Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers

Bill Willingham

The fourth volume in the multi-Eisner-winning series is, well, just as good as the first three. The story is getting deeper now, and we're understanding more how all these disparate details we've been given are fitting together. We start with a scene that at first seems confusing, and then at one point we figure it out: a girl hitchhiking across Canada looking for Fabletown, a shootout with a bunch of goblins, and nothingness. We then step into an aside from boy Blue about the final days of the Fables' last stand against the Adversary, and, no surprise here, when we get back to the present day, the two storylines meet up, with the additional twist of three men in black who appear on the scene. There's a great deal of stuff to be done in this volume, and Willingham does it all with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of muss, which is just how it should be.

If you're already a fan of the series, you're going to love this. If not, you should start at the beginning; this is one series that demands to be read in order.