Fables: The Dark Ages

It's Fables week here at Biblio File!

I love this series and the various spin-offs. I'm also really, really behind in reviewing it, so let's take the entire week to head down to Bullfinch Street and up the farm and maybe even back to the Homelands to see how things are going ok?

First up is...

Fables Vol. 12: The Dark Ages The Dark Ages

I just cannot talk about this book without MASSIVE SPOILERS. So sorry, but. I'm also not going to hide the spoilers because this book has been out for a year now, longer if you read them issue by issue instead of omnibus form, like I do.

So, if you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for? I've read other reviews that didn't like it that much, while I absolutely LOVED it, so... go read it and then come back.

Now, down to business...

So, we have 4 stories in this one, but I'm really only going to talk about the 5-issue "Dark Ages" arc which sets up Fabletown's next crisis-- with the Empire fallen, dark forces are loose and Fabletown's in more danger than ever. We also say goodbye to some pretty major characters here.

1. Prince Charming's funeral. Interestingly, there's no talk of him coming back, although he's a very important fable, having a staring role in many very popular stories.

2. KAY! Poor Kay. He was never a major character in the series, and I'm not sure he's entirely dead, because Mr. Dark is pretty scary and weird, so... I'm more than a little worried about what it means that Kay's now under his control.

3. Blue. Blue dies horribly and it's sad and awful. There is a lot of talk about him coming back-- everyone's worried because while he was very important to Fabletown, in the mundy world, he just got 1 minor nursery rhyme. No one knows if it will be enough.

With everyone now living on the farm, there is also more to the discord that led to the problems in Fables Vol. 2: Animal Farm. There is also a lot of discussion on who gets to come back and why.

Sadly, none of these issues has been touched on again in what's come out in the last year. (To be fair though, we've only gotten 1 volume of Fables proper since then, and it was a cross-over with Jack and solves Jack's major storyline. But I'm hoping we'll see more in Fables, Book 14: Witches, which comes out in December.)

So many interesting questions raised in this issue concerning the nature of the Fables.

Because, looking back at the series, we never see any Fables come back from the dead, the popular ones are the strong ones and they're just really, really, really, really hard to kill. So they never die in the first place.

So, what do we think? Are Charming and Blue gone for good? Or will we see them again? And what about Kay?

Book Provided by... my wallet

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