(This review goes into detail on several plot points in order to explain just how stupid the story is in places so spoiler alert. This means if you dont want to know what the book is about, stop reading now.) This was actually my second attempt at reading this book - I was sent a proof copy by the publisher last summer and I barely made to the end of the first issue before giving up. The reasons why werent complex - I was just bored with it and didnt want to read to the end. But in the months that followed, this book began clocking up quite a following and I saw all these rave reviews online. So I had to give it another shot - perhaps I had been too hasty in judging this book? Well, yes and no. This isnt as unreadable as I remembered - though I did push myself to finish so I could review it properly - but its also not nearly as amazing as I was assured it was. So what is Saga? Saga is the story of two star-crossed lovers: Marko, a young man with rams horns on his head, and Alana, a young woman with bat-like wings. Despite these odd characteristics they are essentially human, though they come from two warring races (Two households, both alike in dignity... in fair space where we lay out scene...), and they create a child together bringing down the ire of both sides wishing to destroy the fruit of their loins. They go on the run to save their fledgling family and Saga follows their escape from the battlefields and into space - but they are pursued by a host of dangerous enemies. Tonally the book feels like a mash-up of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. Theres magic, wizards, spirits, living forests and enchanted weapons but theres also spaceship battles, light swords (not sabres), ray guns, aliens galore, bounty hunters, and intergalactic travel. All of which makes it sound like the end result is a mess however the book is able to merge the two different genres quite well, though the effect is sometimes stilted. Like when Marko is mortally wounded by an alien bounty hunter, he murmurs something about snow in response to what would help him heal so his wife Alana carries him up a mountain and lays him in the falling snow. Marko, who is able to conduct magic, simply lays there as the snow piles on top of him and suddenly awakens, healed. No spells spoken, just snow falling on him. And then he comes out of near death, fine and healthy. Wha...? So why didnt I fall for this book like so many others have? First off, Im a fan of Brian K. Vaughans work since reading Y: The Last Man, through Pride of Baghdad to Ex Machina. I dont love everything he does - I could never get into Runaways and his Batman book False Faces is unreadable - but hes generally one of the good ones. If youre getting into comics or are a fan of non-superhero comics, Vaughan is one of those writers that is on the tips of everyones tongues to recommend for good reason. But like every writer he has his weaknesses and for me that weakness has always been the lack of variety in characters across his books and the limited range of voices hes able to write. For example Marko is basically Yorick with horns and Alana is Hero with wings - they sound remarkably similar. And the way the characters sound is like teenagers (despite not being teenagers!). All of them. Even the ones with TVs for heads. But more on that later...
In Marko, Vaughan has created a really unlikeable hero to start the series with. He was the main reason I stopped reading Saga the first time around. Hes so unbearably liberal and bland with everything he says and thinks. This isnt to say Im right wing - Im not - but theres something about this guys PC nonsense that bothered me. Heres a selection: as Alana begins pushing out the baby: You have never been as beautiful as you are right now; when Alana is giving birth: Do you need a healing spell? We agreed, Alana! No shame in managing pain!; he bites the umbilical cord with his teeth; on wing-bleeding (a facsimile of circumcision): No way! You said when we started this - no politics, no history, and no more barbaric religious nonsense!; on Alana having a gun: Do you have any idea what the statistics are for parents who keep one of those?; We have a family to think about now. Those dreary comments oft ascribed to liberals are what constitutes Markos character - theyre also all taken from the first issue. I just found him such a tiresome character to read, and considering he is one of two main characters, thats not a good start for this series. Alana on the other hand is your basic strong female character. Shes Hero Brown, shes Buffy Summers, shes Commissioner Angotti, shes Nico Minoru - not in appearance but in attitude and all characters have been written by Vaughan. Tough but feminine, smart and sassy, this is a character people whove read Vaughan before will easily recognise, and is totally unoriginal. Speaking of familiarity, nearly everything in this book - though superficially alien and imaginative - exists on Earth already. We have some heavy-handed poltical anti-war posturing, a Royal hierarchy similar to many European lineages, an arrogant Secret Intelligence Agent using an iPhone-like device with apps, tanks, planes, guns, cereal, the concept of vegetarianism, armies, trains, bounty hunters, the concept of ethnic purity, romance novels, mobile phones, a Guantanamo-Bay-like place, apps, brothels, child slavery, marriage, wedding rings, union reps, high school, toilets that look exactly like ours, globes, the concept of pacifism, long term parking, and credit cards.
Then we have maybe the worst characters Ive ever seen in a comic - the Robot Empire. These are humans with TVs for heads. Seriously. Was Vaughan just writing down the first thing he thought of? The visual is so stupid it completely took me out of the story and continued to each time Baron Robot or Prince Robot (theyre all called Robot too - imagination!) showed up. If there was one thing I think wouldve made this book much, much better it wouldve been getting rid of the TV heads and making them something else. These guys are the Jar Jar Binks of comics. All of these things are just so unimaginative and was part of the reason I was so unimpressed and, yes, bored reading this - theres so little here thats original and that we havent seen before. These arent new worlds were seeing - its our world! But with TV headed humans and some slightly warped-looking humans. Factor in the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars analogies and youve got a story we all know. Only this one is especially dull. So lets talk about the story. Alana was in the army, a Private First Class, who abandoned her post and aided the enemy - Marko - to escape from the prison he was housed and she worked in. So the charges of treason and desertion are the reason she is being hunted, and Marko is being hunted because hes an escaped prisoner of war. Fair enough. But then we find out the two of them are in the same location just 12 hours before they choose to escape together. 12 hours! 12 hours, and presumably not all of it was spent in each others company, and were meant to believe they would choose to trust each other enough to elope together and go on the run? They didnt know each other 12 hours ago! It makes no sense. I guess... love at first sight? Or something? Except I dont see it in their interactions. They have nothing in common, except the baby, and seem to only be together because they both look like models (doing a Midsummer Nights Dream-themed fashion show) and would be physically attracted to one another. Maybe less love at first sight and more... plot device? Theyre just in love, ok! Buy it, dont think about it, move on! Oh... crap writing! The lazy plotting continues as the three - Alana has just given birth to Hazel - are cornered by Alanas people (with ray guns) led by Baron Robot and, just as theyre about to be hauled off, Markos people (the Magic: The Gathering bunch) materialise and fight the other side. Well thats convenient! Now before they begin blasting ray guns/firing wands at one another, Marko, Alana and Hazel are directly between these two trigger happy sides. They have no armour, no nothing - they are completed exposed. Yet, when the two sides do begin firing in earnest, handily decimating each other so they can escape, the three are unscathed (well, not entirely - one of Alanas wings gets perforated). Really? They wouldnt have been killed by the random blasts? Well ok then. Deus ex machina I suppose... So anyway this bit of extraordinary good luck turns out to be bad as Baron Robot was a big deal to his Robot brethren and now the Robot Empire (its like this story was conceived by a 5 year old!) want to make an example of Marko and Alana whom they blame for Baron Robots death. So now Prince Robot is after them, along with bounty hunters whore hunting the pair down because apparently to protect troop morale, my superiors want both Marko and his whore eliminated by a discreet subcontractor before word of their coupling spreads to the rank and file. Seriously, that flimsy excuse is the reason to spend enormous amounts of money hiring exclusive, expensive bounty hunters to hunt down 2 people whom the rank and file are unlikely to ever see again as the pair are trying to leave the planet anyway! Ive already mentioned the other deus ex machina plot point where Marko just magically gets better when snow touches him - its probably magic snow, right? - but its things like this that really show the amateurish nature of Vaughans writing and spoils the story because the solutions to any obstacles the heroes encounter are too easily overcome. But I said at the top of this article that I did like some aspects of the book so lets talk about those. The character of The Stalk is visually amazing. She is a freelance bounty hunter - each hunters first name is The, for some reason - who goes topless and whose long hair conveniently covers her nipples. Shes also half arachnid with 8 eyes, her lower-spider half covered with a swirling black skirt. She looks like a Manga creation crossed with a nightmare which is a great look for a bounty hunter. But I loved her character design even if she does rather tiresomely wind up sounding like another of Vaughans strong female character-types. And speaking of visuals, Fiona Staples art is quite rightly praised. I thought she did a fantastic job with each of the characters and she nails facial expressions and body language perfectly. Alana is by far her best creation and her art actually does more than Vaughans script in creating a believable character. Her one and biggest flaw though is background detail. While her figures in the panels are well drawn, the backgrounds are an afterthought. Theyre either blank or simply coloured in one shade, or are digitally rendered so they look like a blurry afterthought hastily coloured in digitally. Its really noticeable in the first issue on the double page splash of the big battle Marko and Alana witness which is supposed to be impressive but looks messy and vague and underwhelming. Its one of the least compelling splash pages Ive ever seen and really looks like very little work went into it, the effect is so sloppy. And her spaceship designs aren't very good either. Also, so long as you forget the poorly constructed setup and get into the story proper with Marko and Alana on the run, having adventures, being chased by baddies left and right, its somewhat enjoyable. Yeah there are moments like the wound/snow scene which mar the experience and those stupid TV heads took me out of the story each time they showed up, but I can see why people whove thought less about this book than I have enjoy it so much. Its all over the place but the constant motion of the story and the numerous changing environments and twists make for a somewhat exciting read. But for me, I just cant get past Vaughans bad plotting, annoying characters, trite dialogue, and contrived (or lack of) world-building thats consistent throughout this first book. I just dont care about these characters and find their story rather plain and uninteresting. I dont buy the premise or find anything original in the story - the book feels bloated with half-thought out ideas which dont work. I mean, all this over these two unremarkable people with a baby? It just doesnt add up. Theres a massive star war going on guys, how about focusing resources on that instead of these two whore just going to disappear into a galaxy far, far away? Youll never see them and you could just lie to your rank and file that they died horribly after being caught and tortured for months. I like what Image are putting out these days - The Manhattan Projects and Mara are two fantastic comics that I buy immediately as theyre available and Chew is my favourite comic full stop - but I cant get behind Saga. Its an overrated, poorly thought out comic thats not that well written. I like Vaughan but I dont think this is his best work - Staples though is an interesting artist whose work Ill check out more of in the future (in a different series). But hey, maybe Im overthinking it - a ton of people love this comic, and they cant all be wrong can they? Yeah, they can - and are.
Saga, Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples is out now in paperback