Watchman Casting News: Matt Frewer is Moloch

It was announced a little while ago, but I'll mention it anyway, but Matt Frewer has been cast as Moloch the Mystic, the once proud super villain now a feeble old man living alone. I think this is a great casting choice, and not one I would have expected. I'm a big fan of Matt Frewer and his work, and shamefully thought he retired from acting. He's really well known for his role in a short lived but popular ABC sci-fi show called "Max Headroom." I never heard of it, but know of Frewer's great voice acting roles such as Panic, one of Hades' henchmen in Disney's "Hercules" and he did the voice of the Leader, in the 90's Hulk cartoon, so he's no stranger to comics.

Fables 2: Animal Farm

This of course was the second arc of Fables I had read, and I gotta say, I'm really enjoying the title as I read more and more. While the story for "Animal Farm" was more exciting and gripping to me than the first storyline, I still had some problems with it. Nevertheless it was a really enjoyable read, and will probably follow up on Fables, since like so many of other titles from Vertigo, it's nearing its end.

I too appreciated the greater depth into characters' backstories and liked how the creators 'up-ed' the stakes as it were, broadening the events to affect not only this small cast of characters, but the entire world of Fables that has yet to be seen. And of course that dark twisted humor that I'm sure is a huge part of the entire series is always great to read. There are so many instances where both words and images used in different and varied combinations make for some hilarious scenes. One of my favorites was the first page of the last issue when Snow and Colin the pig (now a head on stake) are both standing in front of a white page in a limbo like state, and have great conversation that esentailly summarizes the previous issues for readers, but not in a way you expect, and is actually fun to read.

My one complaint is that the story seemed a bit simplisitic, at least compared to the first arc. It just seemed like issues #2-4 was essentially one really long chase scene and didn't seem to have any major character or story developments to the larger scheme of things until the very end.

All in all though, "Animal Farm" was a great read, and I'm glad we were able to read this before the semester ended.

Fables

This was the first arc of Fables I'd ever read, though I had heard of it before, and read some of Jack of Fables and one-shots whenever someone in the club brought it in, but I have to say it was a really enjoyable read.

I was familiar with the basic concept of fairy tale characters living in an underground community, but was amazed at how many genres Willingham touched upon, especially in this first arc. We get action, adventure, mystery, romance, fantasy (of course), and probably others as the series progresses. I think an obvious comparison is to the world of Harry Potter and the whole underground magic community, hidden in plain sight of muggles, or with the case of Fables mundies. But it's amazing how much of the world of Fabletown is set up in these 5 short issues.

The first story arc with the murder mystery of Rose Red, reminds me a lot both visually and a little bit storywise with Watchmen. We get tinted panels for the flashback sequences (somtimes red to emphasize the supposed violence), and the story does come full circle, at least with the Prince Charming plot.
And since we're always looking for anything different the artist does, I noticed and liked how he used different panel frames for flashback sequences, portrait like, usually for remembering what life was like before the Fable characters were forced out.

Characterwise, I liked how Willingham humanizes these familiar fairy tale characters for a modern audience, like making the Big Bad Wolf a gritty detective, etc. It makes for a great contrast between the real and the fantastical, which is the basic theme of an upcoming Disney live action/animated movie called "Enchanted" which is basically like Fables except for a PG audience.

It's really hard to do a good mystery story, especially in comics, but I think this arc really pulled it off. I liked the "parlor scene" which basically shows the readers panel by panel that the clues were all there, and even we could have figured it out if we used the right deduction. Very Sherlock Homlsy of them.