Everafter vol. 1: The Pandora Protocol

In what was likely an attempt to keep the sales magic of “Fables” going for the increasingly moribund Vertigo imprint, writers Lilah (formerly Matthew) Sturges and Dave Justus have delivered unto us “Everafter.”  I realize that description makes it sound like a cynical cash-in, but Sturges has a long history writing other “Fables” projects both solo and with creator Bill Willingham, and she also co-wrote the adaptation of the Telltale game “The Wolf Among Us” with Justus.  That’s a good enough resume to get me to pick up this first volume which picks up in our formerly mundane world after the existence of Fables and magic have been revealed in it.  This has led to an inordinate amount of chaos as new and frightening ideas are being brought to life on a regular basis and need to be contained.  Enter the Shadow Players, a covert group of Fables dedicated to keeping the peace of the land behind the scenes, and their newest member Connor Wolf.

This inaugural volume has the Players contending with two very different threats:  a little girl with seemingly unlimited magical power and a series of thefts regarding Native American relics related to resurrection.  It might surprise you to learn that these two plots don’t converge after a certain point, and that’s honestly the most surprising thing about them.  If you’re like me and have read through all of “Fables” and its related spinoffs then it shouldn’t surprise you to learn that Sturges and Justus have a good handle on the characters and conventions of this fictional world.  What’s missing is the whimsy and cleverness that Willingham brought to the property, with most of the plot threads here playing out in an expected fashion (save for Hansel’s).  Things are a little closer to the good old days in the final story about a magician who finds himself drafted into the Players to unfortunate effect.  It’s a nice little character piece with some delightful art by the where-has-he-been-all-these-years Steve Rolston whose cartoonish style is a lot more appealing than the conventional work of Travis Moore in the main story.

Now, if you follow the solicitations as I do you’ll know that “Everafter” didn’t set the sales charts alight (even by current Vertigo standards).  The end result being that this is the first of only two volumes for this series.  While “The Pandora Protocol” didn’t really grab me, it was still a decent enough return to the world of “Fables.”  Not an essential read for fans of the series, but one completists won’t mind adding to their library.