Comic Review: Saga #1

[Note: Saga is a mature title. Please keep that in mind when reading this review.]

I hadn’t heard anything about Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga until the day it was published. My Twitter feed exploded Wednesday and evening with praise and adulation and requests for copies as it sold out in shop after shop. Thankfully, one E-mail to my local comic store was able to reserve me one of the few copies they had left. So, I started in with absolutely no pre-conceived notions about what I was about to read.

It wasn’t what I expected.

I’m not sure what I was thinking — comics are certainly more than good vs. evil, superhero vs. supervillian tales. So why was I expecting one? Instead, I got an interesting look at a world where races are at war with each other, a conflict that spanned multiple planets far removed from the original epicenter. It’s a world where the main protagonist, Marko, has horns and the female, Alana, has wings, and their just-born child is now the illegal product of their love. In fact, Marko makes a note of this — Alan promised that their relationship would have “no politics, no history, and no more barbaric religious nonsense!”

The Synopsis

The comic gives some backstory on the conflict. The war actually began on the outer rim of the galaxy, on a planet called Landfall, where its inhabitants have been at war with the inhabitants of Landfall’s only moon, Wreath. Alana, a Landfill military draftee, was been deployed to the planet of Cleave as a guard at a detention facility. Eighteen months ago Marko was put there after claiming to be a “conscientious objector”. The Landfall military suspected him to be a spy. Twelve hours after Marko arrived, he and Alana disappeared.

Now, the two of them have gotten married and given birth to a “half-breed”, which is a situation the authorities would rather not be known. After dispatching the military police to detain them, and after said MPs were killed, the the King of the Robot Kingdom has went Special Agent Gale of the Secret Intelligence to Prince Robot IV, in hopes that the Prince will handle the situation.

Someone else is looking for them, a freelancer named The Will. He has been hired by a woman named Vez, someone who also wants Marko dead because of his relationship with Alana, but she wants the baby returned safely.

Alana and Marko were saved from the MPs by a mechanic who with his dying breath handed over a map that supposedly would lead them to safety. They are on the run because of their desertion, and they can’t afford to be caught up in any part of the war. They follow the map to the “Rocketship Forest” but find nothing but normal trees. Suddenly they hear the sounds of battle and are aghast to find that the war is just over the hill. They have nothing left but hope that they can make it off planet alive…

The Good

I love the fact that this story is narrated not by Alana or Marko or some omniscient narrator. No, it’s Hazel, their child, who is telling this story. It took me two reads to figure this out, but once I did, suddenly the story just became more alive. We are getting the story of Alana and Marko from someone who knows them like no one else could. It gives the story a dimension I wasn’t expecting, and it adds something new to the “Forbidden Love” story we’ve seen in Romeo and Juliet among countless other tales.

Fiona’s art is lovely. It’s got some rough edges, but that adds to the grittiness one would expect in a comic where war is everywhere.

I also love that you get over 40 pages for only $3. That’s a great value.

The Bad

Nothing bad per se, but I’m going to have to give this a few more issues to see if this story is one I want to get involved in. I’m usually looking for superhero exploits in my funny books, so this is a departure for me. So far, it’s good, but time will tell if I keep up with it.

The Final Rewind

Definitely worth the look. If you can’t find it on shelves, wait for the second printing or go buy it digitally.

The Geek Bits
Title: Saga
Issue #: 1
Price: $2.99 US
Release Date: March 14, 2012
Publisher: Image Comics
Written by: Brian K. Vaughan
Art by: Fiona Staples
Letters & Design By by: Fonografiks
Coordinated by: Eric Stphenson
Worth the price? If you want a super-hero story, do not look here. If you want an intriguing drama with political overtones, plus some fantasy mixed in as well, then this is the book for you.

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