If you are a near immortal kept alive by how popular you are in the minds of those who grew up on fairy tales, at some point you’d become daring enough to want to try anything. For Cinderella, becoming a spy seemed like a natural way to get out her aggressions over loves lost, and protect her interests at the same time.
Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love #2
Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Shawn McManus
Cover by Chrissie Zullo
Previously in Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love: In a world filled with magic, even the best Fable might be tempted to sell their magical trinkets on the black market. With more Fables running around, not everyone is on the level, and a big sale is about to go down in Dubai. Cinderella has been tapped by The Beast to interrupt the sale, and return the magic item to Fabletown’s magic vault. Of course all this takes place before the recent storyline that sees Fabletown come crumbling down. But I hear the spy work isn’t all beaches, babes, and billions, there’s actually some work involved, and sometimes your life is in peril.
This issue finds Cinderella disarming the assailant that slipped into her room brandishing a knife, and after an exchange of pleasantries, readers discover her would be foe is actually Aladdin of the magic lamp (and ring) fame. The two decide to team up, and we spend a great deal of the issue discovering how the two operate in their own spy worlds, difference between their worlds, and other differences that tend to drag toward the big denouement when their covers are actually blown. This leads us to believe the mystery seller is a fable too, but the bigger question is how the two heroes are going to get out of a tight spot as they are surrounded Ghols.
There is also a secondary story that has been running throughout the story that features Cinderella’s assistant at the Glass Slipper shoe store. If you were wondering just who this fable could be last issue, the guessing game comes to an end with the appearance of elves. He is indeed the poor shoe cobbler who gave clothes to the tiny elves who came to his shop in the middle of the night to fix shoes. Cordwainer decides it’s time for a change and whips up an order for magical shoes for magical people. It sounds like a good idea until you remember you’re reading a comic book and realize this will not end well.
I continue to like what Chris Roberson is doing with this series, but I can’t help but feel there was a whole lot of not really important stuff going on in this issue. Yes, it was nice to get a breakdown of all the spy terms and their meaning, and it is interesting to see the two different cultures come together to work for a common goal, but by the end of the issue, I was left wanting more and wondering why everything read so quickly.
Shawn McManus’ art really works in this issue. Every character is drawn with so much life in them that they seem to want to jump off the page. I like that this is an issue that takes place in a different location than downtown USA as it is an easy out to simply draw a skyscraper and call it good. McManus has done some research into the city as Dubai has just as unique skyline as New York City.
If you like the Fables series, but want to read a story that takes place before everything went to hell, then Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love is a great mini-series to pick up. The espionage, fights, and chase scenes are straight out of the movies, and I like it, giving this issue 3.5 out of 5 Stars.
