Bigby Wolf

Allow me to introduce Bigby Wolf; comic book hero, werewolf, and the somewhat human incarnation of the Big Bad Wolf. Bigby was also described briefly in our post about werewolf comics.

Bigby is one of the main characters of Bill Willingham’s comic book series, Fables, which was first printed in 2002.
Bigby Wolf was a hybrid creature, born from a wolf mother named Winter, and sired by the North Wind himself, who transformed into a wolf for a short period of time. He was the runt of the litter and was teased by his brothers, who gave him the ironic title of “Big Bad Wolf.” Bigby, as he’s known to the other fabled creatures in Willingham’s comics, grows up trying to prove himself to truly be big and bad.

Bigby vowed to devour a larger creature every day to prove himself. He started with a grasshopper, but eventually tried to eat a human grandmother and her granddaughter, Little Red Riding Hood. He fails in this endeavor, but he survives the encounter with the woodsman. He does eventually devour humans, whole villages, without sparing women or children. He becomes the largest wolf among all the fabled creatures.

His brothers, meanwhile, tracked down their father, the North Wind, and from him learned to shape shift. Bigby never learned this skill, but gained the ability to shape shift after entering the “Mundane world” which, in Fables, is our world. The Fables (creatures and characters from fable stories) have to flee their homeland when it is attacked by a fearsome Adversary, and they flee to New York.

There, Bigby must pass as human. Snow White, another Fable who escaped from “the homelands,” happened to have a blade enchanted with lycanthropy. She stabs Bigby with it, giving him the ability to shift back and forth from wolf and human form.

Bigby must remain in human form, to prevent discovery from the “mundy people” or ordinary humans of earth. As a werewolf, though, he proves himself to be able to do good in the world. He redeems himself from his past deeds of murder and mayhem, and doesn’t hurt another innocent person again. He eventually even becomes the sheriff of Fabletown, the hidden town in New York where all the Fables live.

It’s a touching story, really. Anyone can change and become a person who does good for the world, even the big, bad wolf.

By holiday

Holiday is a secretive squonk from deep in the darkness of the forests. She loves helping people, reading about obscure myths and folklore, and having adventures.

3 comments

  1. He is a awesome character ^^ I really like his intellect, his simplicity and his own way to doing things.

    Oh, and its realy cool the plot twists that evolves him :3

    1. He’s definitely one of my favorite characters in Fables. I like the new perspective on the old stories, like this one with Little Red Riding Hood.

  2. In which chapter is this explained in comics
    “Snow White, another Fable who escaped from “the homelands,” happened to have a blade enchanted with lycanthropy. She stabs Bigby with it, giving him the ability to shift back and forth from wolf and human form.”

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