Saga
By Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples
Length: 176 pages
Rating: 9/10
First Published: 2012
I had heard of Saga and Brian K. Vaughan before, and was intrigued by the hype. I had put it off after because all the reviews were about parenting and the similarities with Romeo & Juliet.
Still, the universe is a glorious wonder you can’t get enough of.
That changed when I saw this cover:
Now, that was a world I wanted to step into.
Needless to say, it provided a much-needed escape from our planet in 2020 and I tore through it. If you don’t mind sometimes gory and graphic art (which needlessly tarnishes it, in my opinion) I would recommend it.
Except with volume 9, I would only read volumes 1-8 and consider it the end. The last volume ends with an issue that doesn’t feel thought-through properly.
My problems with Volume 9, contains spoilers
The Will: Completely illogical psychology here. His abductor put him through unimaginable physical and mental pain, killed his dog, and tortured him for days. Yet he lets him walk free because “now they’re square”. What an honourable, compassionate, pacific guy.
Then he kill Marko in cold-blood. Literally behind his back too, even if he actually didn’t do anything to him. Where is that honour then ? The Will gets his freedom thanks to the photographer who sacrificed himself for him. What a great way to thank him by killing his lover. Again, very logical code of honour there.
Also mercilessly tears off Sir Robot’s head knowing that he’s leaving an orphan who’s roughly the same age that Sophie was when he risked everything to save her.
It feels like they wanted to end with a ridiculous number of dead characters like Game of Thrones. But Saga never needed that to be interesting. As you can tell, I’m disappointed.