This is a profoundly disappointing follow-up to The Ballad of Rodney and June, and yet another spin-off issue that leads nowhere. If Fables is a meal, lately it feels as though these side adventures are the main course, with the main storylines providing the seasoning. After being treated to multi-issue runs chronicling the adventures of The Cubs in (Broken) Toyland, Bufkin the Flying Monkey and Bigbys past, there is only so much diversion from the main story that readers can take.

Buy this book immediately. Leave your work unattended. Leave your children unminded. Leave the stove on and the pot boiling. Get in your car, drive to your nearest comic book store and buy what is possibly the best issue you will read all summer. Astro City has, at long last, found its home at Vertigo.