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A review by fifteenthjessica
Fables, Vol. 14: Witches by Bill Willingham
4.0
It’s been forever since I’ve actually enjoyed one of these. I’m glad to see more of the Thirteenth Floor and Fabletown, or Farm, politics are getting interesting again. Also, the characters are actually thinking, making strategies, and complex issues aren’t solved with Willingham spouting his political beliefs. I feel like it’s been a while since that happened.
Volume 14 features three stories.
“Boxing Day” is a short that serves as a prologue of sorts to the “Witches” story. The story details how Geppetto’s Empire contained magical threats and turned them into power sources. While Mr. Dark narrates the story, “Boxing Day” follows Dunster Happ, who rose through the ranks of the Boxers and was one of the warlocks to successfully capture Mr. Dark (as well as Baba Yaga). I have mixed feelings about Happ. He has some poignant moments, but characters like him who successfully give up part(s) of their identity to join a group tend to not interest me. Still, it’s a solid story.
“Witches” is glorious. It follows three different stories, but they’re cohesive. Buffkin was transported with the business office, Baba Yaga, and several other dangerous magical creatures, including the Djinn from Arabian Nights (and Days). Buffkin’s only allies are the magic mirror, the heads of Frankenstein and the wooden soldiers, and some freshly grown Barleycorn Brides. Buffkin’s arc here is very similar to Flycatcher’s Haven arc. Both follow an unlikely hero using his ability to make friends and some magic tricks to beat the odds. I like Buffkin’s better though because he is revealed to have some military history, relies on his allies, and uses trickery. Also, Buffkin’s severe injury at the end makes him come off as less overpowered than Fly did. Plus, I’m the type of dork who finds saving the day by retaining almost everything one reads really satisfying.
The next parts of the story follow members of the Thirteenth Floor. The young blonde woman often seen accompanying Frau Totenkinder is revealed to be Ozma of Oz, and the former princess of Oz has some ambitions. Ozma feels that now that the Adversary was defeated with a lot of Frau’s help, it’s time for new leadership, since the original leader retired after establishing Fabletown. There’s a lot of clever fridge logic for Ozma being a member of the Thirteenth Floor, since in the second Oz book, it’s revealed that she was disguised as a boy and worked for the former Wicked Witch of the South. This also explains why she’d be chomping at the bit to take leadership from other witches, especially since the existence of the Nome King in a previous volume shows that Oz probably still has a Geppetto approved dictator. There’s also Maddy the Cat, formerly known as Medea of Greek mythology and Sycorax of Shakespeare’s Tempest. Maddy is a talented shapeshifter, seeker, and hider, who probably chose a cat-shape to match her personality. I hope sometime later there is some interaction between Maddy and Frau, given some mutual parts of their backstory.
Frau decides to go solo to take action and travels to the world that Mr. Dark was imprisoned in. I don’t know why she cast off her old woman form to do this. I kind of like the image of an elderly woman in modern clothes wandering the Adversary’s realm. Anyways Frau, now calling herself Bellflower, goes on to track Happ.
Ozma uses this opportunity to seize control of the Thirteenth Floor. However, she soon gets competition when Geppetto returns with the protection and magic of Grandfather Oak. Geppetto is willing to help rebox Mr. Dark, but only as leader of Fabletown, the Farm, and the Thirteenth Floor. Ozma and Geppetto have a brief magic exhibition that ends in a cliffhanger.
I liked it, except for the cliffhanger.
Finally it’s “Out to the Ball Game” which is a short check on Haven. Shortly after losing the pennant in the Haven baseball league, Amrbose has to deal with the first murder in Haven. The pitcher of the victorious goblin team gets lost and eats a squirrel citizen after the party. Ambrose doesn’t want to give out the death sentence and manages to narrowly avoid it, although Red Riding Hood reminds him that he’ll have to if there is another murder. Also, he and Red hook up.
It’s a decent story, but we’re in the middle of the Mr. Dark arc. Can we finish dealing with evil incarnate before having a story featuring a baseball game and a boner joke? Especially when there’s a cliffhanger.
Volume 14 features three stories.
“Boxing Day” is a short that serves as a prologue of sorts to the “Witches” story. The story details how Geppetto’s Empire contained magical threats and turned them into power sources. While Mr. Dark narrates the story, “Boxing Day” follows Dunster Happ, who rose through the ranks of the Boxers and was one of the warlocks to successfully capture Mr. Dark (as well as Baba Yaga). I have mixed feelings about Happ. He has some poignant moments, but characters like him who successfully give up part(s) of their identity to join a group tend to not interest me. Still, it’s a solid story.
“Witches” is glorious. It follows three different stories, but they’re cohesive. Buffkin was transported with the business office, Baba Yaga, and several other dangerous magical creatures, including the Djinn from Arabian Nights (and Days). Buffkin’s only allies are the magic mirror, the heads of Frankenstein and the wooden soldiers, and some freshly grown Barleycorn Brides. Buffkin’s arc here is very similar to Flycatcher’s Haven arc. Both follow an unlikely hero using his ability to make friends and some magic tricks to beat the odds. I like Buffkin’s better though because he is revealed to have some military history, relies on his allies, and uses trickery. Also, Buffkin’s severe injury at the end makes him come off as less overpowered than Fly did. Plus, I’m the type of dork who finds saving the day by retaining almost everything one reads really satisfying.
The next parts of the story follow members of the Thirteenth Floor. The young blonde woman often seen accompanying Frau Totenkinder is revealed to be Ozma of Oz, and the former princess of Oz has some ambitions. Ozma feels that now that the Adversary was defeated with a lot of Frau’s help, it’s time for new leadership, since the original leader retired after establishing Fabletown. There’s a lot of clever fridge logic for Ozma being a member of the Thirteenth Floor, since in the second Oz book, it’s revealed that she was disguised as a boy and worked for the former Wicked Witch of the South. This also explains why she’d be chomping at the bit to take leadership from other witches, especially since the existence of the Nome King in a previous volume shows that Oz probably still has a Geppetto approved dictator. There’s also Maddy the Cat, formerly known as Medea of Greek mythology and Sycorax of Shakespeare’s Tempest. Maddy is a talented shapeshifter, seeker, and hider, who probably chose a cat-shape to match her personality. I hope sometime later there is some interaction between Maddy and Frau, given some mutual parts of their backstory.
Frau decides to go solo to take action and travels to the world that Mr. Dark was imprisoned in. I don’t know why she cast off her old woman form to do this. I kind of like the image of an elderly woman in modern clothes wandering the Adversary’s realm. Anyways Frau, now calling herself Bellflower, goes on to track Happ.
Ozma uses this opportunity to seize control of the Thirteenth Floor. However, she soon gets competition when Geppetto returns with the protection and magic of Grandfather Oak. Geppetto is willing to help rebox Mr. Dark, but only as leader of Fabletown, the Farm, and the Thirteenth Floor. Ozma and Geppetto have a brief magic exhibition that ends in a cliffhanger.
I liked it, except for the cliffhanger.
Finally it’s “Out to the Ball Game” which is a short check on Haven. Shortly after losing the pennant in the Haven baseball league, Amrbose has to deal with the first murder in Haven. The pitcher of the victorious goblin team gets lost and eats a squirrel citizen after the party. Ambrose doesn’t want to give out the death sentence and manages to narrowly avoid it, although Red Riding Hood reminds him that he’ll have to if there is another murder. Also, he and Red hook up.
It’s a decent story, but we’re in the middle of the Mr. Dark arc. Can we finish dealing with evil incarnate before having a story featuring a baseball game and a boner joke? Especially when there’s a cliffhanger.