Boy Blue (Fables)

Boy Blue
From Fables #31, Art by Mark Buckingham

Boy Blue is a major character in the Vertigo comic book series Fables. He is based on the nursery rhyme character Little Boy Blue. At the beginning of the series, he is portrayed as an efficient but meek office clerk helping Snow White run Fabletown; however, he has a colorful and violent history that is gradually revealed as the series goes on.

Character history

Before Fabletown

Before coming to Fabletown, Boy Blue was an active fighter against the Adversary. He joined the fight during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte (whose campaigns Blue thinks were caused by some sort of "sympathetic magic" from the Fable worlds). This was at the tail end of the Adversary's campaign against the European fables, with most of them having either escaped to the mundane world, been enslaved or killed.

Blue fought with Colonel Bearskin's Free Company, eventually becoming the colonel's aide-de-camp. He survived "Boxen, Ruby Lake, Oakcourt, and the hellish rout at Hollyfield", among others. His last battle was a defense of the castle guarding the last portal to the mundane world. A ragtag force, including Robin Hood and his Merrie Men, were to hold the fort while a single ship took as many people as possible to the new world.

The day before the battle, a woman who claimed to be Red Riding Hood rode into the fort nearly dead from arrow wounds. She and Blue quickly became infatuated with each other, to the extent that she suggested that Friar Tuck should marry them so that Blue would have a seat on the last ship. Citing his duty, he refused. Arriving for battle in the morning, he learned his new orders: he would observe the battle from a high parapet and, at the appropriate time, would use a powerful but poorly-understood item known as the Witching Cloak to teleport himself to the ship. Fabletown needed to know what had happened, Bearskin told him, and he wanted Blue and Riding Hood to be together. Unfortunately, when Blue arrived on the ship, he discovered that Riding Hood was not there. Not wanting to live without him, she had given up her spot and stayed behind.

Fabletown

Boy Blue serves as Snow White's office gopher and clerk. His flying monkey Bufkin is Fabletown's librarian. Blue is one of Fabletown's most skilled musicians; he takes his horn with him everywhere. He will occasionally try to get gigs in Harlem jazz and blues clubs, but is always told that he is too young, too white or "too hayseed". His roommate is Pinocchio; the two of them, along with Flycatcher are best friends. Blue seems to live a typical "nerdy" lifestyle, avidly reading comic books and playing board games. He wears Chuck Taylor All-Stars.

Blue's life changed after Red Riding Hood suddenly appeared in Fabletown, claiming to have recently escaped the Adversary. She was initially angry at Blue, claiming that he had abandoned her to the Adversary's forces. However, she soon sought him out and said she was sorry and wanted to resume their relationship. After a sexual encounter, he realized that she was not the Riding Hood he remembered (it transpired that she was Baba Yaga using Red's form as a mystical disguise). Along with three wooden soldiers, she interrogated him under severe torture for several days, breaking all his fingers, before having the soldiers deliver him, along with a message from the Adversary, to the Woodlands business office.

Against Snow's objections, Blue had Dr. Swineheart patch him up and bind the Vorpal Sword to his hand so that he could fight in the Battle of Fabletown where he was injured by gunfire. Dr. Swineheart continued to rehabilitate him, doing so good a job that Blue was able to play his horn again.

Return to the Homelands

With the election of Prince Charming as mayor, Blue resigned from the government. One night, he abruptly left for the Homelands, taking the Vorpal Sword, the Witching Cloak and Pinocchio's body. Using the now-known full capabilities of the Witching Cloak (it provided impregnable armor; could not be burnt, stretched or ripped; provided endless personal carrying capacity; and allowed a large degree of shape-shifting), Blue cut a swath of destruction across the Homelands. He killed thousands of soldiers, killed and impersonated multiple governors (always ordering his underlings to lower tax rates), slew a dragon through cleverness and guile, and defeated the three knights of the Rus. The knights were magically connected to Baba Yaga; the fact that their decapitated heads kept talking alerted Blue to the fact that she was still alive and a prisoner of Fabletown.

During the Emperor's bimonthly public address, Blue impersonated a peasant sweeping in front of the throne. This got him close enough to decapitate the Emperor. But before he could escape, the Snow Queen encased him in a block of ice. He woke up without any of his magical equipment, imprisoned in Geppetto's cabin and soon (in exchange for Pinocchio's body) learned the full story behind the Empire's rise. Geppetto also promised to bring him Riding Hood, but this brought a nasty shock: the version Blue had known at the castle had been a spy and just another copy of the original. The "true" Red Riding Hood had no idea who he was. A heartbroken Blue called the Witching Cloak to him and slew Geppetto's guards, before he made his escape back to Fabletown (along with Riding Hood).

Unbeknownst to the Fabletown community (which thought Blue had stolen its valuable magical devices), Blue had been on a mission from Prince Charming. In addition to its other properties, the Witching Cloak had infinite storage space. Blue emptied every library in the Homelands, bringing Fabletown hundreds of volumes of intelligence. Unfortunately, this could not be made public, so Blue had to stand trial. He was sentenced to two years of hard labor at the Farm, Fabletown's upstate annex for non-human looking Fables. Rose Red, the Farm's administrator, considered him a hero, and thus defined "hard labor" in very loose, general terms. Blue led the construction of Bigby's house in Wolf Valley and served as Bigby's best man when he married Snow. There has been hints in recent issues that Blue and Rose Red are getting romantically attached to each other, however Rose Red ultimately rejects Blue, who had acted too late.

During the war to reclaim the homelands, Blue had the job of transporting back and forth from numerous points to act as messenger and delivery boy to all on the Glory, Fort Bravo, Fabletown, Wolf Manor, The Farm, Haven, and the hotspot in the center of the Empire where Briar Rose was stationed for her part. Everything was running smoothly until the Empire made final desperate attempt to shift the tide. Blue was at Fort Bravo when a Korta Vulma Urso arrow was shot intending to kill Bigby. Blue threw his arm up, covered in the Witching Cloak, but it managed to punch through enough to scratch Bigby's neck. The effects of the arrow caused both to be knocked out for a number of days. Upon awakening, Blue kept what's left of the arrow sticking in his arm and continued to use the Witching Cloak to retrieve weapons and ultimate bring about the end of the war by using the Vorpal Sword to chop the head off the Emperor.

In the aftermath of the war, Blue has been found mostly at the Knights of Malta Hospital as Doctor Swinehart tries to work on carefully removing the remainder of the arrow. Given the uncertainty of the effects of the magic, Swinehart decided that Blue could not be put out with anesthetics while operating. Blue has been forced to suffer through the numerous operations while awake and in obvious pain. Swinehart successfully removed the arrow, having pieced it back together before pulling it out so as there being no possibility of some of it remaining in Blue's arm. However, an infection set in, causing him greater discomfort than before. That infection was later revealed to be caused by a minute piece of the Witching Cloak still being lodged in Blue's arm despite earlier efforts; its magic led to the arm being gangrenous to point of needing amputation at the elbow.

Boy Blue's condition continued to worsen despite both Frau Totenkinder and Doctor Swineheart's best efforts. He was moved to The Farm after Fabletown collapsed, where Flycatcher attempted to counteract Blue's condition. Flycatcher's magic was unable to remedy the situation and he told his friends that it was time to say goodbye. Rose Red admitted her love for Blue and attempted to marry him, but Blue turned her down, telling her that she was merely attracted to the excitement of what was happening. The morning after everyone wished him goodbye, Boy Blue died. He was buried on the hill which overlooks the baseball field in Flycatcher's kingdom.

Personality

Despite his calm exterior, Blue has a flint-hard personality. His years as a soldier have given him an appreciation for the importance of discipline. He strongly believes that order is important for any functioning society, and that this separates Fabletown from the mundane world. He has no tolerance for people who make decisions without considering the consequences (such as Prince Charming).