A pair of Jacks

[arbre_rieur]

Jack Frost reaches new heights of heroism. His dad Jack Horner sinks to new depths of the opposite.

The last page of this issue has a rather startling announcement about the future of this title.







Jack defeats the evil sorcerer.





While over in the B-plot, Jack, Sr.'s obscene levels of greed have transformed him into a dragon.

Comments

[freezer]

This deserved iconning, methinks!

[leikomgwtfbbq]

I'm likin' Jack Frost. The owl's neat, too.

[banjomike]

I'll miss Mr Horner, especially as a dragon.

[kiplingkat]

O_o.

I guess Voyage of the Dawn Treader is now under public domain?

Still, a nice way to sweep the character offstage.

[baihu]

Who is Jack Frost's mom and why is he so significantly hotter than his dad?

[auggie18]

The Ice Queen, who is a very attractive woman. Frost gets that from her. (The attractive, not the woman.)

[colonel_green]

Lumi, the Snow Queen (of the Hans Christian Andersen tale of the same name).

[colonel_green]

Assuming that's true, interesting. One of the things that kept this book from growing beyond "amusing" was the completely unsympathetic lead character (that was the point, of course; Jack's meant to be an asshole).

[ghosty732]

It just seems like a complete waste of the character.

Like they realize that they took the whole "this book is hilarious but has little substance" thing too far, so they're trying to cover their tracks. Just like with the Great Fables Crossover.

All this ends up doing is permanently blemishing the history of Fables when I try to look back on it fondly.

[colonel_green]

Seems like a fitting end for Jack to me.

[arbre_rieur]

If you don't like the direction of the book, shouldn't you be glad that it's undergoing this drastic shift?

[ghosty732]

I do, and the only reason I didn't drop the book after the Crossover was because I wanted to see how they worked with the new direction. And I do quite like what they're doing with Jack Frost now.

But I just feel like the series when it was first announced had so much potential, and then spun into this really out of control direction, and once the creators had their fun they realized that they had no where to go with it and so they quickly washed their hands of it. They missed the boat on balancing something fun with something substantial.

So I am glad that it's over, but even the memory of it sometimes spoils my outlook on the Fables franchise as a whole. I just try not to think about it much.

[colonel_green]

They introducd the Jack Frost character in the second arc, so it seems like they've had their plans for him for quite a while.

[ghosty732]

True, but probably not as we're seeing him here. I've read some interviews with both Bill and Matt and basically they said that they felt they created a character that was so unlikeable that they were getting tired with Jack Horner's antics, and so Matt suggested this great overhaul that we're seeing. I sort of feel like at that point they just decided to clear the slate and start anew.

Which is a shame, because a fun-themed series about a Fable out in the Mundy world, interacting with other Fables out there and facing an organization bent on capturing these Fables (which is where it seemed Jack of Fables was going) would have been a really interesting, but I think they went a little over-the-top, sacrificing the story for laughs. That (and the introduction of the Literals as Fables-gods) was really off-putting.

[kiplingkat]

I have to admit, other than Cindy's mini, I consider Fables to have ended with the War.

[ghosty732]

The Dark Ages wasn't that bad. It echoes the first story arc in the fact that, while not the best thing the series has put out, it's enjoyable enough and necessary in order to start a new series of stories.

And I've been loving Witches so far.

So, other than the Great Fables Crossover, Fables-Post-War has been pretty enjoyable. Nothing will compare to Fables issue 1 to 50, though.

[ashez2ashes]

That last panel made me laugh. I hope its true.

[arbre_rieur]

It is. At a convention, the writers talked about the planned shift and how it came about: They were discussing what the next story arc would be and realized that they'd come to hate Jack Horner.

[akodo_rokku]

Important thing to remember: the next issue blurbs in Jack of Fables are always lies.

[colonel_green]

Looking at the solicits for the next three issues,they don't mention Jack Horner.

[sandoz_iscariot]

I haven't read Fables in ages but that last panel is hilarious and I too hope it's true. I think I'll pick next issue up. Cute talking owls are a huge sell.