Aire

The contents of “Fairest” #33 were originally solicited to appear in November 2013 as “Fairest” #21, but the issue was postponed and all future issues stepped back one space in terms of numbering. The reason why you should know this is because Bill Willingham and Meghan Hetrick’s “Fairest” #33 is a direct prologue to the “Fairest of Them All” graphic novel, which was also published in November 2013, and — by losing that publication slot on the schedule — there’s no denying that this comic loses a little bit of its punch. Billed as “the penultimate adventures (and misadventures) of one of our more delightful villains,” “Fairest” #33 follows Goldilocks as she’s on the run from the rest of Fable society, even as she tries to build her own power back up one way or another. The end result is a long, zigzagging story through different dimensions as Goldilocks addresses the reader and explains why her lack of being the fairest of them all is what’s really holding her back. What’s nice abou

With “Fables” almost at a close, the same is true for its companion series “Fairest.” “Fairest” #32 wraps up the final storyline (“The Clamour for Glamour”), although there’s still one final issue to go next month. Mark Buckingham and Russ Braun’s storyline has best been described as rambling, zig-zagging all over the place without a strong focus at any moment. But as with previous issues, there are some little gems of interesting ideas buried through the issue. “Fables” fans will be curious if nothing else to see the final fate of the Farm and everyone in it, as well as finding out which five Fables get to gain human form. But at the same time, there’s a lot of slapstick, misunderstandings, and pratfalls that you need to first get through in order to hit this conclusion. And in the end, it results in a very uneven comic. The biggest problem is that it feels like Buckingham bit off more than he could chew, here. There are a lot of characters dipping in and out of the story, and hones

On the whole, “The Return of the Maharaja” in “Fairest” has been a lot of fun, with Sean E. Williams and Stephen Sadowski continuing the return of Prince Charming in an Indian-influenced world of Fables. “Fairest” #18 serves as both backstory and transition for Prince Charming and Nalayani, though, and as such it’s just not as riveting as what readers have seen up until now. Williams’ plot has two important functions in “Fairest” #18: to present the backstory on how Prince Charming ended up as the Maharaja after his apparent death in “Fables” #75, and to continue building the relationship between him and Nalayani. They’re both moments that clearly need to happen at some point in this storyline. With them appearing in the same issue, though, it’s hard to keep from feeling like the plot has slowed to a crawl. To be fair (no pun intended), “Fairest” #18 does have some other progressions. Charming and Nalayani attempt to escape the Village of the Dead, plus Nathoo attempts to keep order

“The Green Team: Teen Trillionaires” #2 by Art Baltazar, Franco and Ig Guara expands on the world of a team of outrageously wealthy teenagers as they try to buy fame, power and personal fulfillment in the DCU. It’s early days, but so far, it’s very clear what money can’t buy for these characters: heroism. Adolescence is fertile ground for fiction, since identity is so flexible and growth is so rapid during the transition from childhood to adulthood. Unfortunately, Baltazar and Franco don’t take a narrative approach that emphasizes the high spirits or intra-team personality conflicts that usually make teen team books work. The team is bound together only by their anything-can-be-bought attitude, which ends up being a barrier between the characters and most readers. In today’s political climate, the 1% don’t have the best reputation. Still, it isn’t difficult to make the rich sympathetic. Iron Man is currently one of most popular characters in comics, and Tony Stark has never been shy

“The Green Team: Teen Trillionaires” #1 by writers Art Baltazar & Franco and artist Ig Guara might share (most of) its title with an abandoned 1970s DC Comics property, but the contents are almost entirely reimagined. A companion title of sorts to “The Movement,” it’s an attempt by DC to launch what is essentially an original concept: a team of do-gooding one percenters who are buying themselves access to super powers. DC is no stranger to the concept of the Billionaire superhero, of course, having practically invented the idea with Batman, but herein lies a different treatment. The characters presented are more interested in affecting social change with their wealth, rather than using it to beat up society’s more unsavory elements — although the manifestation of that isn’t all it could be. (A car that runs on Internet traffic? Eh?) Our introduction to the team comes through the eyes of Mohammad, a coddled rich kid who has disobeyed his father to come and meet Commodore Murphy,

“Fairest” #15 is in many ways the most successful opening chapter of a story on the series to date, and it’s the sort of first issue that makes me wish that it had in fact kicked off the book as a whole. Sean E. Williams, Stephen Sadowski and Phil Jimenez start by telling a story that feels very removed from the main “Fables” title, but by the end of this first issue it’s apparent just how well it fits in with everything else to date. Williams paces out his Vertigo debut well; readers are quickly introduced to Nalayani, a Fable in a world “far removed from Fabletown” that resembles the myths and legends of the Indian subcontinent. I’m not familiar with the character of Nalayani outside of “Fairest” #15, but I like what I see here courtesy Williams. She’s the sort of character who has a strong head on her shoulders and has the prowess and skill to match with her convictions. As Nalayani travels to find the new Maharaja in search of help for her village, it’s easy to see her as being

“Fairest” #9, written by Lauren Beukes and drawn by Inaki Miranda, is like a party for Japanese culture, with past and present both vying for attention. Like the issue’s setting, Tokyo, the issue is varied, beautiful and noisy — for better and worse. The text is rich in allusion, and the characters and actions fill the issue, yet reading “Fairest” #9 feels like a tourist’s visit, or a night out among a cast of hundreds, where connections feel shallow even if the sights are dazzling. Once again, Beukes packs this second chapter of “The Hidden Kingdom” with her knowledge of Japanese folklore and mythology. The well-known kappa and kitsune appear, as well as lesser-known myths, like the Funa Yurei, the spirits of the drowned. In the background of a scene, Jack Horner chats up a Rokurokubi (a long-necked woman Yōkai). Beukes has also immersed herself in the Japanese language, and I enjoyed learning about the phrase “Koi No Yokan” and another meaning for the word “going.” In the shift b

Lauren Beukes opens “Fairest” #8 with the line “The past is a dead dog,” echoing L.P. Hartley’s proverbial opening line of “The Go-Between”: “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” Indeed they do, especially if the past was in a magical kingdom within an actual foreign country. Thus Beukes begins the story arc of “The Hidden Kingdom” with a premise rich in Japanese mythology. After this ominous meditation on the creep and weight of the past, the action of the story moves to the present. After one page of breathing space to introduce Rapunzel in her gilded captivity, Rapunzel’s past comes to find her in a visually breathtaking attack by paper cranes in a flurry of broken glass and blood. Beukes niftily combines two allusions into one: a thousand origami cranes, which by Japanese legend can grant one wish, and death by a thousand cuts, a form of torture and execution from Ancient China. A detour to Brooklyn draws Jack Horner into the net of the story, and Ra

With “Fairest” #7, creator Bill Willingham opens up the world of “Fables” to other creators, with long-time Willingham-collaborator Matthew Sturges and “Cinderella” artist Shawn McManus first up to bat. As good news for anyone with whom “Fairest” #1-6 didn’t click, you’re in luck. After all, if you don’t like one story in an anthology series, you just have to wait until the next one rolls around. Sturges and McManus jump to the 1940s, with Beast on a personal mission to hunt down the dreaded Lamia; a beautiful woman who can shift between human and snake, but also a deadly killer. On its surface, “Fairest” #7 is a hard-boiled detective story with what feels like a slightly artificial deadline, as Beast tries to capture the Lamia once more before Saint-George finds and kills her on his own. As the story unfolds, though, Sturges offers up a revelation about the relationship between Lamia and Beast that forever casts them in a different light. “Fairest” #7 is a “twist” story, where at t

I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for Phil Jimenez’s pencils, which is how I ended up buying “Fairest” #2. After a lackluster story in the opening chapter, my original plan was to just wait until the fall when the next creative team comes on board, but Jimenez’s art is always gorgeous and with Sleeping Beauty finally in the main story I thought I’d give the series just one more chance. On the plus side, “Fairest” is visually one of the fairest in land — or rather the comic market. Jimenez and inker Andy Lanning work well together. Ali Baba and Briar Rose both look just amazing; every detail is in place from errant locks of hair to a rustling, ornate gown for Sleeping Beauty. Jimenez and Lanning can do a lot with expressions; the cold gaze of the Snow Queen (no pun intended) when she states, “Run” is withering and the screams of terror when the goblin horde attacks our heroes feel genuine. These expressive faces make the featureless snow giants that much creepier as a result, a nice touch