10 Thoughts on... Fables vol. 2

Fables vol. 2: Animal Farm. Collecting Fables #6-10

-We begin with Snow White forcing her sister Rose Red to head upstate to check on the farm where the non-human Fables were forced to live.

-The farm has all sorts of magic spells put on it to prevent curious locals from investigating. However, upon arriving, Snow White discovers a bunch of spent shotgun casings, and finds the animals holding a secret meeting in one of the barns. The meeting is being chaired by one of the Three Little Pigs, who basically refuses to inform Snow what the meeting was about because the meeting was... you know, secret. Oh, and the former leader of the farm has mysteriously vanished.

-That night Snow White and Rose Red look out the window of the farm house they were staying in and discover the head of one of the Three Pigs on a pike.

-It appears that Goldilocks and the Three Bears(she's married to Baby Bear) had killed the Pig in order to send a message to the other animals on the farm that the time to strike back at the Adversary(who stole the Fable character's lands) was nigh.Well Goldilocks was already a criminal, why not become a revolutionary?


-A fox, who wasn't interested in fighting the Adversary, happens across the morbid scene and runs off, with Goldi proclaiming that the Fox had to die. At around this same time, Rose Red secretly meets(there sure are a lot of secret meetings going on here...) with one of the remaining Three Pigs, who admits that they ordered the death of the other pig, and that they wanted Rose on their side to go after the Adversary. Rose agrees to help.

-The fox winds up running to Snow White and basically fills her in on what had been going on at the farm. Snow and the fox try to escape the farm grounds, but are chased after by a few of the pro-Goldilocks/Pigs animals. A tiger nearly gets its claws into Snow, but the fox distracts the tiger, allowing Snow to get away.I can safely say that it's never a good thing to be chased by a tiger.


-Soon thereafter, the tiger catches up to Snow, claiming that it killed the fox. Snow kills the tiger with a gun she had discovered, and is finally caught by her sister, Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

-Back in New York City, Boy Blue discovers that there was trouble up at the farm after a robin he sent up to check on the situation was killed. He reports this news to the Big Bad Wolf, who is not allowed to go to the farm himself. The Wolf gathers Boy Blue, Bluebeard, Prince Charming and a flying monkey together and sends them up north as his kick-ass posse... That is just insane!

-Snow White finds herself locked up with the former head of the farm, Waylen Smith. With some help from the fox(who wasn't killed by that damn lying tiger), Snow and Waylen get free and wake the giants and dragons who were sleeping at the farm and convince them to(literally) squash the glorious animal revolution. However, their victory is short-lived as Goldilocks shoots Snow in the head from a distance with a high-powered sniper rifle!

-Snow manages to survive(I have NO idea how!), and she gets sent back downstate to be tended to, while Boy Blue and his posse arrive on the scene to set up a war crimes tribunal(HA!). The Pigs are put to death(in an awesomely awful way, since the executioner was inept), while the other leaders either escape(Goldilocks) or are forced to preform hard labor(the Three Bears). In the end we learn that Rose Red never actually betrayed Snow and that she only joined the animal revolution to buy Snow time to escape. Upon learning that, Snow installs Rose as the new head of the farm and they all live happily ever after... Or at least until the nest issue... What do you want, I couldn't resist that line!

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10. I actually enjoyed the first trade a bit more than this volume, but my hatred of talking animals is legendary, so yeah. For a trade that was full of talking animals though, an 8 1/2 is REALLY good!

10 Thoughts on... Y: The Last Man: vol 2.

It's the weekend, meaning it's time for me to switch away from my regular, current reviews and bust out a few trade reviews. I'm still happily playing through Dragon Age 2(for the PS3!!) and have lost 17 hours to that game thus far. Can you guess what my weekend plans entail? Anyway, enough jabber, here's the review.

Y: The Last Man, Book 2: Cycles. Collecting Y: The Last Man #6-10.

-Yorick(covered in a cape, hood and gas mask) manages to gain access to a train by trading a motorcycle he swiped from the Amazons towards the end of the last trade. With all of the men gone, the only real way to get cross country is by the trains. Anyway, Yorick, 355 and Dr. Mann(as well as Ampersand the monkey) get on-board and kill some time talking about stuff. As luck would have it, two thieves hop into the car Yorick and company were in, demanding whatever the trio had on them. 355 draws her gun, which freaks out Mann, who tries to stop 355 from shooting anybody. By this point, Yorick, like an idiot, charges the two criminals and gets tossed out of the moving train. 355 beats the hell out of the thieves before tossing Mann out of the train and then following herself, since her whole mission was to keep Yorick safe.

-Yorick's sister, Hero, is pulled deeper into the ranks of the Amazons thanks to the Amazon's charismatic leader, Victoria.

-Some woman living in a small town in Marrisville, Ohio finds Yorick's unconscious body(as well as Ampersand) laying near the train tracks not that far from her home.

-The woman(whose name is Sonia) takes Yorick into her home and watches over him until he wakes up, quite surprised by his new surroundings and demanding to know what became of 355 and Dr. Mann.

-Mann wakes up a little banged up but no worse for wear after falling from the train, while 355 is laying with her head cracked open against a rock.OUCH!!!


-Yorick tries to impress upon Sonia not to reveal his presence to the other townswomen, but unfortunately she had already told them, leading to a crowd of women waiting outside of Sonia's house to see if there really was a man still alive. The women are relatively friendly, and Yorick is shocked by how well run their town is, a far cry from some of the towns and cities he had passed back east. While talking to the woman, Dr. Mann rushes over and tells Yorick that 355 needed assistance. The townswomen inquire what kind of a name 355 was and when they hear she's a government agent, they give each other one of those, “Uh-oh...” looks. Ultimately the women agree to bring 355 to town to work on her wounds.

-While that is going on, the Amazons are still on Yorick's trail, with Hero locating the two thieves from the train and discovering that the man the Amazons were hunting down sounded exactly like her brother. Hero reports this information back to Victoria, hoping they could spare Yorick, but Victoria manages to convince Hero(with some awesome brainwashing techniques) that Yorick was no different than the other men, and as such had to die.

-With 355 now being looked after by Dr. Mann, and Yorick chopping wood with Sonia away from town, the other townswomen meet up afraid that 355 had come to town for them. Why would that be the case? Well, Yorick and Sonia wind up sharing a kiss, after which she admits to him that all of the women in town were from a nearby women's penitentiary, and were released by the guards since they had no way to seriously keep an eye on them. Upon learning this, Yorick freaks out and rushes back to town, ranting about how the townswomen should still be in jail.That old woman is all kinds of awesome!


-While Yorick is making an ass of himself, Hero enters the door demanding Yorick turn himself over to the Amazons. Yorick immediately goes to embrace his sister and is met with a bow to the head. From outside Victoria appeals with the townswomen to send Yorick outside so she could kill him and finally rid the Earth of all men. The townswomen refuse, much to the shock of Yorick and the rage of Victoria. Victoria demands that the Amazons burn the building to the ground, but Yorick heads outside against the advice of the townswomen, who were willing to fight to the death for him. Yorick tries to talk some sense to Hero, but she's completely brainwashed by this point and pushes him to his knees, at which time Victoria walks over with a handgun, ready to blow Yorick's brains out. Before she can pull the trigger though, Sonia throws an ax from the house, catching Victoria right in the side of the head, killing her.Talk about a splitting headache! Hee-hee-hee...


-In retribution for Victoria's death, Hero shoots an arrow into Sonia, killing her. The other townswomen charge outside, grab the fallen handgun and decide to lock Hero and the Amazons in the prison they themselves once resided in. Besides all of that, a few Israeli soldiers have snuck onto American soil after being told of Yorick's existence by someone from the White House, and we also learn that while Yorick is the last man on Earth, there were two worried male astronauts up in a space station wondering what the hell was going on back home.

Score: 10 out of 10. Ah, so THIS is why this series was so highly spoken of! There's really not anything for me to complain about here. The story was awesome, the artwork was awesome, the dialogue was awesome, in a word, this trade was awesome! And not only was this trade awesome, the future storylines that were set up look great. Hero appears to have become the defacto leader of the Amazons with Victoria gone, meaning she'll be in direct conflict with Yorick when she makes her inevitable escape from the prison. The Israeli storyline has been simmering on the back burner, but you can tell it's going to be HUGE when it finally comes to the forefront. And the last page, which showed us that there were two male astronauts who survived the great die-off was a mind-blower. Truly great stuff here.

10 Thoughts on... Fables vol. 1

One more “10 Thoughts on...” post before the weekend is finished. I'm kind of leaning towards saving these “10 Thoughts” posts for the weekends and doing my regular reviews during the week. Of course that plan can, and almost definitely will change, but that's the current plan. We'll see just how long I decide to stick with it.

Fables, Volume 1: Legends in Exile. Collecting Fables #1-5

-First, it's quick origin time! It seems that assorted Fairy Tales characters(and not the G-rated, Disney-fied versions either) had their lands and kingdoms conquered by some mysterious Adversary character. By the time the Fable's characters realized just what a threat the Adversary posed, it was too late as he had amassed too much power. With no recourse, the Fables characters were forced to go into hiding in the regular world, or as they call it, the Mundane World. Since not sticking together is what screwed them over in the first place, they've decided to a) stick together in Fabletown, a small section of New York City, and b) NEVER reveal who/what they truly were to any of the Mundanes(regular folks).

-Man, Snow White really came across as a bit of a witch early on in this one! Who'd have thunk it?

-And then you had Prince Charming, Snow White's ex-husband, who is the very definition of the word man-whore!Man, Prince Charming is a real ass!


-Besides meeting a few of the main characters in Fabletown, this trade centered around trying to figure out what happened to/who killed Rose Red(Snow White's sister). Rose Red's boyfriend, Jack(of Jack and the Beanstalk fame) alerts the town's sheriff, the Big Bad Wolf of the crime, and the Wolf scopes out the VERY gory apartment shared by Red and Jack.

-As the Wolf goes through with his investigation, he meets with Bluebeard, who seems to be one of the richer members of the Fable community. During the interview, the Wolf learns that Bluebeard was actually engaged to Red, but that the engagement was secret, and wasn't to be revealed until a year after the engagement occurred. This naturally makes Bluebeard a suspect since his whole thing is to marry and then kill his wives on their wedding night.

-Bluebeard points the finger of blame at Jack, since Bluebeard had nothing to gain in killing Red, and lost a rather fat dowry paid to Red as well.Bluebeard and Jack, NOT the best of friends.


-Yeah, so while this whole whodunit mystery was going on, I have to admit, Pinocchio made me laugh pretty hard...What can I possibly add to that?!


-During some huge meeting where all of the Fables character meet up once a year to touch base, the Wolf reveals he solved the mystery, telling the gathered that Red(with help from Jack) had faked her death. And he proves this by pulling a wig off of Red herself! Basically Red wanted Bluebeard's money so Jack could do some stupid get rich quick scheme, and figured she could pay Bluebeard off before the time to marry came up. With the time of the marriage fast approaching, and no money in sight, Red and Jack figured the way to go was to fake her death so she wouldn't have to go through with the marriage.

-Snow White screwing Prince Charming(who slept with Red a few years back) out of a ton of money he thought he'd acquired was pretty funny, and totally deserved.

-If I had one gripe with this trade, it was that so many characters were introduced! Snow White, King Cole, The Wolf, Boy Blue, Beauty and the Beast, Jack, Rose Red, Prince Charming, Bluebeard, and so on and so forth. There were times when I'd be sitting there trying to remember who was what to who, and what each character was currently doing.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10. I really enjoyed the whole whodunit murder mystery that was the focal point of this trade. It was fun trying to figure out the mystery along with the Wolf(and yes, my guess of Bluebeard was wrong), and I really liked the way Bill Willingham had the Wolf spell out EXACTLY how and why Red and Jack did what they did. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this comic(I mean it's about fairy tale characters!), but once you realized this wasn't the cartoonish version of those characters, but rather the darker, pre-Disney versions, I was able to get into this story rather quickly. This was a good opening arc, and I figure as I read more and get more acquainted with the characters, I'll enjoy each passing trade more and more.

10 Thoughts on... Y: The Last Man Vol. 1

Here we go with try number two of this “10 Thoughts on...” deal. Let's see if it comes out any better than my first shot at it...

Y: The Last Man, Book 1: Unmanned.. Collecting: Y: The Last Man #1-5

-This comic gets started with every single creature with a Y chromosome on the Earth suddenly vomiting up blood and dying... Well every creature with the exception of Yorick Brown and his pet monkey, Ampersand.

-Throughout this trade, we get no real clues as to what caused the massive die-off, and Yorick himself, being an amateur illusionist, believes it was the ring he picked up from a magic shop that he was intending on proposing to his girlfriend with once she returned from Australia.

-The closest thing to a clue we have about what may have happened to the men is that a secret agent from the US Government, Agent 355, had gone to Jordan to spirit a woman out of the country due to some sort of ancient necklace the woman was wearing. The woman refuses to leave, explaining that her father had warned her that a catastrophe would occur if the amulet left Jordan. Some terrorists who wanted the amulet wind up killing the woman, and 355 kills the terrorists, taking the amulet with her. Soon after leaving Jordanian airspace, all the men perish.

-Two months after the death of all the men, Yorick(obviously very covered up) and Ampersand make their way to Washington DC in search of his mother, who was a congresswoman from Ohio. Yorick finds his mom, who is overjoyed that he survived, but wants Yorick to hide, since in the two months since the great die-off, several dangerous groups of women have popped up.Hi mom!


-Yorick's mother tricks him into entering a safe room hidden under the White House after an attack by a bunch of crazy Republicans. Since the majority of women left in the government were Democrats, the wives of the dead Republican Representatives decide that they deserved the jobs of their late husbands.It's funny 'cause it's true!


-Agent 355 winds up locating the Secretary of Agriculture and explains to her that with the President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, etc. dead, she was now the acting president and had to head to Washington.

-355 and the new president show up at the White House just in time to see the crazy Republicans and the few female Representatives and secret service agents having a stand-off on the lawn. The new president(being a rare non-crazy Republican) manages to convince the crazy Republicans to leave for now, just as Yorick breaks out of the safe room and heads outside.

-Yorick wants to head to Australia to find his girlfriend, but the new president tasks 355 with escorting Yorick to Boston where there was a female geneticist who was extremely knowledgeable in the area of cloning and genetics, with the hope being the geneticist could clone/figure out why Yorick and his monkey were still alive.

-Yorick and 355 manage to locate the geneticist in Boston, Dr. Mann, but Mann is unable to do any experiments on Yorick because her lab was mysteriously burnt down. Mann explains she had a back-up lab in California, meaning the trio would have to sneak out to the west coast, keeping Yorick safe from harm during the trip.

-Besides all of that, we also learn that the new leading military force in the world is Israel, since they actually had female soldiers who had seen military action, something much of the rest of the world couldn't also lay claim to. The Israelis go about conquering several Middle Eastern nations around them as they begin to throw around their newfound world power status. Another pending threat is the Daughters of the Amazons, a bunch of women who had fallen into a cult that felt that all men deserved to die since men suck. These women have cut off one of their breasts like the mythical Amazons of old and have amongst their ranks Yorick's sister, Hero. Needless to say the rumors that one man had survived the great die-off was of great interest of them, since they felt it was their duty to rid Mother Earth of ALL men.

Score: 9 out of 10. This first trade was more intriguing than great to me. The story was extremely engaging, and the mystery of what happened to the men was great, even though it didn't take center stage during the second half of this trade. Yorick is an easy character to like, as are 355 and even Dr. Mann. They have their own distinctive personalities, and each bring something different to the table. Who knew a world run by women would be turn out so sucky?! I always figured all of the world's troubles stemmed from the men!