Imagine a world where fairy tales are real and still living among us in a secret, hidden away block of… Maine? No, this isn’t Once Upon A Time.

Before the inception of ABC’s Storybrook, Maine, authors Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham created the graphic novel series Fables, which tells the story of Snow White, the Big Bad (Bigby) Wolf, Jack, Rose Red, and many, many more fairy tales living in Manhattan after having been chased from their homelands by the Adversary and its army.

Ten years later, with 5 spin-off graphic novel series, a regular novel, a video game, a proposed (yet failed) television series, and even a board game (as Willingham reminds readers is in issue #100), the series reached its final issue/volume this past July with #150.For those who have not read this volume, or are behind on the series, the following review includes extreme spoilers of the final volumes:

As the previous book ended, Bigby Wolf, after being resurrected from the dead, has been terrorizing the mundy (non-Fable) New York as a werewolf with no control over his anger or shape. Following his animal instincts, as well as unknown magic, he seeks out his family, ready to kill. Snow has other plans however, ready to take down her husband if she can not awaken his human side.

Meanwhile, Rose Red is planning her own battle with Snow White, a full-scale Camelot-style war including creatures from all magical homelands. This war between sisters has grown over months of conflict, but is established on a prophecy concerning the sisters and their magical birthrights. The war would be hidden easily with no fear of mundy knowledge, except for the recent loss of their magical disguises which have revealed the Fabletown Office castle (as well as the bloodthirsty werewolf).

Ultimately the conflict is settled peacefully with a hand-shake and Rose Red’s promise to leave the mundy world forever and not speak to Snow.

After the many issues of army building and battle preparation, merged with individual conflicts of heart and magic that lead up to the final battle, I felt this ending was much too weak to end such a massive series. Had the war occurred, many popular Fables, including the Wolfs or Red, would have died, creating a paradox with the futures that had already been discussed earlier in the series. By ending the battle before it started however, I not only felt cheated out 77 pages but the 2 previous volumes of story.

What was very enjoyable about this final hurrah was the second half of the book, consisting of final 1-3 page shorts for many characters, similar to those in the previous volume. These tales explained the fates and futures of characters after the fall of Fabletown as it had been known. My favorite of these tales included one final tale of Boy Blue, wherever his soul may be. This does not take away from Volume 21’s incredible revival of Babe, Paul Bunyan’s shrunken ox with many an adventure to live.

Over all, the series enjoyed by many was very enjoyable, and I await further incarnations of these characters wherever they may pop up in the future (A Wolf Among Us ended long enough before the comics started—hint hint Willingham and Buckingham).