Review ~ Fables: Wolves; Sons of Empire

Fables: Wolves; Sons of Empire (Volume 8 & 9)

by Bill Willingham
illustrated by Mark Buckingham, Steve Leiahola, Andrew Pepoy, Shawn McManus
published by Vertigo
genre: Adult, graphic novel, Fantasy, Fairy-Tales, Re-Tellings

Wolves Summary (Goodreads): Collecting issues #48-51 of writer and creator Bill Willingham's award-winning Vertigo series, WOLVES also includes newly-created maps of Fabletown and the Homelands illustrated by Willingham and, as a special bonus, Willingham's complete script to the double-sized issue #50.
Sons of  Empire Summary (Goodreads): Collecting FABLES #52-59! Pinocchio suffers seriously divided loyalties between his father, the evil Adversary, and his fellow Fable refugees in New York. Plus, Bigby Wolf reluctantly decides it's finally time to square accounts with his long-estranged father, the North Wind, and makes a journey with Snow White and their kids to find him.

My Thoughts: Wolves: This was another solid overall volume. I liked Mowgli's trek across every remote place trying to track Bigby. His interactions with the wolf packs was a different insight than the one normally gotten from Bigby's POV.
Bigby's mission and reward for carrying it out was a nice way to bring Snow, Bigby, and cubs together as a family. The wedding was another story line that helped round out Bigby's story.

Sons of Empire: The meeting with The Adversary and all his main people was glimpse into the other side. The weapons they have at their disposal along with the smarts to use Pinocchio's knowledge of the mundy world against him showed why they are where they are. By the end of the volume I felt bad for Pinocchio. He obviously just wants to make his father happy and may be realizing that's not possible.
My favorite from this volume was the ride to North's castle as well as everything that happened there. The story from Ambrose POV was more telling than if it had just been from Bigby's. Already aware of how he felt about his father, I was surprised that there was no let up at all given how great the relationship is between grandfather and children. Interested to see what happens with his brothers.

Rating: 4 for both