Thursday, December 24, 2009

One Good Thing And One Bad Thing About Jack of Fables #41



GOOD THING: The book still features the adventures of Babe The Miniature Blue Ox!





BAD THING: Apparently they WERE serious last issue. Jack Sr. is gone and we're left with only one page of Babe and the antics of "Jack Frost of Mars" for the rest of the issue.






The Final Verdict: Jack Frost's tales are the stuff of fine adventure... which would be fine if this weren't meant to be a comedy book. At least, that's why I read it. How about you all? As it is, the only funny part of the book these days is Babe the Blue Ox. And that's just sad given that this used to be the funniest book to come out every month.

9 comments:

  1. I read this in trade, so I'm not up on recent Jack events. Still, I'd be surprised if Jack Horner doesn't return to the book by late next year. We'll get some Jack Frost adventures for a while, but I doubt Horner will be out of focus for too long.
    Wes A.

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  2. I hope not. Cause Jack Frost is just... NOT Jack Horner.

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  3. I don't get the same impression - I think Jack Frost is here to stay, since it's a lot easier to write a likeable protagonist than a thoroughly unrepentant jerk. (And I think the writers have stated something similar.)
    (I went to check wikipedia for a quote to be sure, but all I ran across was a "... huh, Rose Red is covered in Fables 94-99", which leads me to think your complaint about her is going to be addressed, in full detail.)

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  4. ...
    Okay, if you honestly think it's easier to write a generic protagonist than a semi-heroic bastard, you need to give up writing now.
    Rule #1 - the villain or anti-hero is always the most interesting character.
    Think about it - who do you remember most from the Disney movies? The heroes or the villains?
    As far as them finally doing something with Rose Red after over a year of her going mad... too little, too late.

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  5. Maybe the writers wanted to take a break or leave Jack Horner before he got too cliche with the fans? As interesting as Jack Horner is, I'm sure that Willingham and Sturges were worried about Horner's antics getting old, so to speak. Or maybe Jack Frost will start following in his fathers footsteps, who knows.
    As for Rose Red, it feels like she'll play a big role in Things To Come. The Three Pigs only appeared to Snow White, who was pretty damn important to the Fables universe. I don't think they would appear to Rose unless she had a destiny of some sort. Right now, I see her madness as karma for her past deeds. She needs to learn from her mistakes and hit bottom before she can pick herself up. It's just a loooong way down for her, unfortunately. :(
    Wes A.

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  6. ...
    What past deeds? If it's everything she did as Jack's girlfriend, I'd say she's more than made up for that with how she's run The Farm.
    If it's the way she treated Boy Blue and Sinbad... well, I don't buy Boy Blue's deathbed "you're so selfish" spiel for a moment and what happened with Sinbad was so sudden and out of character for Rose that I was relieved to see her divorce the guy.
    Quite frankly, the only way I can see Rose "deserving" her madness is if you adopt the conservative viewpoint that Willingham exposits that Marriage Is Always A Good Thing and Divorce Is Always A Bad Thing. Or maybe even Infidelity Is Always The Woman's Fault.
    That last one is seeming increasingly likely given that I've been rereading the books and noticed that Snow White was more upset with her sister than her husband regarding their affair. And it seemed like it was less about "how could you do this to your own sister?" than it was "how could you end a marriage, you whore?"

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  7. I can't comment on the marriage/divorce ideas that Willingham may put into the book. All I'm saying is that despite some of the good things Rose has done, it seemed like she was a manipulator for a good portion of her life until she got to The Farm (like the marriage to Bluebeard, her schemes with Horner, etc.). I'm not saying she had to love Blue or return his feelings, but obviously Blue's speech had some measure of truth to it and Rose knows it. She's obviously facing some demons, and I do agree that she's putting more on herself than she needs to! Fer Christ's sake, Charming was a big time scumbag and deserved worse than what Rose is going through!
    Wes A.

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  8. Actually, the only bad things we know Rose did for sure were...
    a) sleeping with Charming while he was married to Snow.
    b) working with Jack on the con to fake her death and fleece Bluebeard.
    She pretty much renounced Jack following the opening arc and more than redeemed herself with Snow when she played "the inside woman" on the Animal Farm revolution and took over managing things up there.
    Apart from that, her only real "sin" was not loving Boy Blue the way he loved her until he was about to die and he lets loose with "the truth" that she only loves dangerous men and that's the only reason she loves him now.
    While there may be some element of truth to that, it seems like Rose is being punished by the writer for not rushing to a Happily Ever After with Blue and then rejecting her Happily Ever After when she married Sinbad.
    Which just seems misogynistic given that Blue did the EXACT SAME THING when he risked everything to save Red Riding Hood, found out she wasn't the woman he fell in love with and then began chasing after the next accessible spirited redhead (i.e. Rose) and then got all bitter when she said "Sorry, but I just don't love you that way."

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  9. I see your points Matt, but the fact is we honestly don't know what all Rose was up to between sleeping with Charming and renouncing Horner. I always got the feeling she was basically using people the same way Horner did, but I could be wrong. If we follow the belief of karma, then Rose has more skeletons in her closet than we know of if she's being put through all that she is going through.
    As I said, I'm not saying she had to love Blue just because he loved her. I'm saying that his words must have hit a pretty sensitive spot if they drove her to this breakdown. I have a feeling there's more to Rose's past than we have been led to believe. She's working through these issues, and hopefully she'll get past them sooner rather than later.
    Just my opinion.
    Wes A.

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