The terrible secret of Toyland

[arbre_rieur]

Previously on FABLES: Bigby and Snow White's daughter Therese has been crowned Queen of Toyland... but there seems to be something her plushy and plastic subjects are not telling her.

Comments

[zabilac]

Great, I am now deathly afraid of my own childhood toys.

[shadowpsykie]

THIS! I'm suddenly terrified for my nephew and godson!

[mrstatham]

Well, that wasn't utterly miserable.

I know Willingham tends toward the bleaker, more Grimm-esque side of things, but seriously.

[md84]

This post made me very sad. It also made me realize how often I dodged a bullet with all of my childhood toys.

[mrosa]

This is so fucking over-the-toply hilarious, bwah bwah bwah!

I'm glad these comics exist. So when people say Alan Moore is a cynical, grim-&-gritty prick, I can just poin this to them.

[mrstatham]

I think this has basically been in place since the start, really. There was always something really quite nasty behind the treatment of some of the characters, even in the early volumes, and.. Some of the decisions seem to have been made purely for shock value.

But.. Yeah. The way Fables developed, combined with Willingham's treatment of Steph Brown and then her fans, that pretty much sealed my opinion of him.

[superboyprime]

Eh, I'd take this over the unpleasant likes of The Killing Joke or Neonomicon any day...

[cypherfdp]

What the hell is that last toy supposed to be?

[icon_uk]

Meccano

[biod]

That is both clever and soul crushing to the point of hilarity. I'm both impressed and dissapointed. Still a chance for redemption?

[icon_uk]

The inherent issue (which they even point out) being that NONE of them were killers, they were the "cause of death", which is a very different. There was no "personal" agency behind the events that led them to be outcasts.

It's bleak reading, particularly if you have ever known a child who died in such circumstances. I'm not sure where this will be leading though.

[greenmask]

It will lead to me giving every toy in the whole world a great big hug, perhaps

[whitesycamore]

Deaths by stupid household accidents (and wild animal attacks) depress me more than any other kind.

I think it's because they are usually easily preventable, but also because there's often a layer of absurdity there that just feels like an insult.

[espanolbot]

Y'know, somehow I always thought that Tony Stark gave kids lead poisoning, but I didn't think that they'dd actually show it.

[glprime]

*LOL*

[glprime]

I was expecting much worse too. This just seems like a darker, adult interpretation of "Island of Misfit Toys." That middle panel of a shocked Therese in tears is pretty heart-wrenching, but then it comes to the sudden toy saying, "Lead-based paint" and I start snickering for some reason.

[espanolbot]

Lead Paint: Delicious but deadly!

[pyrrhocorax]

Therese could really have done better here. I get that she's frightened, but couldn't she have given them just a few words of support?

[kd_the_movie]

Well she was kidnapped there and has been wanting to go home for awhile...so this revelation plus missing her home might be too much for an 8 year old.

[md84]

So why does Toyland exist? To punish toys? To redeem them? To give them refuge? And if they were all banished there, who/what does the banishing?

[icon_uk]

This isn't ordinary Toyland IIRC this is the Toyland for the lost and abandoned

[blunderbuss]

Well on a certain level, I get it. Pretty much all of us have watched Toy Story, or the Tin Soldier, or the countless stories of alive toys who love children. And every year, kids die because of toys. So if toy stories cover feelings of abandonment and the desire to be loved, why not guilt?

But an entire KINGDOM of them? Come on. That's taking an entirely interesting concept and ramping it up until its utterly meaningless. It'd make sense if there was one central toy character that focused on this idea, because you could explore that tragic character. This? This is just angstville.

[kaysper]

Pretty much this. If this had been an idea for a central character, it would be interesting. It would be a character arc that could deal with a lot of emotions, and something that would grab my attention and I'd want to read about.

But...This? This just feels like grimdark for the sake of grimdark. Slathering on the angst until there's really nothing to distinguish it from the rest of all the woe, and diluting what could have been a novel concept. I think the most annoying thing is realizing that yeah, chances are there isn't going to be an in depth look at this for ANY of these characters. It's just there.

I was interested in this story, but now...I'm not sure if kid werewolves riding tigers with monocles is enough to save this.

[crinos]

Makes me wonder if there's a suburb of this realm filled with violent video games that nutters like Jack Thompson like to use as a scapegoat for violence.

Or DnD books.

[shadowpsykie]

Heh. I see this has garnered many responses.

Now if you excuse Mr... I will be over here... WEEPING inconsolably into my Louis the Duck plushie...

[crabby_lioness]

I knew there was a reason I stopped reading this.

[jaybee3]

It's ironic that the spin-off book, Fairest, has now turned into the far superior title.

[curlyjo1]

I feel kind of sorry for them. They can't help it that they were made unsafe, or that circumstances were unsafe.

[blackruzsa]

Um, okay.
That was my only actual reaction, TBH. I'm not sure what they're even trying to say here.

[jaybee3]

I stopped reading Fables outside of the trades (because of money). Seems like it was a good decision. I knew things wouldn't end up well with Therese but this is just over-the-top and Buckingham's art, which is usually reallly good, here really isn't. I think Willimgham lost me when they defeated Gepetto and then the new "Big Bad" Mr. Dark appears and seems unstoppable and destroys Fabletown and Frau Totenkinder suddenly turns good and young and runs off with her true love and Willingham stresses this prophecy about the Wolf Cubs that will lead to some hideous ends for some of them and all I want to say is - enough! Remember when Fables had Bigby and Snow and Blue and Flycatcher as the leads and was GOOD?

[ilmari]

I stopped reading Fables during that God-awful 9-part crossover where nothing seems to really happen issue to issue and Jack pretty much rapes Rose Red (I think issue 84 or 85).

As far as I'm concerned, the series ended up being a pretty great complete story at issue 75 (with a few clunker issues in the run).

[kraesil]

....Points for thinking up all those ways childhood toys can murder someone.

Ah, Bill....

[capt_satellite]

He's still got it. Been a fan since THE ELEMENTALS. Anyone else here remember that series? Loved it.