Written by
Brian K Vaughan
Art by
Fiona Staples
Brian
K Vaughan is one of the top comics writers out there. His work on Y the Last Man and Ex Machina was
great science fiction, and even Runaways was like a creator-owned book
integrated into the greater Marvel universe.
Which puts plenty of pressure on Saga being good, and he’s made
something that’s just naturally addictive.
Marko
and Alana are from different sides of a war between a planet of winged people
and its moon of horned people, and since they’ve fallen in love and had a baby
together, they’ve made enemies with both sides and beyond. This volume features their initial journeys
in their wooden rocket ship, the appearance of Marko’s parents, and a battle
with the freelancer known as The Will.
First
things first, as always, can you jump on to this volume? No.
Well, theoretically, you can probably catch up on what’s going on. But it’s like coming into the middle of a
movie. Saga is, well, a saga, and you
can’t just come into the middle of it. This
book is picking up on a cliffhanger from the last volume, and ends on a
cliffhanger for the next volume. Start
with the beginning.
Especially
since you don’t want to miss any of the craziness that Vaughan and Staples have
come up with. Whereas sci-fi in TV shows
or movies is restricted by what’s realistic to show, nothing is out of bounds
in the world of Saga. This volume alone
features a planet that’s really an egg, a medic who looks like a mouse, and a
giant ogre-ish alien with disgusting genitals.
It’s all part of this constant sense of fun to the series. You don’t really know what’s going to show up
next, you don’t know how the story will go on, and it all just makes you want
to continue.
And
with this all, Vaughan still has the heart and brain that makes his series a
success. While the series could survive on
its atmosphere alone, the voice that he brings to the characters is what really
makes it shine. Alana and Marko are
people that you care about and you want to see them get away. And we’re still not sure if they’re going to
succeed. The threat of death for both of
them lurks everywhere, and the death of a character in this volume shows that
it’s not something beyond the realm of possibility. At the same time, you don’t want the
villainous characters like The Will and Prince Robot IV to die either, because
they are so fascinating in their own right.
We’re still getting hints of who, exactly, The Will is, with his
relationships with The Strand and Slave Girl expanded. And it says something that the final issue in
this volume is solely focused on Prince Robot (who’s basically human besides
having a TV for a head), and it’s just as great as everything else here, as we
find out about his time in battle and the ruthlessness he’s willing to go to in
order to get Alana and Marko.
Saga
can easily go next to Brian K Vaughan’s previous work as a must-read, and this
second volume just solidifies that.
No comments:
Post a Comment