Tag: Saga

Illustrations – Fiona Staples

Spoilers Ahead!

Hazel’s mother, Alana, is from Landfall, a “sci-fi wonderland”, and her father, Marko, is from Wreath, Landfall’s moon, a “magical fantasy realm”, but nothing’s feeling overly magical or wonderful right now because my heart was unceremoniously sliced open (multiple times) by the author and illustrator during the last Volume. Not satisfied with their previous attempts to destroy my emotional integrity, they commenced with the agony as soon as this Volume began.

It’s been two months since we’ve last seen our favourite family and I cannot even imagine the hell they’ve been through in the meantime, or the hell that they’re about to endure. I really can’t. This series is definitely not one to shy away from the really big issues.

So, we’re on a planet called Pervious travelling to the Badlands and although we’re here for more heartache, at least they have pretty multicoloured zebras there to remind us there’s good in the world too. After all, we need this reminder when we discover Dung People are also found here. So, without further ado, meet Button.

Petrichor and Hazel have the discussion about their bodies in this Volume that I’ve been waiting for and it was handled so well. I love that the diversity of this series includes a transgender woman. Petrichor has intrigued me since I met her and she’s finally given a chance to really shine in this Volume. No matter what she does from this point forward I’ll have her back.

A Volume of Saga is not complete unless we get to meet some new people. In this Volume Petrichor and Sir Robot meet up with a family – Kidd, Paw and Maw,

while Alana, Marko and Hazel meet Endwife.

Given the sensitive nature of why we’re on Pervious in the first place I didn’t expect to see Hazel’s younger brother, Kurti, who died in utero at the end of the last Volume. However, due to some amazing and apparently quite dangerous magic called Forecasting, Alana, Marko and Hazel all get to interact with who he could have been. It’s beautiful but it’s also heartbreaking. This scene pretty much broke me.

In a flashback of The Will’s childhood we meet his Uncle Steve, A.K.A. The Letter, and his chameleon sidekick. It’s also pretty clear now why The Will and his sister became Freelancers.

Speaking of The Will, he initially met the person I now love to hate more than anyone else right now during the previous Volume. I now know this woman as Ianthe and while I despise her, I will say this for her; this woman travels in style!

After not seeing any of them in the previous Volume we learn that Upsher and Doff have met up with Ghüs, Squire and Friendo. They’re in the vicinity of a Dread Naught, which could potentially help nourish them and keep Friendo off the menu. If only Dread Naughts weren’t invisible until the day they die. Except, robots can see their insides regardless because … robot, I guess.

I love that D. Oswald Heist’s books and quotes keep popping up in this series. Between those and The Will’s drug induced hallucinations I get to see characters I thought I’d never see again. It reminds me of Chris Carter saying that no one ever really dies on The X-Files and gives me hope that I may be fortunate enough to get a glimpse of some of my favourite departed Saga characters. That means you, Izabel and the original Kurti.

The illustrations are extraordinary in this series. They manage to go from breathtakingly beautiful to carnage and back again seamlessly. One of the main reasons I’m so chained emotionally, for better or worse, to so many of Saga’s characters is because I’ve seen their strengths, vulnerabilities and traumas written all over their faces or whatever they have instead.

I love the small details that allude to previous Volumes; at the end of this Volume Hazel is wearing the bracelet that Jabarah gave to Alana in Volume 7 and I couldn’t decide if I needed to smile, cry or both when I noticed this. Jabarah gave this to Alana during her pregnancy with Hazel’s brother. In Jabarah’s culture it’s worn until the day the child is born. 😢

Despite all of the trauma I’ve witnessed while reading this series I always find moments of hope in the darkest times

and when even hope feels like a dream, at least there’s plenty of cute smooshed in between the pain.

And when I think I’ve seen every creature this galaxy has to offer I turn the page to find this!

I adore this series!!!

Content warnings include continued graphic sexual content and violence, miscarriage, late term abortion and a dead dog made into a rug, discussion about suicide, child abuse and torture.

Once Upon a Blurb

After the traumatic events of the War for Phang, Hazel, her parents, and their surviving companions embark on a life-changing adventure at the westernmost edge of the universe.

Collects Saga 43-48.

Illustrations – Fiona Staples

Spoilers Ahead!

After the cliffhanger at the end of Volume 6 I couldn’t wait to start Volume 7. At this point in the series I don’t think I can say much without accidentally spoiling previous Volumes so if you haven’t read them yet you may want to avert your eyes now.

So, Hazel is five years old now and has finally been reunited with both of her parents. I don’t care what she says; she’s still adorable to me, even when she drools in her sleep.

This kid is even adorable when she’s delivering bad news.

Anyway, joining Hazel on board the treehouse rocketship at the beginning of this Volume are Alana, Marko, Izabel, Prince Robot IV Sir Robot and Petrichor, who we met in Volume 6. Hazel and Petrichor have both lived with keeping the truth of their bodies a secret so I’m interested to see how this plays out in the future.

Due to technical difficulties with the rocketship this motley crew wind up on Phang. Remember Phang? Where Sophie was born and lived (briefly) before she was sold into sex slavery?

Of course the war between Landfall and Wreath has even made it to a comet, useful to both sides because of its resources. Never mind its people, who have suffered immeasurably as a result.

Meanwhile, Sophie (who is her very own brand of adorable in glasses), Lying Cat and Gwendolyn are together on Wreath, Marko’s home moon.

Actually, no, I’m not. P.S. I’ve missed you, Lying Cat! Gwendolyn has a meeting with Gale and his henchmen in an “exotic” location.

Back on Phang, we meet Kurti, another cutie whose name means “sunshine!”, and his extended family. How can there be so much cute in a series that has so much bloodshed?!

Also on Phang is a cute little boar called Bootstraps and The March (who aren’t as cute). Petrichor meets a bluecap, who “are planted in places of conflict to remember tales of battle”

and we learn what a Timesuck is. Big picture spoiler ahead!

The Will and Sweet Boy briefly meet Velour, Gwendolyn’s wife in their search for Gwendolyn, Sophie and Lying Cat.

There is so much going on in this Volume and I have no idea how anyone who hasn’t read the series from the beginning could hope to catch up at this point. On a personal note, we lost my favourite character of the entire series so far in this Volume

but they were certainly not the only ones in the running for my Top 10 favourites who didn’t make it. Falling in love with allegedly fictional characters and then watching on helplessly as the author and illustrator unceremoniously slaughter them is not cool. Not cool at all.

Content warnings include continued graphic sexual content and violence.

Once Upon a Blurb

From the worldwide bestselling team of Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan, “The War for Phang” is an epic, self-contained Saga event! Finally reunited with her ever-expanding family, Hazel travels to a war-torn comet that Wreath and Landfall have been battling over for ages. New friendships are forged and others are lost forever in this action-packed volume about families, combat and the refugee experience. 

Collects Saga 37-42.

Illustrations – Fiona Staples

Spoilers Ahead!

It’s been three months since we last saw our favourite family. Hazel, Alana and Klara have been kidnapped by Dengo, who has his reasons. He also had his reasons for kidnapping Prince Robot IV’s newborn son. Something about seeing a kidnapper wearing a baby sling with little ducky’s on it humanises him for me, even if he is a robot. You could say that Izabel may also have been kidnapped but, since the damn suns haven’t set, she’s not part of the equation right now. I missed her.

Meanwhile, Gwendolyn, Sophie, The Brand, Sweet Boy (The Brand’s dog) and Lying Cat (awesome, awesome Lying Cat) are searching for a very specific ingredient on Demimonde that they hope will cure The Will. But they may not be alone. Enter Halvor, who is the older brother of The Stalk. Incidentally The Stalk actually had a name – Enriette.

Then there are Prince Robot IV (with his TV head), Marko, Yuma and Ghüs, who have joined forces (possibly temporarily) in order to rescue TV head IV and Marko’s kidlets.

Poor Marko!

We meet the Revolution, a group of resistance fighters who use “asymmetrical tactics” to attempt to end the war between Landfall and Wreath.

They are Lexis (with the pink superhero eye mask), Sirge (the big brown guy with the red flames (?) coming out of his head), Quain (a snake guy from Mawker and the Captain of the Fourth Cell), Zizz (the guy at the back. He’s from Cleave. Remember we were there in Volume 1?), and Julep (the aqua lady in the lingerie).

There’s plenty of action in this Volume and because we’re in a war here, not all of our friends or foes are going to make it to the end of the story, or this Volume if we’re being honest.

Even though Hazel told us herself in the last Volume that she’s not always this adorable, she certainly is in this flashback. Aww!

While we’re talking cutie pies, check out how sweet Lying Cat looks when they’re sleeping. For a series with a brutal war at its core I find my heart melts much more frequently than I expected it to.

Then there’s Ghüs, who is potentially the sweetest of them all. Maybe.

Content warnings include drug overdoses and a character calling another one ”retard”, a word I despise; thankfully it’s challenged.

Once Upon a Blurb

Multiple storylines collide in this cosmos-spanning new volume. While Gwendolyn and Lying Cat risk everything to find a cure for The Will, Marko makes an uneasy alliance with Prince Robot IV to find their missing children, who are trapped on a strange world with terrifying new enemies.

Collects Saga 25-30.

Illustrations – Fiona Staples

Spoilers Ahead!

I’ve become emotionally entangled with so many of the characters in this series in such a short period of time, so much so that I’m genuinely proud of Alana and Marko for managing to keep themselves and their daughter alive for so long, despite incredibly treacherous circumstances.

By the way, Hazel is a toddler now!

Isn’t toddler Hazel adorable?!

Oh. So, isn’t Hazel adorable right this second?

After having heard of the ongoing war between Landfall and its moon, Wreath, narrowly escaped Cleave, rescued Sophie from Sextillion and visited Alana’s all time favourite author in Quietus, we now get to enjoy watching Hazel spend some time on a bouncy castle in Gardenia. But Gardenia is not the only place we visit in this Volume.

That dwarf planet in the distance there? That’s Robot Kingdom. We get to go to Robot Kingdom!!! And it’s good timing too, because Prince Robot IV is currently missing, but we can’t assume he’s dead, no matter what the tabloids report.

I know we’ve visited before when we’ve been following Prince Robot IV’s story but I can’t get enough of it. They’re robots with TV heads! I love seeing how the image they’re showing on their screen lines up with the situation they’re facing. My favourite in this Volume was a baby being born with the standby signal projected across their screen. That’s priceless!

We meet King Robot, whose design is simply perfect! I laughed as soon as I saw him. His head is a widescreen TV and his sceptre is a remote control. Let that sink in for a moment. That’s definitely worth a chuckle.

A lot of people who came into my family’s life looking like heroes ended up acting more like villains.

I’m not telling you who this refers to in this Volume but what I will say is that I’m not trusting anyone nice in this series ever again! Except Izabel. Please don’t prove me wrong, Izabel!

Thank goodness for that!

Content warning for mention of domestic violence.

Once Upon a Blurb

Saga is the sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the universe. As they visit a strange new world and encounter even more adversaries, baby Hazel finally becomes a toddler, while her star-crossed parents Marko and Alana struggle to stay on their feet.

Collects Saga 19-24