Fall 2013: the semester I taught five classes, with four
different preps, at three different universities. Pretty impressive, if I do
say so. But there are some—well—side effects. For example, since I spend the
majority of my waking hours (and sometimes even in my sleep) reading student
essays and Literature (“L” capitalized purposefully) for my classes, I have an
even greater taste for comic books. In fact, I am completely caught up with all
of my current favorites Saga, Unwritten,
Fables, and Justice League Dark. And
I needed something to read.
Fine. I admit it: I am a comic book junkie.
So I had a coupon from Barnes & Noble*, so I thought I
would try the second spinoff series from Fables,
even though the first spinoff series, Jack
of Fables, was not only painfully awful, but also painfully sexist. So, I
was prepared for Fairest: Wide Awake from
Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges, in that it is supposed to be about the
female characters of Fables to also
be sexist and painfully terrible. The first volume, which features Briar Rose,
Snow Queen, Beauty, and introduces Hadeon, the evil fairy who cursed Briar Rose
to die in the first place, is not as bad as I had feared.
The story, thank goodness, is not overly sexist. The gifts
which Briar Rose is given by the fairies are not unchanged from the original
story: beauty, grace, kindness, all traits specifically associated with women,
and not with power or men. But, fine, there is only so much that can be manipulated
from the original story. And, of course, there are lots of skinny women with
big boobs, but you can’t expect for the artists to switch that up, when the
male readers have expectations and needs from their comics. Fine. But the
tellers of the stories are predominately male. First, there is the Imp, Jonah,
who, though not human, is drawn to be male. He orchestrates the first
two-thirds of the book, convincing Ali-Baba to pursue Briar Rose, on the
promise of riches, and then to confront the Snow Queen. As Jonah seems to be Ali-Baba’s
helper, the story belongs more to him than to Briar Rose, who does not choose
who wakes her and also has no guarantee on the true love that is supposedly
needed to wake her.
The female characters, though they are not necessarily the
main players, do have some agency. The Snow Queen, after being under the
control of Geppetto for much too long, has finally broken free from his
influence, and as Jonah points out, now gets to choose what kind of character
she is going to be. At the same time that he is encouraging and manipulating
the Snow Queen, Jonah manages to attract the attention of Hadeon, the evil
fairy who is simply evil and has no intention to be anything else, and shows
just this by picking a fight with the Snow Queen for no other reason than that
she can. So, ultimately, the story points out that women have the opportunity
to break out of their type casting (although it might mean stepping right into
another unoriginal role), and also discusses love in a more realistic, albeit
also pessimistic, way.
Following the main story is a short about Beast chasing a
beautiful and deadly woman. Though she harms many men, he cannot bring himself
to hurt her, just as she seems to have no control over her desire to lure in
men with her looks and then to murder them, with great pleasure.
In conclusion (as I cannot get my students to quit writing)**,
I will probably read the next volume, but I do not expect the same greatness as
the first story line of Fables.
*Don’t fret—I still frequent Labyrinth, the local
independent bookstore, and Fallout Shelter, my comic book dealer in Highland Park .
**I kid—my students are pretty freaking awesome.
For Your Viewing Pleasure: Cat in a Box. Nothing to do with Fairest, really, but she's pretty cute.
