SAGA #60 - Review

 

So if you’re a normie or non comic booky person and you came up to me and asked ‘Okay, what’s the best comic book out there, what should I read?’ I’d ask if you liked superhero stuff and you’d go ‘No, nobody in tights and nothing that’s been made into a billion dollar franchise’ I’d go, okay, and give you these options:

 

1.     Saga

2.     Sex Criminals

3.     Anything by Brubaker & Phillips

 

Actually, maybe I’d say Fatale by Brubaker and Philips or any of the Criminal series to be more specific. But Saga? Saga will appeal to almost anyone. When I had an actual girlfriend who eventually turned into my fiancé who eventually turned into an ex and material for a one-man show she would read Saga with me. She loved Saga.

 

Everyone loves Saga and rightly so. It’s drawn perfectly. It’s written perfectly. The story hinges on a base ‘star crossed lovers’ ‘forbidden love on the run’ storyline during a war that stretches throughout the entire universe of this imaginary realm. And my goodness, it’s so diverse a woke canceller with a knee jerk grimace and nasty comment ready for anyone might have their head explode upon reading it. Of course the brilliance of this comic is that it was what it was waaaay before we entered this period of diversity and gender benders which to me is what makes it so authentic; it wasn’t a reaction to our culture it was creating for our culture.

 

Now that I think about it they MUST make this into a TV show and stream the casting process to the entire world. Every woke pronoun human would probably sit naked in front of the casting show and masturbate for weeks ‘Yes they get it! Yes! More! More under represented! More of them and theys and whatever the hell that is! Saguuuuh guhhhhhhhhhhh [collapse].

 

I think what takes a comic from great into being a cultural phenomenon is when you can say that the letters column is as must a read as the actual comic itself. It happened with Sex Criminals with their legendary letters column and it happened here. Vaughan gets it and knows how to navigate the wide swath of the population who has inhaled his book by giving everyone a voice and staying humble. The one major flaw in this series? The hiatuses.

 

There’s been a bunch of mini hiatuses with this book but Saga went on a looong hiatus several years ago. Several years of no unbelievable Fiona Staples covers and cosplay geniuses in the letters column. It finally came back this year and thrust us into the world of Lana and family on the lam again, this time with an odd looking oblong animal daddy type teddy bear protector with a slim metallic arm. There’s been six issues of alien drug smugglers and a goofy pubescent alien rock band mixed with an S&M flying guy blackmailed into tracking down and slaying our ragtag family.

 

By the time this issue comes to a close another invaluable piece of this family and this epic journey is taken away. Vaughan somehow has the cajones and utter devotion to the story to make these choices even if they break our hearts. Perhaps that’s why Saga works on so many levels. In life, we continually lose pieces of ourselves and gain new ones. Fiona just vacuums you into such a meticulously crafted world that Brian infuses with such authentic emotion it’s hard not love every page and plot twist.

 

Well, now Saga is on ANOTHER hiatus until next year. WTF? Maybe this is a tactic from comic book series that have more than 40 issues. Monstress just did it and now Saga is on the run. Perhaps the publisher is about to cancel them because it’s dragging on too long and they say ‘Hey, we’re going on a hiatus!’ and then they disappear and come back months later at which point the publisher forgets they were going to cancel them. Maybe that’s what it takes. Hey, if you’re about to be fired just say you’re taking a vacay and come back in a few weeks to a big morning meeting like nothing’s happened. George did that in a Seinfeld episode. He told off the boss, called him names, quit, couldn’t find another job and then showed up for a morning meeting like nothing happened ‘What, that? Oh you took me seriously? I do that every now and then, it’s nothing!’

 

Looks like they’re doing six months on and six months off which means if they intend to put out 108 issues of this story then it’ll wrap up around 2030. I will pull any Saga comic at any day on any planet so they can hiatus their way to 2080, if I’m still around it’s getting pulled. For what it's worth I've taken an unintentional hiatus from my dating life for the past 3 years. Maybe I need Fiona to draw me an outfit and Brian to act as my 'Wing' man, get it? Saga, Wings and...uggh, I'm doomed.

 

Rating: It’s Saga. It’s always great.

Verdict: Buy it now. Buy it in six months. Buy it whenever you can.