Stuff I Read: Fairest v2: The Hidden Kingdom

Stuff I Read

Fairest v2: The Hidden Kingdom

Collects: Fairest #7-14
This is an entertaining enough tale, featuring some of Japanese Fables that I'm not especially familiar with the inspiration for. It's not set in the current Fables continuity, being set somewhere earlier before the first volume of the main series. Bigby is still sherif, Jack Horner is still with Rose Red etc...

Essentially Rapunzel gets a brick through a window with the Japanese for children on it. It turns out that she is missing her children (a plot point I don't recall being settled in the main series. Essentially we get a tour through Japan with Rapunzel and Jack. The standout moment is Rapunzel being the classic ghost from films like Ringu, crawling out of a well with her hair going wild.

Saldy, the fact it is set before the main series, means that the characters are never in any real jeopardy. It's not the best Fables spin-off (Cinderella) but it certainly isn't the worst (Jack of Fables).

Stuff I Read: Saga of the Swamp Thing v4

Stuff I Read

Saga of the Swamp Thing v4

Collects: Saga of the Swamp Thing #43-50
The fourth collection of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. I really love the late 80s early 90s era of DC / Vertigo comics. There is something we loose in computer coloured art and a lack of white-space.

This collection features a couple of standalone horror tales I've got used to in this series and it mainly features a story building off Crisis on Infinite Earths as Constantine and Swamp Thing try and keep the spiritual side of the DCU together.

To be honest I'm not really a fan of this metaphysical side of the DCU and it's strange to see swampy interacting with characters such as Phantom Stranger, the Demon. Never having really read any of Constantine before Hellblazer, it's even weirder to see him talking to Batman. This has the classic Parliament of Trees story in it, but I find Swamp Thing gets lost in the weirdness as things go into other planes in #50. It's a good collection, but I think I preferred the previous 3.