Sunday, May 25, 2014

Saga #19

   As the first page in this issue clearly indicates, Saga is not a comic for children.

   But it is a wonderful, intelligent science fiction story that manages to be fresh and inventive issue after issue.

   I think the creative team has perhaps become too fascinated with creating shocking images (a few issues back it was full frontal nudity by a giant male - this issue it's... well, that splash page).

   That's their prerogative, of course - it's their comic - but it's so good it doesn't really need to lean on such things.

   The real secret of its success is the heart at the center of the story - more specifically, the love the mismatched couple - Marko and Alana - have for each other and their child, Hazel.

   The series is actually Hazel's story - she narrates it - and by this point she's a toddler, though her parents are still on the run - and it's a story filled with love, sacrifice and occasional heartbreak,

   From year to year, there's usually one comic that stands out as the one that would interest any reader - it's the comic you recommend to your friends who don't read comics. In the past, that has included Sandman and Swamp Thing, for example - and now you can add Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples' Saga to the list.

Grade: A

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