Saga #3

If you haven’t already been tuned in and turned on by BKV’s new creator owned title, then you I suppose this review is for you. This book craves attention, and earns it all the same.

Its all about the characters. Build your world as it is seen and experienced in real time by its characters. Beat for beat, Vaughan paces this in a way that its impossible to resist the following page. Like the most addicting of television shows it keeps you on a string with hints and implications of a larger story while your heart is transfixed on its protagonists.

When last we left them, Alana and Marko with their newborn Hazel (who we already know is the narrator of the tale) were trudging through dangerous territory on planet Cleave towards a place called Rocketship Forest. Her husband is in critical condition courtesy of an attack from hideous bounty hunter called “The Stalk” (who reveals a wonderfully off-putting quirkiness in her frantic phone call to an old associate) and he is losing blood fast. Shit.

Turns out the rumors of this patch of woods being haunted are true. They encounter an assortment of phantasms called “the Horrors” which luckily aren’t as terrible as they would have the locals believe. They are in fact war victims, ghosts projected as they appeared during their unfortunate ends, mortal wounds and all. None more grotesque then that of Izabel, a strong willed and spunky ala Runaways teen girl who is compelled to help the couple reach their destination, though we find she has some selfish intentions.

We get a scene of interrogation perpetrated by television faced Prince Robot the IV and some mysterious prisoner that gives us more an idea of just how maligned the Prince’s race is in the galaxy. I may be off but there was something very Terantino about the whole thing. Very cool.

The amazing thing is that even though we only seem to cover the span of an hour or so in this issue, and nothing happens outside of an odd bargain and a few conversations, everything feels like its being told like it should be, with Fiona Staples tastefully minimal, elegant art vibrantly giving us eyes into Vaughans new world. A world that seems to be a familiar hodgepodge of contemporary earthbound characters existing in the skins and environs of a fantastic and bizarre reality. This requires a balancing act of narrative that is hard to achieve without seeming forced or out of place. In Saga, these elements are presented convincingly as matter of fact, and when the writer has a solid grasp on his own bold concepts, great storytelling results.

I will admit that there is an audience out there that would reject this particular recipe, but you should at least give it a shot. I highly recommend this book and I want to see it run for as long as it needs to.