It’s about damn time.
After a 4-month hiatus, Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples’ science-fantasy epic has returned, and it’s great to see it back. Marking the start of another six-month run, Issue 13 of Saga picks up about a month before the timeframe of Saga Issue 12, and after Saga 12 focussed entirely on Prince Robot IV, deals with what Marco and Alana have been up to, as well as showing what The Will and Gwendolyn have been up to since their run-in with the black hole foetus monster in Issue 11. If you haven’t been reading the Saga series (seriously, what the bloody hell is wrong with you?), then I assure you that you did not read that last sentence incorrectly; there is indeed a black hole foetus monster. And it hatched from a planet. And it’s fucking awesome.
Issue 13 has a strong feeling of consolidating affairs and refamiliarising readers with events after the long hiatus and the aforementioned gap in the timeline. There are a couple of new plots hooks set up, including one which seems to suggest that The Will (easily the best anti-hero and sympathetic antagonists I’ve read in any comic) is beginning to go just a little crazy. Fiona Staples’ vast talent for drawing incredibly imaginative vistas and character designs is shown once more in this episode to great effect, while Brian K. Vaughn’s scripting and characterisation are once again damn-near perfect, though I’ll admit that saying Saga has really good artwork and excellent writing is about as redundant a statement as saying that things fall down when you drop them.
The issue, however, does feel rather ‘fillery’. The stuff that goes on in it is important (aside from one fun, but ultimately redundant, fight scene), and like I mentioned there are some subplots that appear here which look like they have the potential to be very interesting, but it’s all playing catch-up to fill in the time gap between Issue 12’s plot and whatever will happen in Issue 14. Is it a bad issue? No, not by a long shot, but as far as I feel it’s the weakest in the entire run, and this is compounded by the fact that Issue 12 ended on a massive cliffhanger and Issue 13 does nothing to resolve that, which left me reaching the final page and feeling just a little dissatisfied.
That said, it’s still Saga. It’s still bloody good, and if you haven’t read any of it yet the first 12 issues have been published in two separate volumes which you owe yourself to pick up. It is without a doubt one of the best comics I’ve ever read, perhaps the best, and it’s great to see it back once more. I just wish that issue 13 had done a little more.
Verbal Fisticuffs 