Bigby Wolf

* Human
* Werewolf
* True Form

"*People call me...**Wolf**,*"
—Bigby in the announcement[src]

**Bigby Wolf**, also and formerly known as the **Big Bad Wolf**, is the protagonist of *The Wolf Among Us*. As the sheriff of Fabletown, he has the duty of protecting the Fables from the mundies, as well as themselves. In 1983, he was charged with investigating a series of horrific murders that threatened to expose Fabletown to the human world, unravelling a conspiracy that goes directly into the dark heart of Fabletown.

## Biography

### Early Life and Background

Bigby is the runt of a litter of seven wolves born to the white wolf Winter and the North Wind. Soon after his birth, his father abandoned his mother, leaving her to fend for her cubs alone. Winter showed particular affection for the little Bigby, who his brothers mocked by calling "Big Bad Wolf". Eventually, Winter succumbed to the elements; while his brothers left to make a name for themselves, Bigby stayed behind to guard his mother's corpse against scavengers. Ultimately, he proved too small to defend his mother, and from that day forward he vowed to eat something bigger every day so he could grow large enough to confront his father. He took on the mocking nickname his brothers gave him and transformed it into his fearsome epithet. Over the years, Bigby grew larger and larger until he stood at the height of an elephant. As he grew larger, his powers grew greater, and he faced many powerful threats, including a dragon.

Seven times the Big Bad Wolf tried to face the North Wind, but he could not match the elemental might of his father. These repeated failures installed a deep rage within Bigby, and he spent the next few centuries acting on his every violent impulse. On one instance he attacked three pig brothers and blew down two of their houses, and on another he devoured the grandmother of Little Red Riding Hood before almost being killed by The Woodsman. He typically hunted humans, and this only made him grow larger. He became feared throughout the Homelands for his ferocity and his massive appetite, capable of slaying dragons and destroying entire villages in minutes.

When the Adversary began his conquest of the Homelands, the Big Bad Wolf decided to seek redemption for his actions, proceeding to attack the Adversary's armies. On one occasion, he rescued a woman with "milk-white skin and hair black as night" from captivity, fighting alongside her against the Adversary's goblins. Bigby would become permanently attuned to the woman's scent, able to know her location and emotional state no matter where she was from then on. Bigby then sheltered hundreds of Fables as they fled towards the portals to the Mundy world, an act that would grant him shards of respect from those he saved in the years to come.

### Exodus and Fabletown

When the Black Forest was finally overtaken by the army of the Adversary, the Big Bad Wolf finally left the Homelands, arriving in the Mundy world. He took up residence in the forests of central and eastern Europe, where he was found by Snow White and Feathertop. They offered him a role in the community of Fables that had been built in New York City, and he accepted. Feathertop cut Bigby with a lycanthropy-stained knife, allowing the Big Bad Wolf to take human form at will. Bigby accepted King Cole's role as Fabletown's sheriff, charged with maintaining the community's low profile and keeping the Fables safe. He was made a relative outcast by most of Fabletown's residents, who struggled to forgive Bigby for his past crimes. Nonetheless, Bigby took his job very seriously, even fighting in World War Two, where he made friends with a soldier named Duffy.

### Season 1

#### 'Who Are You?'

Bigby responds to an alert at Glass Slipper Shoes, arriving at the aftermath of a robbery. Cinderella gives Bigby part of a suspect's shirt, and he uses his sense of smell to track them, cornering them down an alleyway. He easily disarms them and arrests them, handing them over to the Justice Office.

## Overview

### Physical Appearance

Bigby has four known forms, all of which have differing levels of strength and power: his human form, his man-wolf form, his werewolf form and his true form.

#### Human Form

After being cut with a lycanthropy-stained knife by Feathertop, Bigby gained a human form which he can switch into at will. As part of his responsibilities as sheriff, Bigby remains in his human form. He has dark brown hair and a strong build.

#### Man-Wolf Form

The form that Bigby spends the second-longest amount of time as is his Man-Wolf form. In this form, Bigby possesses enhanced strength, speed and stamina, while also growing claws and sharp fangs. His hair also becomes thicker.

#### Werewolf Form

Very rarely, Bigby finds it necessary to switch to his werewolf form: a hulking, near-unstoppable creature with grey fur, long claws and incredible strength, endurance and reactions.

#### True Form

Bigby's true form is the Big Bad Wolf of legend: an eight-foot-tall wolf with black fur. In this form, Bigby is unstoppable; in addition to his incredible abilities, Bigby also possesses his famous "huff-and-puff" power, a hurricane-force wind.

### Personality

Bigby is pragmatic, cunning, and usually even-tempered despite his animal nature. Even after all his years as sheriff of Fabletown, he is still a bit anti-social, and can sometimes appear inconsiderate to the plights of the Fables he's meant to protect. He can be callous, sarcastic, uncompromising, blunt, distant, hateful, cynical, manipulative, impatient, and distrustful. He holds all but his closest friends under scrutiny, and is willing to intimidate, harm, torture, and even kill anyone that is a threat to Fabletown's security or, more importantly, his loved ones. He can come across as gruff, brutish, and certainly intimidating, but he is a firm believer in the law and due process.

## Powers, Equipment and Abilities

### Powers

* **Transformation:** Bigby has four different forms he morphs into. His standard human form (which is due to lycanthropy and not a glamour), his half-werewolf form (where his eyes turn yellow and claws develop), his werewolf form (where he becomes taller, all-black and buffer) and his true form, where he becomes a larger-than-elephant form of the original Big Bad Wolf.
* **Near-Immortality:** Being a very-well talked about Fable, Bigby is nearly-immortal and has a very high resistance to pain; he is virtually invulnerable to bullets. He also endures a lot of physical pain throughout the series that leaves him hardly fazed. Bigby's immune system is constantly showcased by how he smokes dozens of cheap cigarettes every day and is not affected negatively by them at all; he does this to avoid getting overwhelmed by all the scents of the city.
* **Agility:** Both as a human and a werewolf, Bigby is largely fast and capable of jumping large distances over rooftops. His ability to keep up also shows he has high stamina. His speed may also be attributed to an ability to see things in slow-motion at times.
* **Strength:** Bigby Wolf is much stronger than a normal man while in his human form, and gets stronger through each transformation. He has been shown to be strong enough to lift a man off the ground by the face.
* **Regenerative Healing Factor:** Despite being a powerful Fable in his own right, it is possible to injure or possibly even kill him. If that is so, Bigby's increased metabolism enables his body to be able to heal from wounds sustained, as well as being a major contributor to his immortality. He can even restore any broken bones or even severed limbs, though that can cause pain for him. Bigby can also regenerate any wounds that come across him.

### Abilities

* **Interrogation:** Bigby Wolf uses intimidation and violent outbursts of emotion when interrogating suspects. Sometimes, he will blatantly accuse someone of an outrageous crime just to gauge their reaction.
* **Investigation:** With the aid of his keen analytical mind as well as his canine senses, Bigby is an extremely competent detective. Although he personifies himself in the style of a classic 1930s gumshoe detective, Bigby admits that his chosen profession is a fairly un-glamorous one.
* **Experienced Combatant:** Bigby, whilst presumably lacking any formal training aside from what he was taught in his military service during World Wars 1 and 2, has shown some basic fighting skill.

### Weaknesses

* **Sensory Overload:** Bigby's sense of smell is so acute that to avoid sensory overload in the middle of bustling New York City, he is forced to smoke constantly and heavily to dull his senses. Even then, he must exert considerable willpower to mentally filter all of the millions of scents and smells.
* **Silver:** The legends of great and magical wolves often make mention of their weakness to objects or weapons made of silver, and those tales bear out to be true. If injured by a silver weapon, it will take him much longer to heal than it would from being injured by a weapon composed of conventional material. Any silver left in Bigby's body weakens his system, slows his healing, and can cause long term damage.

## Associated Deaths

### Murders committed by Bigby

* Mr Badger - accidentally stabbed with a mirror shard
* Spring-Heeled Jack - forced onto a protruding tree trunk by Bigby's 'huff-and-puff' power