squidjum's review
2.0
This one also kind of bothered me, for a lot of casually thrown in phrases that just assert very traditional and harmful social perceptions or values.
Santa Claus talking about also delivering toys in "darkest Africa"? Mr. North and his "rights of fatherhood" when discussing how to deal with his offspring who nearly killed his grandchildren? :/
I dunno. And sometimes the sparse storytelling gets annoying, like a confrontation between Bigby and Mr. North where Mr. North already knows why Bigby hates him and has tried to kill him seven times. Ok, but as the reader, I don't know, and now seemed like a really good opportunity to actually explain WHY they're on such bad terms, and a little more detail beyond "you left my mother" would've been nice.
Santa Claus talking about also delivering toys in "darkest Africa"? Mr. North and his "rights of fatherhood" when discussing how to deal with his offspring who nearly killed his grandchildren? :/
I dunno. And sometimes the sparse storytelling gets annoying, like a confrontation between Bigby and Mr. North where Mr. North already knows why Bigby hates him and has tried to kill him seven times. Ok, but as the reader, I don't know, and now seemed like a really good opportunity to actually explain WHY they're on such bad terms, and a little more detail beyond "you left my mother" would've been nice.
celise_winter's review
4.0
The things I've been missing in the past few volumes have returned (in 2007, but I'm here now)!
I really loved the Christmas special and the focus on my favourite characters.
The art in issues 57 and 59 made me cringe a little bit. I'm sure Michael Allred is a skilled artist, but I don't know if his style really suits the style of the series. It would have been nice to recognize the characters, but it looks like he made them up all on his own rather than basing them off of what they've been established to look like. I kind of wish those ones had been rendered by Mark Buckingham. Look at me, complaining about something so subjective, in a book published 11 years ago. Eh.
I really loved the Christmas special and the focus on my favourite characters.
The art in issues 57 and 59 made me cringe a little bit. I'm sure Michael Allred is a skilled artist, but I don't know if his style really suits the style of the series. It would have been nice to recognize the characters, but it looks like he made them up all on his own rather than basing them off of what they've been established to look like. I kind of wish those ones had been rendered by Mark Buckingham. Look at me, complaining about something so subjective, in a book published 11 years ago. Eh.
smoore05's review
4.0
The tale of father and son is a strong tale, believe me I have raised my own son for 5 years now. This tale goes a long way into developing a relationship between wolf and cub, and lays a base of trust and love that was much needed after so long apart. The only thing I could ask for is to try and understand where the 7th son is in all of this? He never breaks his silence, he hovers and never experiences things as part of the group or tale. Also, Santa's magic list seems to not even be able to detect the anomaly of the child. It is a sad tale that he can not even be apart of the family.
For the other characters it seems Rose is growing fond of boy blue, which may help his heart break when he realizes Red is in love with Flycatcher. I like the little side stories and it keeps things interesting even outside of the main characters.
For the other characters it seems Rose is growing fond of boy blue, which may help his heart break when he realizes Red is in love with Flycatcher. I like the little side stories and it keeps things interesting even outside of the main characters.
wanderlustlover's review
4.0
Still deeply in love with series. The pieces get better and better with each section. I love how morality and loyalty is turned on several sides and poked at in this storyline.
lilmatt050's review
5.0
This volume was different then the usual Fables in a sense that we got different insight into Bigby's life with Snow and the kids and why he isn't nice in regards to his father, Mr. North! We get insight about the Adversary and his mission to destroy earth which is creepy in regards to other fables who plan to destroy the earth.
What's interesting is I wonder in the previous volumes about what happens to Hansel and you learn about his cult ideas in regards to witch craft. I learn that Santa Claus is a fable and cannot wait for what's going to happen with Fabletown.
What's interesting is I wonder in the previous volumes about what happens to Hansel and you learn about his cult ideas in regards to witch craft. I learn that Santa Claus is a fable and cannot wait for what's going to happen with Fabletown.
fifteenthjessica's review
1.0
Oh God, this has too many stories, and the shorts really mess with the tone of the individual issues. Then there's a bunch of shorts that are based on reader questions, half of which just end in misogynistic gags. Now, going in order of when they start. I may adjust the score later, because I just went over the answers to the reader questions.
First, we have the titular Sons of Empire. After Bigby and Ghost’s mission, Gepetto is pissed and wants to destroy Fabletown. The Snow Queen has a plan to absolutely destroy Earth and turn it into a prison world.It’s a well illustrated monologue. Pinnochio opposes it because he’s been on Earth for so long and Rodney opposes it because he’s been on Earth for a year making Gepetto’s meat granddaughter? As a result of their objections there is also a well illustrated monologue about what Pinnochio and Rodney anticipate will be Fabletown’s plan. This also introduces the rest of Gepetto’s counsel: the Nome King of the Oz series and Hansel, a witch hunter turned diplomat to Fabletown. Hansel’s backstory is a great handling of taking a fairy tale hero and turning him into a villain in a very logical way. It starts with the burning of Frau Totenkinder, which sparked a hatred of witches in young Hansel. They joined some medieval Churches, which probably didn’t help, since they likely had our medieval world’s view that all independent women are witches. They arrive in the colonies, but Hansel leaves Fabletown when discovering that Frau Totenkinder has a safe place there. He starts killing witches wherever, until that dies out.
Hair. A few pages about what life in Fabletown is like for Rapunzel. It’s jarring because it comes between the Snow Queen’s declaration that Winter Is Coming. This is going to be harsh, but I don’t care about Rapunzel. Snow has been botched, and Briar is woefully underused, so I don’t think that Willingham can handle another female character.
The next short is Porky Pine Pie. It’s beautifully illustrated with a lovely painter like style, but it’s jarring to read about a lecherous porcupine after the apocalypse was detailed.
Thorn in Their Side is one of the better shorts. After March of the Wooden Soldiers, another reporter became suspicious. He quit his reporting job and serves as a landlord, which ties in with the main plot because Hansel needs a place to stay, and Thorn’s place is the closest one available.
Road to Paradise. It’s the worst. The three blind mice are looking for a ton of mice virgins in Smalltown. I hate it. Next.
We get the Christmas special. Jack tries to nick the naughty and nice list. At the Wolf household, they’re dealing with Christmas. One of the biggest revelations is that Bigby and Snow aren’t on the same page in parenting. Bigby wants the kids to achieve wolf milestones, like learning to hunt, but Snow wants the kids to prove they can act like human children, so she can move back to Fabletown. Great job. After Rose and Blue learn how to ride the magic carpet, Rose reveals that Santa is a fable who fights goblins and ogres. You know, the ones native to the North Pole on Earth, because volume 3 established that all the known gates were destroyed, and surely with all of Santa’s magic powers as well as Bigby’s skills someone would have found and destroyed that gate. The cubs decide to send a representative to ask Santa the way to maximize their gift earning. Instead, the representative (Ambrose) asks about Santa’s powers, which transitions to Jack getting a ton of coal and Santa summoning Fly’s wife to turn him back into a human. Hopefully Santa dumped the gifts for Ambrose outside for Ghost to get before going on his merry way.
Finally, it’s Father and Son. The color scheme switches to a grungier one as the Wolf family go to visit Mr. North. The cubs enjoy their grandfather, so Snow says that they need to spend time with Mr. North for the cubs’ sake. There’s a small gag where Mr. North tries to provide the cubs with television, and the cubs are board out of their minds watching “Inappropriately Touched by an Angel.” Then Bigby sends the kids to go kill something in their grandpa’s yard, because wolf right of passage. Bigby declares Darien alpha, in spite of Darien’s individual characterization shows a larger amount of the “delightfully mischievous” than the other cubs. Also, the art and color makes it even harder to tell the cubs apart in wolf form.
We get some more knowledge about the first Wolf family. It is screwed up. Bigby has tried to kill his father seven times and if it weren’t for the cubs and Fabletown (where zephyrs could work as valuable spies with Hansel around) would’ve murdered him there. It’s also revealed that
Bigby complains that Mr. North didn’t help him save the cubs, and he has a point, since the elder sons could’ve killed and eaten the cubs. North could’ve tried fatherly saying, “Don’t eat your delightfully mischievous nephew, you not-delightfully mischievous weird hybrids.” Truth be told, Bigby also had no way of knowing that his older brothers were turning into bloodthirsty monsters right by their father’s home, because that is screwed up. Bigby loses any points by saying, “Support the good over the bad and thus teach the good” and telling Snow to tend to the kids so he can talk to his father man to man. About the quote: 1) this makes the treatment of Ghost really disturbing. Ghost killed four fables but isn’t allowed to join his siblings and must be a secret between his parents until he turns five 2) this is so obviously written by someone who hasn’t had to deal with watching a family member go down a bad path. It’s not black and white.
Father and Son also features a moment where Pinnochio tries to make a gift for his father. The different artist on the Father and Son arc does make Pinnochio look like an actual kid (granted, his usual square chin is probably easier to carve, but it’s magic wood). Pinnochio gives Gepetto a wooden bug made from Enchanted Grove wood, which only Gepetto could carve, unless you’re one of the apprentices who carves the limbs and torsos or the craftsmen who help make heads and hands. Santa uses the plot holes in this volume to navigate through the Earth.
Finally, there's the readers burning question stories. The first one about Arabian strong man Hakim's attempt to get a job, is a bad racist joke. Lol, he's too sexist to sell things to woman, in spite of respecting Beauty, who insists that Fabletown doesn't use assassins. Cinderella in Volume 8 begs to disagree.
Then someone asks about how Buffkin gets at Charming's booze. He's self taught at lock picking. Charming threatens Buffkin who promptly decides to learn about assassination in a one off gag. Maybe Buffkin should hire violent old Hakim.
We learn mouse police training, or specifically a phase where the drill sergeant intimidates the new recruits until one faints.
We get to see Jack's last calls before running to Hollywood, which reveals that he's a rival for Prince Charming in womanizing.
Something I was interested in and actually found funny was that the new pigs still think they're intimidating giants.
It's revealed that Fly is the only one whose requests the mirror takes seriously.
A reader asks about the song that Snow and Bigby dance to in volume 1. It's a comic. You won't hear the song, so what's the point? It's Blue Skies, which is also one of Boy Blue's favorite romantic songs. Boy Blue also looks disturbing in one panel when he teases Bigby about being in love.
Frau Totenkinder's knitting is revealed to be clothing for a monstrous looking first born that Beast and Beauty will have.
Then there are two for Prince Charming. His first love is a snail who tries to scam him into marriage. Or maybe an actual princess who needs the marriage. I don't know how Charming's parents decided that was definitely a cookable snail, or maybe they're committing a mass genocide against talking animals. Charming suddenly looks like a better leader. He loses that by having Beauty keep a running total of his sexual exploits: 1,412 before he turns 15.
Finally, Clara the dragon turned raven catches Snow's bouquet, which means lol, Vulco crow has to break up with his secret human girlfriend. Marriage sux guys.
First, we have the titular Sons of Empire. After Bigby and Ghost’s mission, Gepetto is pissed and wants to destroy Fabletown. The Snow Queen has a plan to absolutely destroy Earth and turn it into a prison world.
Spoiler
He returns to discover that Gretel had developed a friendship with and learned magic from Frau Totenkinder and kills her. I also picked Gretel as my official really minor character that I will obsess over and demand to see. He is exiled as a result and returns to the magic intolerant Empire. This trait is biting them in the ass now that it’s been revealed that the lack of magic beans isn’t good for the Empire in the coming war. In the end, they’re going to so something about the Fabletown Fables. Grand waste of time outside of Hansel’s introduction.Hair. A few pages about what life in Fabletown is like for Rapunzel. It’s jarring because it comes between the Snow Queen’s declaration that Winter Is Coming. This is going to be harsh, but I don’t care about Rapunzel. Snow has been botched, and Briar is woefully underused, so I don’t think that Willingham can handle another female character.
The next short is Porky Pine Pie. It’s beautifully illustrated with a lovely painter like style, but it’s jarring to read about a lecherous porcupine after the apocalypse was detailed.
Thorn in Their Side is one of the better shorts. After March of the Wooden Soldiers, another reporter became suspicious. He quit his reporting job and serves as a landlord, which ties in with the main plot because Hansel needs a place to stay, and Thorn’s place is the closest one available.
Road to Paradise. It’s the worst. The three blind mice are looking for a ton of mice virgins in Smalltown. I hate it. Next.
We get the Christmas special. Jack tries to nick the naughty and nice list. At the Wolf household, they’re dealing with Christmas. One of the biggest revelations is that Bigby and Snow aren’t on the same page in parenting. Bigby wants the kids to achieve wolf milestones, like learning to hunt, but Snow wants the kids to prove they can act like human children, so she can move back to Fabletown. Great job. After Rose and Blue learn how to ride the magic carpet, Rose reveals that Santa is a fable who fights goblins and ogres. You know, the ones native to the North Pole on Earth, because volume 3 established that all the known gates were destroyed, and surely with all of Santa’s magic powers as well as Bigby’s skills someone would have found and destroyed that gate. The cubs decide to send a representative to ask Santa the way to maximize their gift earning. Instead, the representative (Ambrose) asks about Santa’s powers, which transitions to Jack getting a ton of coal and Santa summoning Fly’s wife to turn him back into a human. Hopefully Santa dumped the gifts for Ambrose outside for Ghost to get before going on his merry way.
Finally, it’s Father and Son. The color scheme switches to a grungier one as the Wolf family go to visit Mr. North. The cubs enjoy their grandfather, so Snow says that they need to spend time with Mr. North for the cubs’ sake. There’s a small gag where Mr. North tries to provide the cubs with television, and the cubs are board out of their minds watching “Inappropriately Touched by an Angel.” Then Bigby sends the kids to go kill something in their grandpa’s yard, because wolf right of passage. Bigby declares Darien alpha, in spite of Darien’s individual characterization shows a larger amount of the “delightfully mischievous” than the other cubs. Also, the art and color makes it even harder to tell the cubs apart in wolf form.
We get some more knowledge about the first Wolf family. It is screwed up. Bigby has tried to kill his father seven times and if it weren’t for the cubs and Fabletown (where zephyrs could work as valuable spies with Hansel around) would’ve murdered him there. It’s also revealed that
Spoiler
Bigby has six older brothers, they transform into what Mr. North calls “Dire Monsters” to impress their father. We don’t know why Mr. North is more interested in the son that tries to murder him than the ones who haven’t combined. Then they try to eat one of their nephews, so Bigby literally goes Papa Wolf. The other cubs encounter an uncle and were able to hold him at bay, but later on they seem to treat the battle like fun, even though Bigby took a lot of damage and wrecked the world with the fight. They’re going to need a babysitter division for those little brats. Also, Bigby solves the problem of his older brothers by turning them into goldfish and giving them to the cubs as pets and keeping all six in a tiny fish bowl. Even the cubs think the fish-uncles need a bigger bowl, but Bigby insists they’re fine. Hopefully, the cubs won’t be traumatized when the fish-uncles go belly up.Bigby complains that Mr. North didn’t help him save the cubs, and he has a point, since the elder sons could’ve killed and eaten the cubs. North could’ve tried fatherly saying, “Don’t eat your delightfully mischievous nephew, you not-delightfully mischievous weird hybrids.” Truth be told, Bigby also had no way of knowing that his older brothers were turning into bloodthirsty monsters right by their father’s home, because that is screwed up. Bigby loses any points by saying, “Support the good over the bad and thus teach the good” and telling Snow to tend to the kids so he can talk to his father man to man. About the quote: 1) this makes the treatment of Ghost really disturbing. Ghost killed four fables but isn’t allowed to join his siblings and must be a secret between his parents until he turns five 2) this is so obviously written by someone who hasn’t had to deal with watching a family member go down a bad path. It’s not black and white.
Father and Son also features a moment where Pinnochio tries to make a gift for his father. The different artist on the Father and Son arc does make Pinnochio look like an actual kid (granted, his usual square chin is probably easier to carve, but it’s magic wood). Pinnochio gives Gepetto a wooden bug made from Enchanted Grove wood, which only Gepetto could carve, unless you’re one of the apprentices who carves the limbs and torsos or the craftsmen who help make heads and hands. Santa uses the plot holes in this volume to navigate through the Earth.
Finally, there's the readers burning question stories. The first one about Arabian strong man Hakim's attempt to get a job, is a bad racist joke. Lol, he's too sexist to sell things to woman, in spite of respecting Beauty, who insists that Fabletown doesn't use assassins. Cinderella in Volume 8 begs to disagree.
Then someone asks about how Buffkin gets at Charming's booze. He's self taught at lock picking. Charming threatens Buffkin who promptly decides to learn about assassination in a one off gag. Maybe Buffkin should hire violent old Hakim.
We learn mouse police training, or specifically a phase where the drill sergeant intimidates the new recruits until one faints.
We get to see Jack's last calls before running to Hollywood, which reveals that he's a rival for Prince Charming in womanizing.
Something I was interested in and actually found funny was that the new pigs still think they're intimidating giants.
It's revealed that Fly is the only one whose requests the mirror takes seriously.
A reader asks about the song that Snow and Bigby dance to in volume 1. It's a comic. You won't hear the song, so what's the point? It's Blue Skies, which is also one of Boy Blue's favorite romantic songs. Boy Blue also looks disturbing in one panel when he teases Bigby about being in love.
Frau Totenkinder's knitting is revealed to be clothing for a monstrous looking first born that Beast and Beauty will have.
Then there are two for Prince Charming. His first love is a snail who tries to scam him into marriage. Or maybe an actual princess who needs the marriage. I don't know how Charming's parents decided that was definitely a cookable snail, or maybe they're committing a mass genocide against talking animals. Charming suddenly looks like a better leader. He loses that by having Beauty keep a running total of his sexual exploits: 1,412 before he turns 15.
Finally, Clara the dragon turned raven catches Snow's bouquet, which means lol, Vulco crow has to break up with his secret human girlfriend. Marriage sux guys.
jadejade's review
3.0
One day I hope to be such a cynical and petty reader that I can, without compunction, write a review to the effect of "He drank warm milk - one star." Until then, the universe will watch me merely knock a star or two off when something just doesn't sit right with me.
Noting that the previous volume did not work for me, to the extent that I put this series down for years, I approached this volume as a reset: not every chapter in a saga will work for every reader but that does not mean the reader can't enjoy the overall story.
Unfortunately, there's a single page that gave me pause in this volume. I'll keep it vague but basically a character who is a parent declined to interfere when some of their offspring endangered another offspring. This character's justification was basically, what parent can choose between their children? Another character scolds the parent and says that any half-decent parent can and does, that they should "support the good over the bad and thus teach the good." Another character continues scolding the parent, saying "How can you be so bereft of common virtue not to know that much?"
Excuse me, but WTF?
I get what the writer is trying to say here: the parent character should have stepped in when some of their children took actions that endangered another. But that is not choosing between your children, is it? That's just keeping everyone safe. And then suggesting that it is a virtue to choose between your children?? And that you, the person who shaped your children, get to decide some of your offspring are 'bad' and some are 'good'??? The moral of this story was poorly described. Just re-word one speech balloon to say that the parent should have interfered rather than sit back and watch--that's all you had to say.
I'm still going to try to finish this series but I can see my hackles are still up.
Noting that the previous volume did not work for me, to the extent that I put this series down for years, I approached this volume as a reset: not every chapter in a saga will work for every reader but that does not mean the reader can't enjoy the overall story.
Unfortunately, there's a single page that gave me pause in this volume. I'll keep it vague but basically a character who is a parent declined to interfere when some of their offspring endangered another offspring. This character's justification was basically, what parent can choose between their children? Another character scolds the parent and says that any half-decent parent can and does, that they should "support the good over the bad and thus teach the good." Another character continues scolding the parent, saying "How can you be so bereft of common virtue not to know that much?"
Excuse me, but WTF?
I get what the writer is trying to say here: the parent character should have stepped in when some of their children took actions that endangered another. But that is not choosing between your children, is it? That's just keeping everyone safe. And then suggesting that it is a virtue to choose between your children?? And that you, the person who shaped your children, get to decide some of your offspring are 'bad' and some are 'good'??? The moral of this story was poorly described. Just re-word one speech balloon to say that the parent should have interfered rather than sit back and watch--that's all you had to say.
I'm still going to try to finish this series but I can see my hackles are still up.
tammy_driscoll's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0