funny character that it’s a good read. The real weight of this volume comes from another character who leaves Fabletown, but breaks a few laws in the process!

Boy Blue has absconded from Fabletown, and has illegally ‘borrowed’ the Witching Cloak and Vorpal Sword, with one motive on his mind: kill the Adversary! Rather than force an all-out, one-man-army approach (though that’s what it seems at times), Boy Blue approaches the Adversary’s capital with a cloak-and-dagger/smoke-and-mirrors tactic. But when he arrives, he discovers that the Adversary/Emperor really isn’t the one in charge. It’s been 40-issues in the making, but Willingham finally reveals to the readers who the real Adversary is! And while some of you may have seen it coming, there’s no denying Willingham has weaved a unique story in explaining how it all came to pass.

Meanwhile, Prince Charming’s first duty as Mayor is actually a secret and momentous one: trying to get Bigby wolf back! He enlists the service of Fabletown ‘tourist’ Mowgli, whom we meet for the first time, to use his childhood skills from living with wolves to try and track the biggest and baddest one of all. But what if Bigby doesn’t want to be found?

This is another stellar volume from the best comic series going. Willingham is top notch as always, not to mention the art: if Mark Buckingham ever leaves the series, we probably won’t even recognize the characters. Pick this up, and discover the evil ruler that has been plaguing our intrepid Fable-fellows for centuries!