Fables: Legends in Exile by: Bill Willingham

Genre: Comic Book, Fantasy
Published: December 31, 2000 by: Vertigo
Pages: 128
Rating: 4/5 stars

The characters from all your favourite fairy tales and fables have been exiled to a magical building right in the heart of New York City! Snow White is the mayor of Fabletown, a massive skyscraper that houses all of the magical creatures from fairy tales. When her sister, Rose Red goes missing and is presumed dead, it is up to Snow White and Fabletown's police sheriff, The Big Bad Wolf, to uncover if the killer is Rose Red's husband Bluebeard, or her past lover, the troubled Jack (from the bean stock).

I was not expecting to be as big of fan of this comic book as I was! I've had kinda a love-hate with comic books before, but this one had a thrilling plot, some amazing characters, and of course I couldn't help but find it so cool that they were all from beloved fairy tales!

All of the characters were so badass. You would not expect Snow White to be this hard hitting, feminist mayor, but Willingham gave her such a great storyline! Not to mention that Cinderella is also a fencer who kicks some ass, and who divorced Prince Charming. This book brought harder themes onto characters who were once considered to be damsels in distress, and I thought that was awesome.

The plot was really cool too. I was weary that this comic would just be a cheesy representation of fairy tale characters, but the fact that there was a literal murder mystery in it was amazing! This book is definitely not for children, but it was nice for the adults to get an age appropriate fairy tale retelling that was more complex. While I'm still not sold that the comic book format is for me, this was definitely the best I've read.

Have you read Fables: Legends in Exile? What did you think?

Emily @ Paperback Princess

Ms. Marvel: No Normal by: G. Willow Wilson & Adrian Alphona

Genre: Comic book
Published: October 30, 2014 by: Marvel
Pages: 120
Rating: 3/5 stars

Kamala Khan longs to be normal. She wants her strict Pakistani parents to give her some freedom, and she wants to be like all of the other high school kids from Jersey city. But when she is given powerful gifts from her favourite superhero, that could either aide or destroy her, Kamala must discover what her identity truly is, and come to terms with what it really means to be "normal."

Guess who read a comic book?! This girl!! Ok, it wasn't by choice, but I was still pretty proud of me stepping into a genre I literally know nothing about and one that I've always thought would not be my cup of tea. While I won't be picking up any other comics any time soon, I do think that this one was enjoyable.

The main thing I liked about this comic was that it is relatable. It was nice to see Pakistani representation in the comic and a lot of the things Kamala references I understood. I found her funny and likeable, which made me read this more like a book than a comic.

This was easy to get through, although I can't seem to enjoy the tone that comes with comic books. The dialogue and illustrations have always seemed a bit cheesy for me and I would have liked the plot to be a bit more complex. I can't say that comics sweep me off my feet, but that's just my personal preference. If you like comics, you may really enjoy this.

Have you read Ms. Marvel? What did you think?

Emily @ Paperback Princess