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| “ | He's got no soul. You smashed that to bits. He's like a glass decanter, waiting to be filled with divine wine. | „ |
| ~ Abigail Williams to Bloody Mary, Fables: The Wolf Among Us #37 — "Chapter Thirty-Seven" |
The glass baby[5] is a Fable who debuts in Fables: The Wolf Among Us #29 — "Heart of Glass Part 8 “Watch Me Bleed”." He is the infant glass child of Mary and the Knave of Hearts, conceived by the Knave as a means to escape the Looking Glass World.
History
Mary, a timid, young mundy aristocrat from London,[6] falls deeply in love with the Knave of Hearts, a mysterious man who appears only in her mirror.[7] The Knave proposes to Mary[8] and the two of them tie the knot and consummate their marriage through a mirror on their wedding night.[9] However, while Mary's reflection becomes visibly pregnant, Mary herself does not, even though she can feel child moving within her.[10]
Mary goes into labor, but struggles to give birth, as there is nothing to give birth to;[10] prompting the Knave to cut Mary's reflection open and rip out a baby[4] made from living glass.[2] Mary suffers the same injuries as her reflection[4] and dies; while the Knave leaves with the glass baby, planning to use him to flee the kingdom. Mary succumbs to her injuries, but her vengeful reflection Bloody Mary lives on, tracks down the Knave and spitefully shatters the baby by throwing him on the ground.[2] Bloody Mary then collects the shards of the glass baby and shoves them into her skin to keep her child close.[5]
In the Silverling, the Crooked Man removes Bloody Mary's shards[11] and gives them to the Knave's new wife Abigail Williams, who rebuilds the glass baby's body.[3] The infant is revived, but his soul has been destroyed by Mary's actions.[1] The group attempts to reunite the baby's soul with its body and reawaken its teleportation abilities with the heart of Grendel's mother. However, the ritual fails,[12] and they find themselves seeking out Aunty Greenleaf,[13] who succeeds.[14]
Using the baby's powers, the Crooked Man's gang travel to Castle Allerleirauh,[15] where King Edward demands his daughter Faith in return for the magic word to activate his donkey's powers,[16] so the Crooked Man uses the glass baby to travel to Fabletown and abduct Nerissa.[17]
Appearances
Fables: The Wolf Among Us
- Fables: The Wolf Among Us #28 (first mentioned)
- Fables: The Wolf Among Us #29 (first appearance)
- Fables: The Wolf Among Us #30
- Fables: The Wolf Among Us #31 (as a corpse) (first identified as glass baby)
- Fables: The Wolf Among Us #36 (as a corpse)
- Fables: The Wolf Among Us #37
- Fables: The Wolf Among Us #39
- Fables: The Wolf Among Us #42
- Fables: The Wolf Among Us #43
- Fables: The Wolf Among Us #45
- Fables: The Wolf Among Us #48
Original source
Urban legend
The glass baby is based on Bloody Mary's dead baby from the urban legend of Bloody Mary, a spirit said to appear in a mirror when her name is chanted repeatedly. Another phrase that is said to summon Bloody Mary is "Bloody Mary, I killed your baby," which connects to an alternate 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.[18]
Mary's pregnancy
A key aspect of Bloody Mary's origin story in the comics is that the original 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.[10] 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.[19]