When I first started reading Saga, I was quite skeptical as what it might be but as I progressed I just fell in love with it.
To be honest I have not read any of Brian K. Vaughan’s works before but just after starting this I also picked Y: The Last Man which is again amazing.
Saga is often praised to be a piece where Star Wars-style action collides with Game of Thrones-esque drama. In a nutshell it is a Sci-Fi/Fantasy monthly comic series which is written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Fiona Staples.
Set in a distant galaxy where a war waged between the technologically advanced angel-like people from the planet Landfall and the fairy-like magic wielding people from Landfall’s moon Wreath. When Alana and Marko both from different sides, with Marko being fairy-like and Alana being the angel-like fall in love and give birth to a girl even after being soldiers on different sides things get messy.
Surely this can be a terrible thing during a war, at least for the political scenario in both the races. So both Alana and Marko are being chased and to avoid the news about bi-species child from becoming public knowledge.
There are several independent creator owned comics out there but nobody does it like Saga. It’s the strongly distinct themes, vivid but familiar fantasy world and the symphony of narrative and art is what makes this special.
I think this is a first comic which showcases a relatively strong female lead.
Even the romance is brilliant here which is not something which comics usually focus on. The chemistry between Marko and Alana is amazing. The characters are surprisingly realistic, I don’t mean that a half-naked spider-women could be real but the way they are depicted makes them real. Nothing is cheesy and overpowered and every character has two sides of their personality at least most of them do.
If you talk about art. for starters I would say it is beautiful. I knew that Fiona Staples was a creditable illustrator but I didn’t knew she was this awesome. Everything from expressions to surroundings look quite detailed. Every page just feels authentic.
In a market owned by the likes of Marvel and DC and their superheroes, it is really challenging for anybody to do something different. Saga is about having a family across borders with different races and how they work, then there is this another side to it where they try to survive from the forces breaking them apart on an intergalactic scale and not to forget the lying cat. Just go pick one up and start reading.
