Spies, as we all know from two generations of Cold War stories, are smart, resourceful, infinitely dangerous, and -- above all -- stunningly fabulous in all ways. Cinderella is the Fables universe's answer to Natasha Romanoff, Emma Peel, and Sydney Bristow: secretly the most deadly agent of the expatriate community of otherworldly refugees, while by day posing as the empty-headed rich-girl owner of a shoe store.Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love
is Cindy's first solo mission; she previous appeared, mostly in a supporting role, in the main Fables series. Here she's trying to track down the source of a new pipeline of magical items, flowing from the otherworldly Homelands into the mundane world and threatening to break the secret of the Fables. She tracks and fights her way from London to New York's Fabletown, and then back out to Dubai and more otherworldly realms. As usual with a solo miniseries, there are some secrets from her past that she has to confront before the end -- isn't that always the way?Cinderella is less intense and obviously themed than the main Fables series, though not as frivolous as the Jack of Fables series. (So, in proper fabulistic fashion, it's the baby bear -- just right.) Chris Roberson, best known for prose, shows himself equally adept at writing adventure stories for the comics form, and Shawn McManus, whose rounded lines sometimes veer towards the twee, is quite good here, dealing with the incidental humor (and the diverting sideplot back in Fabletown) as well as the action scenes. It's a line extension, sure, but it's a pretty good one, and the world can always use another tough princess spy, for my money.
Book-A-Day 2010: The Epic Index
No comments:
Post a Comment