Cover to Cover CONCLUSION: Birds, babes and --wait for it--

--Pinocchio! That's right; today we review Birds of Prey #117 and Fables #72. You can find the rest of the week here and here, but come here to see it conclude!

Fables #72
by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham

The two-part "Skulduggery" ends here, as Cinderella: Super-Spy, safely delivers Pinocchio to the Homeland, with an explosion here and there.

What can I say about this issue? I'm not so sure. It's really gearing up for the Big Thing That Will Happen -- the war between the Adversary and the Fables.

This issue ran like a James Bond spy story, and at the end, battered and bruised, Cinderella rests well knowing that she did her job and did it well.

This issue was standard spy action, much like the first, and I should probably catch some trades other than the first and third before I can really talk about this.

You don't need any background reading to appreciate this though:

Yurf! This scene is smart to boot, because this is Cinderella, the lady legendary for losing her shoe!

Also, there was a "free" preview of the upcoming Vertigo book, House of Mystery. The premise is that everyone's stuck in a bar, so they pass the time by telling stories. Vertigo characters pop in like Kid eternity and Swamp Thing and Bigby Wolf, and it's all narrated to us by the waitress, which is a really cute technique.

The preview is a little disjunct, but it sounds like a nice book to commit to. On the art side, Luca Rossi looks a lot like Tim Sale, except the inking is much sharper and the coloring is a bit darker.

Birds of Prey #117
by Sean McKeever and Nicola Scott

I. LOVED. THIS. ISSUE.

It's like an apology from McKeever for how he played around with the characters in the beginning of the arc: Barbara was broody; Misfit was angsty; Helena was (kind of) too gentle, and also, Superman was a jerk.

But here, this issue redeems EVERYTHING THAT IS WRONG IN THE UNIVERSE.

The Big Fight happens here, with the Birds facing a metahuman gang in Platinum Flats. McKeever does the fights here very well -- fights are on occasion opportunities for gratuitous punching, but they should really be opportunities for characterization.

Like for example, Misfit is spunky again!:

And here's an awesome beat for Huntress. Mrs. Simone set her up as "the chick who really hates criminals but is really soft for everyone else," and McKeever hits it here:

Tony Bedard was really smart about this as well, in a stand-alone Birds story featuring Huntress. In it, the "criminals" were just a couple of high school students, and the better side of Helena wins out. He's a guy who really understands our Birds.

To get back to the issue --and this is the most important part-- Barbara apologizes for being a jerk to Misfit!

Yay!

The birds win out in the end, and Oracle decides to move her base to Platinum Flats. The epilogue, of course, involves a little shadowed figure called Tabitha Brennan.

Aaaaaand cue the suspense for next issue, but right now, I'm just glad that I read this one. If I have some free time, I'm gonna talk about Tony Bedard, and why I think you should pick up his Birds next month.