1682 ( )

4.5 stars.
Finally, a Fables book worthy of the earlier ones I loved. It's been a while since I've enjoyed something in the Fables universe so much; but after reading this, I'm glad I kept up with the Fairest spin-off series. Since it doesn't look like Bill Willingham was heavily involved in this one, I don't know how that bodes for the wrap-up of the main series, if it will be as good. What I do know is that I'll be looking for other work by the artists and writers of this book. ( )

So. Charming survived. And now he's a Maharaja in a world of Indian Fables. I guess I shouldn't really be surprised.

Storywise, it's pretty crazy. It's awesome to see the character growth. He's an ass, but he's got a lot of potential. A near death, saving the world... might just do the thing?

I think what annoys me most about the whole thing is ... the stylization of the text. Fables has done it before a few times, representing text in another language with English stylized as if it were local characters, but this one is particularly hard to read.



Spoilers:



Heh. Charming is Charming.



Yup. Everyone (not just the readers!) thinks he's dead. It makes it work. ( )

This spinoff series is supposed to be about the women of the Fables series, but this collection is all about Prince-freakin'-Charming! Like sure, it's great that he's back from the dead, but giving him a dose of "true love" in the form of a rather feisty (and admittedly intriguing) Indian woman is a pretty thinly veiled attempt to shift the story back to a male focus. I guess I'll let them get away with it because he is basically the biggest pain-in-the-ass for the women of Fabletown, but I'm still not happy about it! ( )

This issue features the lovely Indian maiden, Nalayani who leaves her village in order to ask the new maharaja to help save her village from man-eating monsters. The new maharaja is none other than Prince Charming who we last saw falling off the battleship in the war against the Adversary. Nalayani is very beautiful and brave so Prince Charming is immediately interested in her and agrees to return with her to her village.

This land is called Indus and is plagued by vicious beasts, thugs, goblins and a mysterious plague, but the most surprising thing is that Prince Charming appears to have finally felt “True Love”. When the time comes for him to return to Fabletown, he begs Nalayani to come with him. Although she does not love Prince Charming she agrees to go with him to this new world.

I liked this story and as it left me with some questions I hope it is continued in later issues. I was happy to see Prince Charming is alive and I hope I get to see the three ex-wives reaction to the news. This volume was adventurous, imaginative and filled in some missing information about the Fables. This gives me hope that other missing characters may yet turn up on other far distant worlds. ( )