Alana forges an uneasy alliance, The Will makes a delivery and Hazel learns guitar in Saga #57, drawn by Fiona Staples, written by Brian K. Vaughan and lettered/designed by Fonografiks.
Matt Lazorwitz: Three issues into the return of Saga, and I remain riveted. I shouldn’t be surprised, granted, since I was riveted through the entire first 54, but that consistency is nice.
Mark Turetsky: It’s almost as if this is one of the best-regarded series of the past 10 years and in some ways serves as a blueprint for modern longform comic storytelling.
A Woman Who Soars
Matt: We open this issue on the first real glimpse we’ve gotten on the intervening years between the end of the last arc and the beginning of this one. I figured we were going to see bits like this, and I’m glad we’re getting one out of the way early. It’s also nice how organic it feels to what is going on; lesser storytellers would have held back and then done an issue or two (or God help us an arc) that filled in all these gaps, but not here. I assume this will be parsed out over time, and never in any way that detracts from the overall narrative momentum.
Mark: You’ve elided the best part, Matt! Ghüs! Ghüs and his tender side meats! There’s also a tantalizing caption saying that Hazel will have “many” visits to Endwife over the years. I gotta say, she’s a useful contact to have. A doctor who can be trusted not to rat them out to anyone else.
Matt: Yes, the joy of Ghüs warms all of our hearts! I love Endwife’s design, partly because I’m a sucker for wolf-folk in fiction, and partly because of her casual nudity. And get your mind out of gutters, pervs. It’s not a kink thing. It just reminds me just how diverse this universe is, and how there are cultures that we see rarely who have such different social mores than we’re used to seeing, and that something we take as so everyday, like clothes, are not something that every culture/species would find necessary, especially if they are covered in fur and on a temperate planet. Also, wolf cubs are adorable.
Mark: It’s also good to see Alana at this point in the story. We’ve skipped years of grieving for Marko, so it’s perversely comforting to see just how devastated she had become in the wake of his death. That silent panel when Endwife asks Alana about Marko is just devastating. Any word balloon or caption would ruin it. And Endwife’s final words in the scene, calling Alana “a woman who soars. Even when grounded.” Just a great bit of writing.
Matt: And we’re into big theme territory here. Alana’s damaged wings are obviously representative of her mental state after Marko’s death, and Endwife’s comment there, beautifully written, reminds us and her that she will always be her, even with that grief. And we segue right into seeing her back, perfectly bare of scars in the present. But just because you don’t see the scars, it doesn’t mean the trauma’s not there, and I’m curious to see how the past rears its head. We see Alana talk about Marko in this issue later on, and the depth of feeling is still definitely there.
The One Time Subtext as Text Works
Mark: When we cut back to the ship, we get our scumbag Skipper walking back his threats from the end of last issue, as we knew there was no way this comic would follow through on them. But his not-pology ends with “I say all sorts of outrageous crap, but only so I’ll never have to do any of it for real!” It’s … not a great thing to say, as it implies he would go through with it if push comes to shove. And the language of “I’m just sorry I had to threaten you like that.” It’s some real abuser language. The implication that she’s the one who forced him to threaten her kids.
Matt: Yeah, this is the worst kind of edgelord comedian comment. “Hey, I just say these things to get a reaction.” This is a guy I pulled a complete 180 on last issue; starting out thinking he seemed OK to not at all trusting, and everything he does this issue reinforced that, up to how I read his little comment to the band, putting “rehearsals” in air quotes and calling them prodigies. Did you read that with a tinge of, if not sarcasm, condescension, because I absolutely did. And while it’s not anywhere near as obscene or vile as what he said to Alana, there’s something about that needless low-level cruelty that makes me like him even less.
Mark: And make no mistake: He’s taken Alana’s kids hostage. They may be called guests, they may be well treated, but they’re hostages. And of course Alana sees through his nice-guy veneer. We get another great scene where the subtext to Alana and Bombazine’s dialogue is explained in captions. So, “This guy’s one of us” translates to, “Careful, this is another asshole monster who will most likely hurt us.”
Matt: I loved that! Again, it could be something that overused would be painful, but we see just a little bit of it really shows how deeply these characters relate to each other. We see a bit of it with Squire, too. But none with Hazel. And I wonder if that is because we don’t need to see the bond between Hazel and Alana played out, since it’s not a new relationship, or because Hazel is, well, Hazel, and as we see in this scene, she is a tween who would rather spend time with her cool friends than her mom, and so her mind is a million miles away from subtext.
Mark: See, here’s the thing: When Hazel gets separated from her parents, it can be for a long, long time. It can even be permanent, as in the case of Marko and Hazel’s grandparents. Hazel knows this better than anyone, so I think what we’re seeing is a kid with some very deep trauma who has chosen to emotionally distance herself from the people she loves. Endwife mentions at the beginning of the issue that both Hazel and Squire need therapy. We see Squire getting some, as his trauma is much more evident in his muteness. But what about Hazel? Is she in a healthy place, mentally?
Matt: Oh, hell no! It seems she will get there, judging by the narration from Future Hazel, but right now, she is a ticking time bomb of trauma. And speaking of ticking time bombs, we get the first real hint that Bombazine might not be the affable chap he has come across as throughout these first few issues, which I’m not surprised by.
Mark: Yeah, there’s absolutely no way he isn’t the monstrous person Guitar described, right? Or at least, that’s what Vaughan and Staples want us to think. It seems a bit too obvious to me, but perhaps I’m overthinking things.
Matt: Nope, sometimes you just have to go with the obvious, and in this case? Bombazine used to be one bad dude. Which might be why Alana took him in and/or trusts him; there are parallels between him and Marko, who tried his best to shed violence as well but was a fierce defender of those he loved when he needed to be. Maybe Alana sees something of him in Bombazine?
Where There’s The Will…
Matt: Maybe it’s because I didn’t do a reread of the first half of the book before it came back, or maybe it was because of how far he fell by the end of that first half, but I think I forgot just how cunning and competent The Will was when we first met him, and it looks like he still has some of that going for him.
Mark: Especially with someone like Gwendolyn on his side. When this scene started, I wondered if, with so much attention paid to Lying Cat and Countess boasting about being able to tell when someone was lying, we were going to get a scene of The Will telling half-truths and misdirection about what happened to Prince Robot. But no. These were straight up lies.
Matt: And I guarantee he knew the response he’d get from the royals about Lying Cat, and brought him that far along just to add to his credence. “Why would he bring a Lying Cat if he was going to lie?” It’s a masterstroke of deception, and was just so damn clever. Good for you, The Will. And he delivers Gwendolyn’s message, which is the big question mark. There’s something King Robot knows that not even Countess does, and that Wreath High Command (or at least Gwendolyn) is clearly planning to leverage to their advantage. Wheels within wheels are spinning here.
Mark: How is The Countess like a sitcom husband?
Matt: OK, I’ll bite. How?
Mark: Because everyone’s talking about an anniversary, and she has no idea why! And I agree 100% that The Will knew they’d send Lying Cat away. He also knows that King Robot will believe whatever The Will tells him, so long as it’s something he wants to believe. And what the most powerful person believes becomes the tacit truth. It’s like Future Hazel tells us: “Kingdoms aren’t places, they’re ideas.” And the thing about having “a peaceful anniversary” seems like the first glimmer of a peaceful conclusion to the war. Of course, Gwendolyn didn’t say she was going to end the war two issues ago. She said she was going to win it.
Matt: I mean, we can absolutely trust Gwendolyn to try to win the war in a way that is beneficial to everyone involved and that won’t cause terrible grief and trauma to Landfall and all its allies, right?
Right?
Mark, why are you looking at me like that?
Saga, Etc.
- You know what I love about this book, and a few others from Image? The letters page. I love a good letters page.
- Bombazine is Patrick Warburton as a koala, right?
Mark Turetsky
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of five. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the creator interview podcast WMQ&A with Dan Grote.
