Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The war is over, the enemy vanquished and a new optimism fills the hearts of the populace of Fabletown. Yet something dark lurks in the shadows, something let loose as the Great Adversary wrestles with his freedom within the confines of his new home in New York City. It is a power that sees Bill Willingham’s collection of tales of heroism and valour return with a bang, and the world of the Fables is once more thrown into jeopardy.
The problem with freedom is that it can let loose a darker, more sinister evil than what was grinding it to dust in the first place. An evil that is kept hidden by power, that is chained and forced into containment because it senses no opportunity in which to wield its own terrible wrath is one that is seen throughout history and makes a mockery of dealing with one dictator when the severed head reveals an even darker, more foreboding foe.
Bill Willingham has always seemed to have a sense of prior knowledge when it comes to reflecting the world which we live in and placing them into the graphic novels that make up the Fables books, either that or he is just more adept at reading the signs of what can happen when dealing with history and those that reside, viper like, in the grass waiting for the right time to impose their own sense of warped government upon the liberated people. Whatever the reason, incredible imagination or tremendous forethought and intelligence, there is no doubting that once more he has struck a chord worthy of being placed in his excellent series.
If there is an issue with the twelth book in the series, it certainly doesn’t belong in the writing; it lays at the heart of some of the artwork that adorns the script. For a series of books that has captured the imagination in the same way as Joe Hill’s excellent Locke & Key series, the artwork in some places leaves a sense of the disquiet, of the non-descript and the untimely about it. The character in some of the very finest people that reside in Fabletown is lost, squeezed and flattened and makes for difficulty in enjoyment. It is only a third of the way into The Dark Ages that it begins to resemble its former great self, tough to get the head round when it resorts to the fulfilling nature that one demands of a great Graphic novel.
The war may have been won, a new demon in the shadows may be emerging, but it helps to enjoy the forthcoming adventures when the art is as good as the script demands, something that would turn some readers off, thankfully Bill Willingham’s story just becomes more enthralling with each new book.
Fables: The Dark Ages is available to purchase from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.
Ian D. Hall