Literals #3 (OF 3)

I would like to start by stating that I feel Fables (up until issue #75) was a very good to excellent book relatively consistently.  Following the conclusion of the war, the fall of the Adversary,  the death of Boy Blue, and the exit of James Jean as the cover artist (I know it shouldn't matter, but it does to me); I feel the book has become a good and occasionally very good book, but is a step below where it was.

This issue (and the crossover as a whole) was good, but not great.  The quality of Fables (in my opinion) is almost exclusively dependent on the quality of the characterizations in the book.  Therefore, the real weakness of this issue (and the crossover) is that Bigby, Snow, and most of the other standby characters are extremely one dimensional.  Bigby is the aggressive guy.  Snow is the superfluous wife.  Jack Frost is the naive young man who fits the heroic quest role (think a slightly more boring Luke Skywalker).  It seems almost as if Willingham and Sturges are bored with these characters and only include them in the story because they feel they should (perhaps for sales, perhaps out of a sense of loyalty).

On the other hand, some of the characters are written with flair and genuine interest.  I find Jake infinitely interesting as he is the embodiment of ego and constantly has something interesting swarming around him.  Dex (the living embodiment of Deus Ex Machina) is charmingly obnoxious and infinitely likable.  Babe the Blue Ox was used to humorous effect throughout the crossover (as he generally is in Jack of Fables).

The three librarian sisters are a trio of large breasted, bespectacled bores.  I haven't decided how I feel about the Literals, but it doesn't appear that it matters as they exited into an empty universe (thanks Dex).

This crossover appears to have progressed the Jack of Fables storyline significantly, but had no lasting impact on the Fables storyline.  I am not sure why this needed to crossover into the main book.

My score here is both for the issue and the crossover in its entirety.

Thank you for your time.