Saga Elevates the Comic Book Medium

Saga #1

Story by Brian K. Vaughn
Art by Fiona Staples
Publisher: Image Comics

Review by Jenny “Cake” Sweigert

I was never the type of girl to fall head over heels for star-crossed affairs between characters. That is, until I was introduced to Brian K. Vaughn’s Saga, where the main characters are, in fact, star-crossed.

If you have been living under a rock for the past decade then you might not know about Vaughn’s earlier accomplishments such as Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, and Runaways. I’ve always been a fan of him so it was no surprise that I grabbed up issue one as soon as it came out in 2012.

Saga starts off strong by throwing you face-first into a whirlpool of humorous dialect between Alana and Marko who are giving birth to their baby girl in an abandoned garage on the planet Cleave. This is soon interrupted by the Landfall Coalition and Wreath magic users, who are determined to detain (or slaughter) the couple and their abomination child. They escape with a map that will hopefully lead them to a place called Rocketship Forest.

Unlike many other first issues, you aren’t left frazzled or confused over what is happening, who is who, and where the story will lead. Through the narration of Alana and Marko’s child Hazel (presumably a way of her looking back and telling the tale) you find out that Alana hails from Landfall while Marko is from the moon that orbits Landfall, Wreath. The two have been at war since anyone can remember — it’s a classic type of fiction that evokes fond memories of other such odysseys.

In the short span of time that you flip through the brilliantly illustrated pages, you are also introduced to a few other characters. There is Prince Robot IV who seems to be from a race of human-looking figures with televisions for heads. After a long stint in the trenches he is informed that he will need to return to the fray and find Alana and Marko. It seems their little love scandal has become a big hit in the upper ranks of the war, to Robot IV’s dismay of having to return to what he describes as hell. Others are being rallied to hunt down the lovers, too, such as an independent bounty hunter that goes by The Will. At his side is an interesting cat-like creature deemed Lying Cat that can blatantly call someone out when he or she is fibbing. His task is given by a unicorn horned older woman named Vex, who wants Marko and Alana wiped out, but demands the delivery of the child, alive and unharmed.

One extremely interesting bit of the comic is that the narration from Hazel is actually hand-written by artist Fiona Staples herself. It’s not a computer font used, but her very humanizing print. Staples herself creates a vivid picture of what is happening through the panels and easily directs you to what you should pay attention. She has this way of giving life to the pages which inspires you to be smitten with the very story being told.

At the end of the entire first issue you are left salivating for more. Plenty of questions arise that you can’t get answers to right away, but that is half the fun. It’s rare to actually pick up a new series and be absolutely spellbound by it these days. In a world filled with reboots and variant covers, Saga pushes past the stereotype of superheroes and spandex by giving us a healthy dose of gritty science fiction and story.

Jenny “Cake” Sweigert has been a comic fiend since the days of spinners in the grocery stores. She is an avid treasure hunter for back issues much to her bank accounts chagrin. When not thumbing through giant boxes for yesteryear’s gems, she can be found kicking her boyfriends butt in a variety of video games (he claims he “lets” her win.), encouraging her extremely talented friends to keep creating, and working as the Tucson Comic Con program coordinator. Jenny lives in Tucson, AZ with her Derp King boyfriend, and their three unruly cat companions. Oh, and she likes to write when her brain isn’t malfunctioning due to an overload of everyday pandemonium. Follow her on Twitter: twitter.com/GeistDame