Hmm, using my top ten comics collections as a sort of mirror, it's interesting to see how many team comics I have as opposed to lone hero comics. Cerebus, John “Hellblazer” Constantine, and Swamp Thing are definitely all loners. I've got lots of Conan (Didn't count him in the list because a large part of my collection on him is in the format of larger black & white magazines), who's also a lone hero. Is Thor? Ehh, sort of. Thor is sort of a primus inter pares, a first among equals. He's got his small posse of Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg, sometimes joined by Balder and frequently by his sometimes-girlfriend Sif. Sandman? Hmm, sort of. He's a member of a large family and we see a lot of his brothers and sisters in his series. Lucifer? More of a loner, but he definitely shared quite a few adventures with his girlfriend Mazikeen, owed a great deal to her and to other characters who helped him along the way and made his gratitude quite clear to all of them.

But Avengers, Fantastic Four, Legion of Superheroes and X-Men are definitely all straight-up team books. If fiction is a way to get what one doesn't have in real life, I note that for people to say (As it seems they do in TV series all the time) "Aw, you're more than just a buddy, you're family!" doesn't do much to really provoke an emotional reaction from me as I'm quite content with my real-life family. But for the Vision in the panel above to state that he has to go rescue his Avenger teammates and for Captain America to put his hands on the Visions' shoulder and state: "But not alone--- Avenger" and for Iron Man and Thor to agree by moving on to the subject of next steps, yeah, that's what I'm talk'n' 'bout!

Is Fables a team book? Hmm, more or less. I'd say it's more of an ensemble piece where the whole gang sometimes gets together to act in concert against a common threat, but where there are lots and lots of individual and small group adventures.