Creative Team:
Writers: Brian K. Vaughn
Artist: Fiona Staples
What They Say:
When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe. From New York Times bestselling writer Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina) and critically acclaimed artist Fiona Staples (Mystery Society, North 40), Saga is the sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the worlds. Fantasy and science fiction are wed like never before in this sexy, subversive drama for adults. This specially priced volume collects the first six issues of the smash-hit series The Onion A.V. Club calls “the emotional epic Hollywood wishes it could make.” Voted one of the top graphic novels of the year by the NYT, IGN, the Examiner, and SF Weekly. Voted Best Comic of the year by MTV Geek and Best New Series by Paradox Comics. Voted a finalist in the GoodReads Best GN of 2012 contest. Voted #2 Graphic Novel of 2012 by Amazon editors.
The Review:
Created by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples, Saga is a series that has gotten a fair bit of critical acclaim in its first year of publication. Originally kicking off in March of 2012, this collection brings the first six issues in a very affordable and high quality package. Some of the original solicitation material definitely painted a particular picture for what the series was going to be, a Star Wars and Game of Thrones mashup in a way, and there’s definitely a very good vibe of that which makes it pretty exciting. Sprawling epics of the science fiction variety are common enough in the novel world but it’s something that is very much lacking in the comics world. I’ve not read too much from Vaughn before, but what I sampled of his, particularly with Y: The Last Man, definitely had me interested in this work.
While the series deals with some very personal stories with its two leads, the backdrop for it is pretty important. With a galactic level flavor to it, we’re introduced to two warring worlds that are tightly connected. The massive planet known as Landfall is strong on technology and sciences while the habitable moon known as Wreath is far more focused on magic. The two have vastly different languages and spent many a year warring against each other, leveling cities and killing untold numbers. But as the sophistication of war went on, the two sides realized that they couldn’t keep up at it directly since if one side won and obliterated the other, it would end up being self defeating as the end goal of destroying their opponents world would destroy theirs. So in an almost comical sense, they outsourced the war across the galaxy, forcing other civilized and not so civilized worlds to take sides and become embroiled in it. Because of the scale of Landfall and Wreaths weaponry and abilities, they were able to take this lead easily.
What we get introduced to on the more personal level is the pairing of Alana and Markos, who are from Landfall and Wreath respectively. Their pasts are lightly touched on here where we discover that Markos is something of a pacifist that didn’t want to fight but was drawn into it while Alana was a troubled soldier from the start before the two of them end up on the frontier world of Cleave. Of course, it’s the kind of meeting that great stories are made of as she was guarding him because he was a prisoner. One thing lead to another and she ended up pregnant and the two of them escaping. Such things can’t be allowed to happen though because of the impact on morale as well as the whole genetics things since it just creates more problems than those on a governmental and policy level want to deal with. So while they’re doing the best to get away, a number of forces are aligned against them, from freelancer mercenaries to their respective governments directly and that of the Robot Kingdom who have their own reasons for being involved.
These events all have impact on the core storyline as it progresses and there are some fascinating bits of potential on the political and social level, especially in what we see with the Robot Kingdom as there’s sex and procreation involved that gives it all a very unusual feeling. But what drives it is the story of Alana and Markos. The two of them have a great feeling about them as we see her giving birth in the first couple of pages and the two on the run from there. Things aren’t exactly changed up here because she has a strong warrior mentality about her and he’s more of a pacifist, but he has no problem fighting when the need truly arises. While he wants to give up fighting now that he’s a father, there are moments here where he has to return to that life. So we don’t see him as the weaker of the pair, just the one that wants to focus on the family side in a different way than Alana. But even Alana’s aggressive side isn’t a constant as we see some soft moments with her that helps to smooth her out in a great way. Motherhood has a way of doing that, but we don’t see her instantly become the weaker of the two or overcompensating because of it either.
While the pair are on the run and dealing with a very strange and almost surreal kind of world (ghosts, forests of natural rocketships, bizarre creatures and the whole robots having sex thing), there’s an additional narrative that comes into play that gives it all a grander scale yet one that’s hugely personal. The birth of the couple’s child has them on the run and they’re doing everything to protect her, but we also get an additional narration in the backgrounds from the daughter as what appears to be her as an adult. It doesn’t give us a clear look at what her life is like in the future. She makes some intriguing observations but it doesn’t play spoiler for what’s to come. If anything, it makes it far more engaging because its vague yet doesn’t do it to a frustrating level. It tantalizes and engages without frustrating you because it adds an almost nostalgic level to what’s going on while still keeping how events will play out in an uncertain way.
In Summary:
Saga kicks off in a big way and makes it clear that the whole thing is definitely a mature work because of the sexual component but also because of the language and the blunt way it deals with things, from birth to death. But it’s easy to overlook at what else is going on here because of that. As seen from Vaughn’s previous works, there’s layers upon layers with what he writes and you can see there are some tantalizing places that it can go, from what the Robot Kingdom is really about to a greater exploration of the main cultures that are introduced here. The book has a really, really grand scale it can work with and it’s just scraping the surface of what it can be, especially since it does keep things focused on the main characters in a big way. Alana and Markos really drive the story and seeing the relationship here should make most anyone grin in enjoyment. The two of them have a great bit of banter between them, a strange kind of honesty and realness amid all this unusual and difficult to decipher at times material. They anchor it in a huge way and it really does make the book such a very fun read throughout. I can definitely see this being a long term project of worth and merit and everything here makes it easy to commit to in a big way.
Grade: B+
