| This article is about the comic series character. You may be looking for her video game counterpart, or her mundy counterpart. |
| “ | I'll have a song in my heart...and blood on my hands! | „ |
| ~ Bloody Mary, Fables: The Wolf Among Us #31 — "Chapter Thirty-One" |
Bloody Mary, also known as Jack the Ripper, is a Fable who is the vengeful reflection of Mary, a timid mundy girl who was brutally murdered by her husband, the Knave of Hearts. She debuts in Fables: The Wolf Among Us #22 — "Heart of Glass Part 1."
History
Becoming untethered
In 1887, Mary, a timid, young mundy aristocrat from London, meets a man who occupies her mirror, the Knave of Hearts.[9] She falls in love with him,[10] and eventually they get married[8] and conceive a child, however, while Mary's reflection becomes visibly pregnant, Mary does not, even though she can feel the child moving within her.[11] When she goes into labor on August 5, 1888, Mary is unable to give birth, prompting an impatient Knave to slice Mary's reflection open and rip out their glass baby,[7] which he needs to escape from the Looking Glass World to another realm.[2]
The dying Mary, having suffered the same injuries as her reflection,[7] allegedly sacrifices herself so that her counterpart might be set free, and her reflection lives on as the vengeful Bloody Mary. After becoming untethered, Bloody Mary exits the Knave's mansion in the Looking Glass Kingdom's version of London, and tracks down the Knave and spitefully shatters the glass baby by throwing him on the ground.[2] She then collects the shards of the glass baby and shoves them into her skin to keep her child close. She reinforces her vengeance by castrating the Knave,[12] and then kills[4][13] the dozen other women the Knave made pregnant,[12] foiling his scheme: unknown to all, she was the perpetrator behind the Jack the Ripper killings in 1888.[4][13]
On October 31, 1888, Henrietta, Elizabeth and Jane, who were friends of the original Mary, attend a Halloween party. They hold a candlelight vigil to remember Mary, although Elizabeth mocks the tribute by openly criticizing Mary's faults. Immediately afterward, Henrietta and Jane see Bloody Mary lunge out of a nearby mirror towards Elizabeth.[4]
Fabletown
In the modern-day mundane world, Mary is working for the Crooked Man.[1] At the Pudding & Pie, Georgie Porgie is conversing over the phone with Mary's boss as Bigby and Snow White arrive in their quest to locate Ichabod Crane. As they go into the back room to arrest Crane, Georgie alerts the Crooked Man about a potential problem and instructs him to send Mary down.[14]
Bloody Mary appears in an alley in Fabletown along with the shotgun-wielding Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum after Bigby and Snow arrest Crane. Mary introduces herself and demands that Bigby hands over Crane. After the sheriff refuses to do so, she orders the twins to fire their shotguns at Bigby.[1]
Mary watches from the street as Bigby transforms into his giant wolf form and brutally pummels both of the Tweedles, but then takes matters into her own hands and shoots Bigby with a silver bullet.[15] The wound effectively incapacitates Bigby, causing him to fall down, stunned. As Mary is about to finish Bigby off with the Woodsman's axe, Snow calls out and offers to hand over Crane to Mary in exchange for her sparing Bigby. After receiving the Crooked Man's blessing, she agrees to the deal, but violently steps on and breaks the sheriff's arm before leaving.[16]
When a healed Bigby enters The Looking Glassworks later, Mary appears behind him and attacks him.[17] She creates numerous mirrored copies of herself, which assault Bigby.[18] He fights many of them off, before transforming into his full form, killing many of the copies with his wind-gusting breath. Mary attempts to stab him with a large glass shard, but is crushed in his jaws.[3]
Escaping the Silverling
Later, Mary is discovered in the Silverling realm[19] (where reflections are sent when they break free)[6] by the Crooked Man, who followed her using a spellbound mirror shard that he had grafted into her skin. He once again recruits her into his service, saying that they can escape together.[19] She visits her doctor at the nearby hospital to get looked at for her wounds and receive treatment to aid in her recovery. Suddenly, the Knave enters the scene as he, too, is employed by the Crooked Man. Mary is horrified to see him,[20] but begrudgingly teams up with him in order to carry out the Crooked Man's plan of escaping the Silverling. Even though she works alongside him, her animosity towards him does not waver.[21]
After Knave's new wife Abigail rebuilds the glass baby,[21][22] the group attempts to activate its teleportation powers with the heart of Grendel's mother.[23] However, the ritual fails,[24] and they find themselves seeking out Aunty Greenleaf, who succeeds. Using the baby, Bloody Mary along with the rest of the Crooked Man's gang are transported to Castle Allerleirauh in the Homelands. After Knave's new wife Abigail rebuilds the glass baby,[21][22] the group attempts to activate its teleportation powers with the heart of Grendel's mother.[23] However, the ritual fails,[24] and they find themselves seeking out Aunty Greenleaf,[25] who succeeds.[26] Using the baby, Bloody Mary along with the rest of the Crooked Man's gang are transported to Castle Allerleirauh in the Homelands.[17]
Appearances
Physical appearance
Usually, Bloody Mary assumes an aesthetically pleasing guise as a slender young woman with fair skin and short dark hair. According to Bigby, she smells like corroed copper, Victorian lace, and mother's milk that curdled a long time ago.[1] Mary's true form[17] is monstrous, with arcane tattoos, bleeding eyes, shark-like teeth, and shards of glass extending from her skin.[3]
Etymology
It was the original Mary's "friend" Jane who came up with the moniker "Bloody Mary": As the two are mocking Mary behind her back, Jane calls her, "Stupid bloody Mary!"[27]
Original source
Urban legend
Historical ritual
The character is based on the urban legend of Bloody Mary, a spirit said to appear in a mirror when her name is chanted repeatedly. Historically, this was a ritual of divination practiced in Britain,[28] where young women were instructed to ascend a staircase while facing backwards. Once they reached the top, they were to enter a dark room and gaze into a mirror while holding a candle. As they gazed into the mirror, they were supposed to be able to catch a glimpse of their future husband's face.[29] On the other hand, if the woman was to see the Grim Reaper's face instead, it was a sign that she would die before she would have the chance to marry. Robert Burns describes this mirror ritual in a footnote to his 1786 poem "Halloween," and up until the 20th century, there were Halloween greetings cards with pictures of this ritual.[28]
The origin of the ritual was adapted for Mary's introduction in the comics: In a flashback tale set in London in 1887, Mary and her friends partake in a divination ritual on Halloween. As part of the ritual, they gather in Mary's dimly lit bedroom with candles in hand and stand before a mirror, hoping to catch a glimpse of her future husband. To their surprise, the Knave of Hearts emerges in the reflection on the mirror. After her terrifying experience, Mary carefully descends the stairs, clutching a candle and facing in the right direction. As she returns to the room, she walks in reverse and keeps her back to the mirror, desperately trying to convince herself that it was all just a figment of her imagination. As she looks at her reflection in the mirror behind her, she is taken aback to see that the Knave is still present.[9]
Modern day ritual
The fundamental aspect of the modern day ritual involves saying a summoning phrase, typically repeating Bloody Mary's name three times, while standing in front of a mirror in a dimly lit room. Supposedly, this will summon her to the mirror, typically resulting in serious harm or even death for those who perform the ritual.[28]
Another phrase that is said to summon Bloody Mary is "Bloody Mary, I killed your baby," which connects to a different version of the legend where Bloody Mary is the ghost of a mother whose children were killed. A variation of the ritual involves the summoner being put to the test by holding Mary's baby. If the child cries, the summoner will face a brutal death. However, if the baby remains calm, their life will be spared.[28] In the comic, Mary and the Knave of Hearts have a glass baby together.[7] However, she ends up destroying the child by breaking it into pieces.[30]
Legends of Bloody Mary can be found in various regions around the globe, with similar versions appearing in North America, Europe, and Asia.[28] Other names of Bloody Mary includes Bloody Bones, Hell Mary, Mary Worth, Mary Worthington, Mary Whales, Mary Johnson, Mary Lou, Mary Jane, Sally, Kathy, Agnes, Black Agnes, Aggie, and Svarte Madame.[31] In the comic, Jane is the name of one of Mary's so-called friends.[27]
Mary's pregnancy
A key aspect of Bloody Mary's origin story in the comics is that the original Mary's reflection becomes visibly pregnant, while she herself remains unchanged, and she is unable to give birth because there is nothing to give birth to.[7] This is a reference to Queen Mary I, better known to history as "Bloody Mary"; who is said to be the inspiration behind the legend. Queen Mary was certain she was carrying a baby and her body looked visibly pregnant, yet when she went into seclusion to give birth, no child was born. Gossip floated around that Queen Mary had passed away, or that the child had died. In truth, the Queen had never been expecting a baby: instead, she had a medical condition known as false pregnancy, which made her body show all signs of carrying a child without actually having one.[32]
Mary I was the half-sister of Elizabeth I. In addition, some believe that the infamous Hungarian countess Elizabeth Bathory may have been the inspiration behind the legend of Bloody Mary.[31] In the comic, one of Mary's so-called friends is also named Elizabeth.[27]
Jack the Ripper
In the comic, Bloody Mary is revealed to be the perpetrator behind the mysterious Jack the Ripper killings in 1888,[4][13] and all her victims were women that the Knave made pregnant.[12] The original Mary was killed on August 5, 1888 that year,[11] and Bloody Mary learned about the other women shortly afterward.[12] Mary's body is examined by the police on August 7, and the murder of an unnamed prostitute in Whitechapel is reported to the police on the very same day.[13] On October 31 that year,[4] D.I. Benton,[13] the police detective father of the original Mary's "friend" Elizabeth Benton, reveals to his daughter that the police might find a new clue to the "Ripper's" identity in the apron of "the Eddowes girl."[4]
The notorious Jack the Ripper case is one of the most well-known and unsolved mysteries in English crime history. There were a dozen murders speculated to be the work of the pseudonymous Jack the Ripper between 1888 and 1892;[33] the same as the number of women that the Knave impregnated.[12] However, only five of those murders, all occurring in 1888, were connected by the police to one individual killer. The so-called "canonical five" victims, all murdered in or around London's Whitechapel district, were identified as:[33]
- Mary Ann Nichols, whose body was discovered on August 31[33] (has the same first name as the original Mary from the comic)
- Annie Chapman, found on September 8[33]
- Elizabeth Stride, found on September 30[33] (has the same first name as the original Mary's "friend" Elizabeth Benton)[9]
- Catherine (Kate) Eddowes, also found on September 30[33]
- Mary Jane Kelly, whose body was discovered on November 9[33] (has the same first name as the original Mary from the comic, and her middle name is the same as the first name of the original Mary's "friend" Jane;[9] in addition, "Mary Jane" is another name of Bloody Mary from the urban legend[31])
Based on the predominant belief of that era, it was assumed that all the victims were prostitutes and all but Kelly were murdered while soliciting on the street. Each time, the victim's throat had been slit and their body was often mutilated in a way that suggested the killer had some familiarity with human anatomy.[33]
As already mentioned, Catherine Eddowes' murder is mentioned by the fictional D.I. Benton in the comic, who touches upon the apron worn by her.[4] The officers working on Eddowes' murder case on September 30, 1888, noticed that a piece of her apron was missing and speculated that the killer had taken it. One hour later, a constable found the missing apron fragment in a doorway of an apartment complex.[34]
In the comic, the murder of an unnamed prostitute in Whitechapel is reported to the police on August 7, 1888, and is implied to be Bloody Mary's doing.[13] This is a reference to Martha Tabram, who was found murdered in Whitechapel that day.[35] Tabram's murder was long thought to be connected to the Jack the Ripper killings because of her identity and the brutal nature of her death. The woman's stab wounds mirrored those of the other victims of Jack the Ripper, and her occupation as a prostitute in Whitechapel further linked her to the notorious serial killer. However, a discovery made in the mid-20th century led to a general agreement that she was probably not the first victim of Jack the Ripper.[36]
Interestingly, one of the last people to see Tabram alive was a notorious prostitute named Mary Ann Connolly: throughout the evening, they had been drinking together in various pubs in the vicinity. Connolly was even asked by the police to help identify the possible murderer of Tabram.[37] Connolly also knew Annie Chapman,[38] whose body was discovered a month later;[33] the two had lodged together in the past.[38]
References
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See also
| Fables | |
|---|---|
| Series | Fables • Jack of Fables • Fairest • Fables: The Wolf Among Us • Everafter: From the Pages of Fables |
| Specials | Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall • Peter & Max: A Fables Novel • Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love • Cinderella: Fables Are Forever • The Literals • Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland • Fairest: In All the Land • The Unwritten Fables • Batman vs. Bigby! A Wolf in Gotham |
| Characters | Bigby Wolf • Snow White • Rose Red • Prince Charming • Beauty • Beast • Boy Blue • Flycatcher • King Cole • Frau Totenkinder • Geppetto • Snow Queen • North Wind • Jack Horner • Bufkin |
| Video games | The Wolf Among Us • The Wolf Among Us 2 (unreleased) |
| Fabletown | |
|---|---|
| Governing body | King Cole • Snow White (formerly) • Prince Charming (formerly) • Beauty • Ichabod Crane (formerly) |
| Inhabitants | Beast • Bigby Wolf (formerly) • Flycatcher (formerly) • Trusty John • Grimble • Bufkin • Cinderella • Mowgli • Hobbes • Pinocchio • Briar Rose • Doctor Swineheart • Rapunzel • Kay • Edmond Dantès • Crispin Cordwainer • Thrushbeard • Fairy Witch • Frau Totenkinder • Ozma • Fairy Witch • Morgan le Fay |
| Places | Grand Green Florist Shop • Chateau d'If Fencing Academy • Edward Bear's Candies • Ford Laundry • Nod's Books • Lewis Antiques • I Am the Eggman Diner • Yellowbrick Roadhouse • Web 'n' Muffet Market • The Woodland Luxury Apartments • The Glass Slipper Shoes • Branstock Tavern |
| Unique items | Magic Mirror |