Cinderella: Fables are Forever by Chris Roberson
Art: Shawn McManus
I had such higher expectations for this book. Cinderella is an awesome character, and I want her to have her own book that showcases her awesome. But this volume just wasn’t it.
First, I’m not a fan of McManus’ art. After being so spoiled by all the Fables‘ art, this was just subpar. I feel like McManus never understood Dorothy. Like he never got how to draw her famous braids and freckles. Not to mention her entire “goth” look was outdated and looked more like something a high schooler would wear to rebel, not a woman. Particularly not a woman who’s supposed to be notorious in the assassin world. If she’s supposed to leave a mark (no pun intended), then her look needs to too. Not to mention when she and Cinderella were fighting, there would be random boobs attacking each other, instead of weapons or fists.
I go back and forth over whether or not I like how McManus draws Cinderella. In some places, her angles are just too harsh. Sometimes she looks too curvy, and sometimes too gaunt. Though I do like how he draws her nose. It keeps the princess feeling.
Okay, to the story, *sigh* there was some problematic elements to it. But let’s talk about the non-problematic elements first:
I’m thrilled that they’re bringing Oz into the books. And I hope that they’ll bring back the other characters that Dorothy ditched after joining the mundie world.
As an overall story, this felt a little dull and a little done. I wasn’t compelled to continue with the story. Not to mention, Roberson kept playing Cinderella as scared of Dorothy and her assassin power. However, every mention was completely telling as very rarely did Cinderella actually fight Dorothy. In fact, she fought more of her agents than anything else.
When the story starts off with Cinderella and Dorothy running into each other while they’re in bikinis, my eyebrows raised. Yep. That was so not needed. Just some hot tubbing in snowy Russia, you know, as you do.
But wait, it gets worse. A Russian Fable named Ivan Durak shows up at Cinderella’s doorstep. While he was previously involved with hiring Dorothy for protection/espionage, she’s now after him. Or so she claims. Cinderella decides that it’s time to find her.
After eluding many of Dorothy’s traps and avoiding her other minions, Cinderella starts to trust Ivan. Trust that he’s leading her into a trap or otherwise, out to destroy her. After falling for Ivan, they sleep together.
And then…Ivan morphs into Dorothy. That’s right, Dorothy was there the entire time pretending to be Ivan. She immediately launches into a diatribe about fucking over Cinderella in more than one way. Yep, Cinderella raped by Dorothy or some kind of assaulted. Ugh. Seriously, one thing I really loved about the Fables tales was the lack of sexual assault…and Roberson just killed that record.
Dig into Cinderella’s continuing tale yourself, Cinderella: Fables Are Forever