Fables vol 12: The Dark Ages/Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham

Our latest installment of the saga of displaced fairy tale characters living in Manhattan has the aftermath of the Fables' great war with the Adversary, aaand I agree with Annie, this volume seems a little off-kilter. The most compelling plot, I feel, is Boy Blue's continuing disability that gets more and more horrific, but this is overshadowed by Rose Red getting her mope on, and the introduction of Mr. Dark (and okay, so the events are related, but it wasn't a very smooth transition), who is supposed to be really super ominous but I didn't get enough of a feeling of suspense. Also, for the new villain, he certainly does a whole heck of a lot of exposition, walking around having conversations about himself with dead people. Not sure what to make of him yet. hmm. Wikipedia tells me he's supposed to be an amalgam of like, all the boogeyman characters. Hmmmmm. The other high point for me was a brief, tantalizing philosophical discussion between Frau Totenkinder, Ozma and the Badger about the nature of the Fables, the mundy world, and the possibility that there's an entity writing the people writing the stories. Overall this volume left me confused. But I look forward to seeing how this all plays out. 192 pp.