2023 EDIT: Rereading and skimming it:
It's good, but it's not great. Not that great, anyway. Not to me.
The comic is hugely, freshly creative, but I can't even call it feminist (breastfeeding POC heroine on the cover aside). It's full of action, violence and swearing. Too much swearing, in my opinion. And shock value.
Despite everything, despite loving how "new" 'Saga' was in 2015, I have had no interest whatsoever in continuing the series since then. Other interests in things closer to my tastes have caught my attention. I haven't even thought about 'Saga' in years. So the first volume goes off my comics shelf at home, I'm afraid.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Original Review:
"A writer and artist at the top of their games, creating the emotional epic that Hollywood wishes it could make." - The A.V. Club
I couldn't have put it better myself. Especially considering that now more than ever Hollywood needs to start making movies with the fresh originality and diversity of a true emotional rollercoaster; one which actually touches audiences in meaningful ways.
'Saga, Volume 1' does just that, with all the creative WTF-ness surrounding a solidly-structured story epic you can muster in 160 pages. To merely call it a comic book or a graphic novel would not do it enough justice - like calling it 'Star Wars' meets 'Romeo and Juliet' (urgh) would be understating how great it is. Although like 'Star Wars' it is a pleasant mix of both science fiction and fantasy elements. It also makes me think of what a graphic novel version of Laini Taylor's 'Daughter of Smoke of Bone' series would look like. It is a bit of everything you can imagine.
'Saga' is the right title for this comic - one word, but to the point. Speaking of diversity, the cover features a woman of colour breastfeeding. You can do anything these days if you only have faith and the determination to see it through.
Moving on, I won't waste time explaining too much of the plot and set-up, since many other reviewers have done so (or tried to, given how huge and diverse in culture the galaxy-and-worlds-building is). But I will emphasise how utterly crazy the universe Brian K. Vaughan created is, with its planets consisting of possible-drug-induced-fantasy imagery, and scenes leaving you thinking, "What the HELL was that?!"
As you can imagine, everything packed in 'Saga, Volume 1' is glorious.
An abridged version of the story is this: Marco and Alana are people of two different species that are at war with each other. Alana is from the large planet Landfall, inhabited by winged people who are technologically-advanced, and Marco is from Landfall’s moon, Wreath, inhabited by horned people who use more magical means of fighting. The two of them had escaped guard duty and prison to elope. The comic starts with Alana giving birth to their baby daughter. And from there it is a race against time to escape their own people who will do anything to see them dead.
'Saga' is about a family trying to find a new, peaceful home. It may set out to be one of the sweetest, bravest, most bizarre but wholly believable love stories ever told. Drama and conflict behold!
In this galaxy far, far way, there is, ahem:
1. A race of grey people with televisions for heads. The scene in which the reader is first introduced to this race has two of them in a position of sexual penetration - one of the strangest things I have ever seen in my life, period. I'm really starting to love comic books.
2. An old woman with a unicorn horn on her head named Vez, and a "Lying cat" who says "Lying" when someone with her is, well, lying.
3. A naked female bounty hunter called the Stalk, who is like a white scorpion/spider hybrid with eight pink eyes. She is GORGEOUS!
4. Pink mutilated ghost kids who haunt a forest, where the plants kill wanderers ("This is what I get for marrying a vegetarian", says Alana, "Even the goddamn plants want us dead!"). This is also where Izabel, a ghost girl with attitude and a missing torso, steps in. She will accompany our heroes to find a rocket ship that is also a tree with a mind of its own.
5. A sex planet called Sextillion with women who are large heads on legs – literally - and where anyone and anything will have sex with anyone and anything ('Saga, Volume 1' is the most explicitly adult graphic novel I've ever read, and I'd seriously only recommend it for adults).
6. An old romance novel of Alana's that becomes a plot point. I'm not kidding. This comic is amazing.
And that's not even half of the bizarre and even horrifying things 'Saga, Volume 1' has to offer. What makes it even better is that, in the comic's universe, everything is treated as completely normal; ironically making the story ever more believable and compelling. Here is a galaxy that is stars-away different and yet similar to how we live in our little world.
The first volume features a lot of strong language, graphic sex, nudity, and violence. As well as racism, war and the monstrous prices for living through it, there are also issues of breaking pledges of nonviolence, and child sex slavery.
All the characters are great, even the "villains". I use the word “villains” in quotation marks, because the grand government of Landfall, the Wreath mages, and the hired freelance bounty hunters - who are all hunting Marco and Alana down - are nonetheless sympathetic. We see each of their inner struggles, and their family members. My favourites are the Prince Robot of the TV-headed people, and the beautiful Stalk.
Marco and Alana are a wonderful couple to read about. Their dialogue exchanges, their banter and how they bounce off each other, are a joy. Alana is feisty (I hate using that word to describe a female character, but it fits her well here) but down-to-earth. I loved her sense of humour and witty remarks, and how the artwork brilliantly conveys her facial expressions in emotional moments, such as fear, anger, and annoyance. Her weapon is a peashooter only set to incapacitate. Marco is a pacifist magic-user possessing a sword he's vowed never to use unless in dire situations. He is a father now and wants to solve all confrontations with as much reason and heart as possible. He also has his fair share of secrets, and a dark, violent side.
At this point the reader doesn't yet know how these two had come to love one another - enough to risk everything to elope and have a child in the middle of a war. But it's telling of a fantastic writer that the couple still seem right for each other, and are interesting individually.
Marco and Alana are equals in every sense, even in parenting, except for their alien differences. They get along to the best of their abilities. They'd have to in hiding, and through travelling in dangerous areas. They just wish to keep their baby safe at all costs. If not, then they all will have to die, with no hope of escaping the galaxy towards a safer planet, or perhaps changing anything in the war (the comic does make a point that the baby won't be a chosen one or anything clichéd like that; the couple are fighting to stay alive, like any normal people would, and that's it). This married-man-and-woman team would make great parents, that is, if the universe will give them a chance - a chance for them to settle down and get their shit together.
As for the baby herself? I won't say what her name is as I think that would be slightly spoilery. But to add another layer of strange (and I know that's saying something), and of subversive original storytelling, she is the narrator of 'Saga'. ‘Saga, Volume 1’ is told in the past tense from when the newborn is presumably an adult, with timeless insights reminiscent of Melina Marchetta, and the similar wit and sass of her mother. This choice of narration might be perceived as immediately spoiling the whole story, since we know the baby will in fact survive at least long enough to be able to narrate and sneak in a little foreshadowing and references of the future. But we still don't know about the fates of the other characters in the baby's story, not even her parents; leaving the reader wanting to know more than ever what happens to their already-favourite characters. She is vague in those kinds of details, and doesn't explain the volume as it's happening nor does she give away anything important about the plot. It is predominantly show-don’t-tell, and reveals clues bit by bit to the reader.
Smart and subdued, I appreciated the narrative style of 'Saga, Volume 1'.
Here, at the start of her life and adventure, the baby is perfectly normal (well, as normal as a baby with tiny horns and wings can be): adorable and very much innocent. For now...
I've said my piece. Surely this must be enough to make anyone who hasn't read 'Saga' yet be at best curious. The first volume was in my local bookshop for only £7.50, and I don't regret a penny spent on it. 'Saga, Volume 1' is in every way a mature but colourful, exciting and emotional fantasy epic that is strictly for adults, and treats its readers as such. It might have everything a starved and unsatisfied adult looks for in a story. Both hard and soft in content, I ended up enjoying it immensely.
Oh, and my favourite line is: "Now be a dear and fuck the fuck off!" - Brought to you by the Prince Robot.
If the graphic novel doesn't get adapted into anything - be it a movie, television series or even a radio show - then popular culture is sorely missing something. This is the sort of creativity and original and relevant storytelling we need.
Highly recommended even to non-comic readers. ‘Saga, Volume 1’ is too cool to miss.
Final Score: 5/5
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