Fables 9: Sons of Empire

Fables 9: Sons of Empire (2007) Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Michael Allred, and Andrew Pepoy

If you haven’t been reading Bill Willingham’s “Fables” then you have been missing out.

In Sons of Empires we spend more time with Pinocchio and Geppetto and learn how they plan to carry the war into the Mundane lands in order to strike back after Bigby’s attack at the end of Wolves.

In addition, several new threads are started while others are finished. We finally get to see Snow White and Bigby happy and at peace with each other and their children. Of course there is only so much calm and peace you can have with six children who can both fly and shape shift at will.

We also revisit–however briefly–one of my favorite characters, Boy Blue. He’s had nothing but bad luck for quite awhile now, so it’s good to see him doing well. We also discover that one of his good friends may have more in his future than anyone could ever have imagined. I’ll be very curious to see what happens there.

I very much enjoyed the stories in Sons of Empire. In addition to learning more about the ongoing war with the Adversary, we still have a few stories that stand on their own, such as the Christmas tales, why Hansel was exiled from Fabletown, and the Q&A at the end, where we learn the answers to several questions, such as as what is Frau Totenkinder knitting, and how does Bufkin keep getting his hands on the liquor (my favorite of the Q&A stories I think.)

I also liked the fact that for several of the stories, we returned to the panels along the edges that reflected the characters within. I particularly liked how they changed to sepia for the story set in the past (a very nice touch.)

As I said, if you haven’t been reading Fables, then you have really been missing out. These are some wonderful stories, and for those like me, the graphic novels tend to break well. There is still plenty happening, nothing to horrible as to make six months seem like an eternity.
Rating: 8/10

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