Written by Chris Roberson
Illustrated by Shawn McManusHot on the heels of her breakout miniseries CINDERELLA: FROM FABLETOWN WITH LOVE, Fabletown’s favorite secret-agent and bon vivant Cinderella is back on the job again in an all-new 6-issue miniseries, alongside writer Chris Roberson and artist Shawn McManus!
Someone is killing sorcerers out on the Farm, and all signs point to Cinderella’s archnemesis from the old days. The only problem is, Cinderella has always believed that her nemesis has been dead for years. So who is the assassin from Cinderella’s past — the only person who ever came close to defeating her? Find out in the pages of CINDERELLA: FABLES ARE FOREVER!
Roberson is back to his comic roots with the return of Cinderella, everyone’s favorite Fable (and if she isn’t, well – then I just don’t know what to say!). Spanning time and featuring a very familiar yet entirely new villain, we start in Russia in a bikini and move forward 30 years later to the destruction of Fabletown – and that’s just in the opening of the book!
Check behind the cut for my thoughts on this week’s issue.
You know why Cinderella gets her own spin-off minis? It’s because Cinderella rocks. Out of all the various Fables there are out there, there are very few who are torn on the legitimacy of this character. She represents a lot: a rags to riches story of female empowerment as the former peasant is now the biggest Femme Fatale in Fabletown. So it is without a doubt in anyone’s mind (or rather, it really shouldn’t be) that Cindy deserves her own stories.
Of course, this is her second. Roberson has already written one rather awesome Cinderella mini. The question is, is the follow-up worth it? And the answer is an absolutely resounding yes.
With the second mini, Roberson returns Cinderella to the 80’s on a mission while keeping her in the present to deal with the aftermath. Cinderella is a spy, and this already plays out like a true spy story, mixing past dealings with the here and now to create an effective villainess for Cindy (and without spoiling who that is, it’s someone oft-mentioned but never shown before). The nice thing about Cinderella is that with her story more than any other Fables, it’s easy to recognize her as more than just her character. Yes, on some level it’s fun to see the same character from that classic Disney film now a gun toting super spy, but with her and her new villain, Cinderella (and in turn, Fables) manage to keep this story incredibly fresh and exciting with all the reinventions and twists to characters.
There is one tiny little drawback that goes with that, though. It’s really miniscule, but it does somewhat have an effect here. The thing about the first Cinderella mini was that even if you weren’t reading Fables traditionally, you could still get into it. The concept is rather easy to get: all the stories you loved as a kid are real, and all those characters exist and they live together. Easy enough to follow, and the mini itself was rather self contained to Cinderella-mythos, really (with few interuptions from the main Fable group). Cinderella part deux takes place in the immediate aftermath of Fables #100 though, reflecting all the changes that have happened since then – including Fabletown being destroyed, everyone living at the Farm, and Beast filling Bigby’s role. It’s with that in mind that I can’t as easily hand this to someone who hasn’t read Fables, because while I’m sure they might “get it,” it’s not as easy a transition to make, and one that’s fairly fully of spoilers.
That accessibility aside, Cinderella is still a great read for Fables fans. A great character to follow, Roberson manages to take a book with a bikini clad female on the cover and not make it feel like a kind of exploitative T&A book, so to say. Not only is the cover explained, but it actually makes a lot of sense in the story in a strange empowerment kind of way. Roberson also continues to elaborate on the Fabletown mythos with the “Russian Fabletown”, as two eras collide and Cinderella is forced to go up against a long thought dead foe. The plot isn’t fully revealed yet, but to be truthful we already have the makings of a traditional spy story, and that’s very exciting for fans of not only the character but the entirety of Fables as a whole.
Roberson proved with the first mini that we have nothing to worry about it when it comes to an “outsider” handling the Fables characters. The man was handpicked by Willingham to do these stories – that alone should give faith for the rest of the mini. And partnered with Shawn McManus on art, who does an absolutely tremendous job? Heck, I wouldn’t mind seeing McManus in the main Fables book more often. Truth be told, the first issue of this mini is as good as if not better than the last 25 issues of Fables, and while that book made a great upturn with it’s 100th issue, there’s no denying Cinderella’s got a great start for her second story. Suffice it to say, the future looks good for Cinderella.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Buy
