Multiple farewells, none of them friendly, and the cost of magic are in the spotlight in the penultimate chapter of the return arc of Saga in Saga #59, drawn by Fiona Staples, written by Brian K. Vaughan and lettered/designed by Fonografiks.
Matt Lazorwitz: You know, you can only be around so many disastrous relationships before you have to start wondering if you’re jinxed, right? Even if a character in this issue hadn’t said something to that effect, I can’t imagine Alana wouldn’t be feeling it after so many different break-ups of different sorts in this issue.
Mark Turetsky: It’s the fate of all bands: join together, make some music, fight about credit, split up. Except They Might Be Giants. They’ll be around forever.
Breaking Band
Matt: This issue features two break-ups of sorts, so let’s start with the one you just referenced: the band breaks up over credit. Guitar (Hectare) is pissed at Vocals, Drums (Dranken) and Keyboards go at it, and by the end? The band is broken up. And we’ll get into that, but there is also an important character beat for present-day Hazel here, yes?
Mark: Yes, she sticks up for her brobot, Squire. Not just sticking up, sticking up with “weird intensity,” as Vocals puts it. But is it so weird? Hazel and Squire are pretty much all each other has with Alana away. Yes, they look up to Bombazine, but they have to look out for each other, and you bet your ass she’ll look after her younger, special-needs brother.
Matt: I don’t think it’s weird at all. I think Hazel probably has more of her dad in her than we have previously seen. And she doesn’t have Marko’s need to hold his violence in check, so when she needs to defend Squire (or Alana, as I’m sure will happen at some point)? She will pull no punches.
I wonder how much of the discourse of credit here is metatextual. Saga is one of few comics that credits the artist first on its cover, which is something I try to remember to replicate in the header of these reviews. I feel like Vaughan is very conscious of credit going where credit should, and the argument of music vs. lyrics in songwriting strikes me as analogous to words vs. art in comics. Do you see that, Mark?
Mark: Are you implying that maybe they’re too focused on squabbling with each other over proper credit that they ignore that they’re working for a psychopath who’s happy that they’re at each other’s throats, because if they’re fighting each other, they’re not coming together and demanding better things from him? Don’t get me wrong: Proper credit is essential, but it can be used as a distraction from some bigger issues in the industry.
Matt: This actually has more to do with our next topic, since it’s from a scene between Skipper and Bombazine, but that guy is scary. The way Staples draws him, with his wide, clearly at least stoned, eyes, and then shifting a couple panels later to this much more sly, devious look? Yeah, I stand by the fact I think he might be the scariest character we’ve met in this series.
Goodbyes Are for Assholes
Matt: So here we have our second major parting of the ways: As Alana gets ready to leave, Bombazine stays behind. And not because Bombazine is willing, but because of what dirt Skipper has on him. I wasn’t expecting this to be what Skipper was gonna ask Bombazine to do, but I guess it makes sense. If Bomabzine’s history is as dark as has been hinted at, he would make a good heavy for Skipper, even if he doesn’t do anything. His reputation would be enough to scare victims into submission in some cases.
Mark: I’m wondering if it’s because Skipper knows precisely what Bombazine is capable of. If it’s so terrible, even in the context of the war the galaxy is going through, it might be a useful skill set for a pirate captain.
Matt: That sounds about right, yeah. Now, how did you take Bombazine’s verbal attack on Alana? While there is definitely some John Lithgow from the end of Harry and the Hendersons in there, he hits pretty close to home. I don’t think Alana is an unfit mother (then again, I defend Batman for having a Robin, plus I’m childfree by choice, so your mileage may vary on my opinion there), but Alana’s addiction to the chaos and the moving around, and the needs that kids have for stability? There is truth to that.
Mark: I definitely wrote down Harry and the Hendersons in my note re: this scene. I think a similar scene shows up in the Mystery Science Theater 3,000 classic Pod People, which would actually be my touchstone for that kind of scene.
And yes, I think to a certain extent he’s being truthful with Alana. But where is this stability he’s telling her to find? She and her children are literally being hunted by both sides in a war that’s consuming their galaxy. Any time they find something relatively stable, it blows up on them and ends in death and heartbreak. It sounds like Bombazine is really mad at the war itself, and is redirecting that anger at Alana, if you ask me.
Matt: Oh, good call on that one.
Also on the Alana front, we should probably mention she has a wild new haircut. I’m not sure if there’s anything about it that is significant, character wise, or if it’s just a good sight gag, and could be the Alana equivalent of Mohawk Storm. And now that Alana has the medallion she needs to go legit, do you think she will? If Bombazine’s assessment is correct, I doubt she’ll be able to just live life as a cargo hauler, especially when someone else is hunting her …
Mark: I know she’ll try. Whether she succeeds or not … I also doubt this is the last we’ll see of Bombazine. Maybe it’ll be years from now, maybe it’ll be in the gut-wrenching arc conclusion that’s coming next month, but Bombazine, his past and his deal with the Skipper is too juicy a plot thread to leave unplucked (to mix metaphors).
Something Fishy
Matt: Special Agent Gale is still out there, hunting Alana and family, and it seems he is more than happy to leave a trail of collateral damage in his wake.
Mark: The aquarium store owner, Tjumpseat, is just one of many, many dead bodies in the hunt for Hazel across the galaxy, and I’m betting he’s not the last. We learn something which I think is pretty interesting and I think will become important over the course of this series: Species other than Wreathians can perform magic. Is Tjumpseat able to cast a spell just because he was partially raised by Wreathians? Is it purely a cultural, rather than a biological thing? If so, that would have some pretty huge implications for the war.
And the murder that Agent Gale commits here: It’s like what Tjumpseat says about magic, it always comes with a price. Every time someone is killed in this series, there are ripples that are unpredictable. It could be as huge as the wrath of King Robot, or as small as a beautiful fish catching a stray bullet. The fish is the cover character of this issue. Staples and Vaughan want us to think about the innocents, the “collateral damage.” Whether it’s across the world in Ukraine or the next state over in Texas, death begets more death.
Matt: Oof, yeah, that hits pretty hard this week.
I think our “friend” Gale, now that he has killed Tjumpseat, may be the one who has to pay the cost of the magic. I’m not sure if this is a literal cost, as Jason Aaron wrote about in his run on Doctor Strange and has been played out in various books across the DC Universe, or something more karmic and ephemeral. But with the bodies he’s left behind? This guy has racked up a pretty big karmic debt as it is.
And while I think I said it last issue, I love the design for Gale. The demonic bat wings (and I by reflex capitalized bat there, which tells you what I regularly write about) give him a distinct silhouette, and the coloring as he enters the scene, with the eerie light off the one fish tank? That’s some gorgeous art.
Mark: And once again Gale seems to be genuinely gutted by the death of the fish. The way he can compartmentalize the deaths that come in the course of his job separate from the stray deaths he causes is really chilling, and the way Staples can convey that in just a single panel at the end of a sequence, it’s just masterful.
And what Gale has learned in Tjumpseat’s ritual: Marko’s closest family member is on Landfall. I’m guessing Gale’s next stop will be the detention center where we last saw Klara, Marko’s mother.
Matt: I was under the same impression, yes. But we’ll have to see next issue.
Saga, Etc.
- The Blue spell translates as “remains [the noun] unchanged.”
- Insult of the issue: “cumrag.” Say what you will, Vaughan writes some … evocative digs.
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.
