The Great Fables Crossover Part 2 COMICS RETROSPECTIVE! And they all lived happily ever after.
The Great Fables Crossover - Part 1:
Collecting Fables Issue 85.
Jack Of Fables Issue 35.
The Literals Issues 2&3.
Written by Bill Willingham & Matthew Sturges.
Artists listed below.
Last time around, the final showdown with The Literals began! Evil(ish) Kevin Thorne has sequestered himself in the Catskills with his cousins The Genre, and is primed and ready to remake the universe in his image. Only one thing stands in his way... Writer's Block! Also, a loose collection of Fables, and a couple of rogue Literals assisting. But honestly, 90% of the heavy lifting is done by Writer's Block. Now, the crossover reaches its epic conclusion, as we try to stop Kevin once and for all!
The Literals Issue 2: The Great Fables Crossover Part 6 - Long Ass Title. Pencils by Mark Buckingham, Inks by Andrew Pepoy.
As The Genre attempt to mount a defence, they find themselves at odds on how they best proceed. Back at his house, Kevin tries his best to get over Writer's Block.
Meanwhile, the Page Sisters do what they do best... go to the library!
Fables Issue 85: The Great Fables Crossover Part 7 - A Very Funny Title. Pencils by Tony Akins, Inks by Andrew Pepoy & Dan Green.
Jack must is finally facing the consequences of (some of) his actions. Needless to say, he's handling it REALLY well.
Back in The Catskills, Kevin has bludgeoned Writer's Block to death. Which, I have mixed feelings about. Writer's Block the character was doing work. Writer's Block the concept was stopping me from doing the same. Then, Jack and Ruby Red need to relocate away from the farm.
Jack Of Fables Issue 35: The Great Fables Crossover Part 8 - DEEPLY Ironic Title. Pencils by Russ Braun, Inks by José Marzán, Jnr.
The stalemate continues. With the Genre and Fables at a deadlock, and Bigby still an adorably angry child, it seems like they're at an impasse.
Meanwhile, Sam uses some light housework as a cover to potentially save all of reality as we know it. Fingers crossed!
The Literals Issue3: The Great Fables Crossover Part 9 - Fairly Meta Title. Pencils by Mark Buckingham, Inks by Andrew Pepoy.
The Crossover reaches its grand conclusion, in which Kevin is defeated, and Deus Ex Machina saves the day using an Egg McGuffin. Damn, now I want an Egg McMuffin...
Well, there we have it folks! The Great Fables Crossover is all wrapped up, with a nice bow. That was... certainly an ending. The plot wrapped up, and all of the build up was totally worth it. That was definitely worth reading all the volumes of Jack's nonsense, and absolutely makes both Fables and Jack of Fables seem like richer stories, once all of this is added as context.
So... there we have it. Remember when I said that the Siege of Golden Boughs kinda felt like set-up for all of this, and that the problem with spending a whole volume on set-up was that it puts a LOT of pressure on the 'main' event, because now it not only has to be a strong story in its own right, but also has to carry the weight of the previous arcs?
Yeah, it didn't do that.
The Big Fables Crossover is here, and it tells its grand story over NINE freakin chapters, spread over three separate series. Including a three part series "The Literals" that is just an Event Book, created for this crossover. The only problem is, there wasn't 9 issues worth of story in this event. There was four, at a push.
I split this Retro into two parts, because I figured the first half of the arc would be mostly set-up, and it was. And then the last few chapters would be where everything goes crazy and there's a huge amount to discuss and unpack... Sadly, there wasn't. After 5 chapters of set-up we got... a few more chapters of set-up, and then the whole thing wrapped up in one issue, with a combination of Deus Ex Machina and just straight-up nonsense.
After 9 full issues, plus let's be fair, about 90% of the Jack of Fables run, I was expecting SO MUCH MORE from this event. This has to be the biggest non-event in comics history, and I'm including Avengers Vs X-Men in that statement.
I mean, more time in this crossover was spent talking about the Fables diner orders, than was spent on actual plot. The overwhelming majority of this back half was spent with The Genre and The Fables sitting in the woods, blindly firing at each other and making vaguely meta jokes about fiction, genre, and the foibles of literature. Then, once we get to the last issue and are worried this won't be resolved... Jack's son Jack shows up, freezes Kevin inside his forcefield, and Dex shows up to make a new universe that all the Literals leave for.
That's it. That's the ending. It's so laughably weak, that I honestly feel bad for having read it.
All the build up of Kevin Thorne, the reveal that he's a Literal, the reveal that Literals exist... there was SO much to work with there. It's a GREAT concept that could have been really fantastic. Hell, for all my complaints about it, Jack of Fables at least did a good job of utilising The Literals. Mr Revise was a terrifying foe, Bookburner had the potential to be even worse, Pathetic Fallacy is still my favourite character in the whole series... all gold. Then, as the capstone of the whole group we have Kevin Thorne. A character they've been teasing us with since about volume 3 of Fables. A character who can rewrite reality as he sees fit... and he's taken down in SUCH a boring way. It's just tragic, man.
It would be like if Thanos had been taken out by Captain Marvel instead of Iron Man. But worse, because at least Carol had been around for a while and had some grounding in the universe. It would be like if Scott Lang had come back in Infinity War, gone home and met Cassie who was now grown up, and then sent her to fight Thanos. Then, she'd snuck up behind him during the big battle and given him a wedgie, which distracted him for long enough that the heroes could bring out an Infinity Gem that no one had known existed until then, and they'd used that to save the day.
Honestly, when I sat down to write this Retrospective, I had a VERY different article in mind. I wanted to talk about the literary establishment, and how it often looks down on so called "genre" fiction, and how Fantasy and Sci-Fi are much maligned genres, even when many of the most popular franchises of all time fit into those categories.
But the more I sit back and think of what I just read, the more annoyed I get at how pathetic it was. I know this series can do so much better, because it HAS done better, multiple times, and hopefully will continue to do better. I'm excited to see what happens next in The Fables' battle against Mister Dark, and Jack's battle against what I can only assume is an extremely long list of criminal offenses he'll now have to face.
But man, that Crossover was just so disappointing.
So, if you're excited too, come back next time for... something. I don't even know anymore. I'm leaning towards Fables, because I enjoyed that series far more. But there's only a few volumes of Jack of Fables left. Not sure if I'll alternate, wrap up one then cover the other, or just bury these links and pretend it never happened.
If you've read this far, sound off below, or in the comments under whatever link you followed to get here: Do you want to see the rest of Fables, Jack of Fables, both, or neither?
Taheg Gloder is a Freelance Copywriter from England. Obsessed with comics and Manga since his teens, he now splits his time between writing comic reviews and retrospectives for POP, and doing reactions on his YouTube Channel, The Dragon & The Hound. He lives alone, because he’s a hermit.
