Part of an ongoing series revisiting graphic novels and collected editions from days gone by....

Rereading the Fables series has inspired me to check out some of the side projects that accompanied Bill Willingham's amazing storyline back in the day. One such book was Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love, a book written by Chris Roberson that followed a thread of Willingham's that reinvented Cinderella as a secret agent in the service of Fabletown's Bigby (Big Bad) Wolf. In that book, she partnered with Aladdin to face off against her own Fairy Godmother.

Now, in a decades-spanning series of adventures, she matches wits with Russian, Chinese and West African fables in an ongoing grudge match with her opposite number, Dorothy Gale of Oz fame, who has become a blood-soaked mercenary working against Fabletown's best interests. (For reasons not explained, this Dorothy is entirely different from the Dorothy we met in The (Nearly) Great Escape, the first book in Willingham's Jack of Fables spinoff series.)

There is also an army of sentient silverware to contend with, as well as a glass cat and a poisonous porcupine of sorts. And Dorothy has those silver slippers, which carry pretty powerful magic all on their own.

Mostly, though, it seems like Cindy and Dot just want to punch each other as much as humanly possible. In bikinis, when appropriate. Because this is, after all, a spy thriller, and sexy ladies is a tried and true part of the formula. Even when the ladies are actually the protagonist and antagonist, and not just pretty accessories for the suave hero to use and lose.

Told through a series of present-day and flashback encounters, Fables are Forever takes Cindy to a variety of exotic locations and matches her wits against folkloric figures from Russia's Ivan the Fool and Tugarin to West Africa's Anansi and China's Madame Meng Jiang.

The story lacks the depth and intricacies of From Fabletown with Love, focusing less on international intrigue and more on the feud between the two main characters. Even so, it's a lot of fun, as is learning Dorothy's backstory (how she evolved from a sweet Kansas girl to a deadly killer) and figuring out the various mythical figures that appear throughout the tale.

Roberson again partners with artist Shawn McManus to craft the book, which is set outside the main Fables storyline but certainly adds depth and texture to the overall world Willingham has created (and in which he allows other creators to play). As much as I'm enjoying this revisit to the Fables world, it's nice to find some new additions to the canon as well.