Saga #21 – Review

By: Brian K. Vaughan (story), Fiona Staples (art)

The Story: Usually, the revelation of your newborn son involves less homicide.

The Review: As I said last issue, the core of Saga is maintaining a typical domestic drama within a highly fantasized universe. For the most part, Vaughan succeeds in this endeavor; some of the series’ best, most poignant moments have been sympathizing with Alanna and Marko in managing their in-laws, debating the upbringing of their child, worrying over the staling of their lifestyle. Many’s the time when you overlook the galactic war around them altogether.

But always, in the background of things, the war quietly exerts pressure on the story when it’s not drawing them in outright. Almost every single character in Saga wants to live an ordinary life, and it’s always the war that gets in their way. If not for the Landfall-Wreath conflict, Alanna, Marko, and Klara could live openly and take any opportunity that comes their way, instead of settling for less. Prince Robot could have his idyllic family vacation by the sea, instead of it existing merely as a hopeless dream.

Saga #16 – Review

By: Brian K. Vaughan (story), Fiona Staples (art)

The Story: What’s worse than being a war criminal?  How about a war criminal who acts?

The Review: If there’s one thing I’ve learned from both creative writing and improv comedy, it’s the magic of details.  It really doesn’t take all that much to flesh out a story; even just one salient detail or factoid can suggest a wealth of information about a character, place, or thing.  The power of human experience to flesh out a story with only a little prompting is unparalleled—which is why any story that feels lifeless or flat is truly a stain on a writer’s craftsmanship.

Conversely, a mark of excellence in a writer is the ability to leverage a single detail to his advantage, something which Vaughan does constantly.  Alana notes in passing that, “I used to check [the Open Circuit—a semi-illegal entertainment channel] out after my mom passed out.”  In that one statement, you have a big chunk of Alana’s formative years in miniature: a neglectful, substance-abusing mother who simultaneously afforded Alana the freedom to explore the seedier side of life early on, partly as a form of escape from an unhappier circumstances.  In turn, this informs us on the person Alana has become; she nurtures Hazel in a way her mother didn’t; she’s freethinking and daring because she’s been brought up that way; and she’s always ready to run from the harsh realities of life.

Saga #5 – Review

By: Brian K. Vaughan (story), Fiona Staples (art)

The Story: According to Marko and Prince Robot IV, fatherhood actually increases testosterone.

The Review: Characters in the sci-fi genre sure talk and act differently from us, don’t they?  I can’t quite put my finger on it, but they seem somewhat more formal and calculated in their general manner than us modern folks have gotten used to.  Using Star Wars as an example, you either go from the stately extreme of Obi-wan Kenobi to the total incoherence of Jar Jar Binks, with maybe some measured relaxation from Han Solo.

But then Star Wars is a product of its time, and media manners of that time were somewhat stricter.  People on TV and in the movies certainly didn’t talk like people who actually lived during that period did.  We live now in a decade where the differences between fictional language and real-life language are negligible, give or take an F-bomb here and there.  It’s hard to deny that we—and by that I mean Americans in general—have become a pretty crude society, even on a purely linguistic level.

Young Justice S02E02 – Review

By: Nicole Dubuc

The Story: Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch—and the Blue Sand Bog.

The Review: One of the big features of this new season, one I’m not sure I’ll find more enjoyable than irritating, is the weekly efforts to figure out what went down during those five years this show skipped over.  On the one hand, it gives us a reason to actively focus on every detail or sidebar the episode gives us in case we get some clues to the past.  On the other hand, this bit-by-bit gleaning of information can get a little taxing on your patience.

The big question, of course, is what exactly caused Superboy and Miss Martian to break up?  In real life, the most probable explanation is one of them cheated on the other (and if Lagoon Boy was involved at all, that makes Superboy’s grimace at seeing him and Megan make out all the more understandable).  The other major possibility is people grow up; things change; and it just didn’t work out.  When you have a clone and an alien dating, that possibility is pretty viable, too.

But in the world of animated superheroes, it takes something particularly drastic to break up a couple, especially one which the show’s creators downright foisted upon us, whether we supported it or not.  It invariably boils down to some elaborate, plotty misunderstanding driving them apart, or one party doing something despicable, leading the other to turn away in disgust and/or horror.  The end result almost always involves the couple getting back together once their mutual hang-ups have been cleared away, usually after some life-endangering incident.

So for any of you Connegan (Megonner?) fans out there, take heart; this episode offers plenty of hints that the star-crossed lovers will follow the same formula as any other superhero couple.  Despite Miss Martian’s new boyfriend, we can see lingering feelings between the two of them, specifically in the tender way they tell each other to be careful during the mission on Rann.  When Alanna, Adam Stranger’s romantic interest on Rann, asks Superboy how long he and Megan were together, he replies wistfully, “All my life,” a surprisingly touching response that reminds you he hasn’t actually lived for very long, so his first love will take some getting over.

Still, it’s clear Miss Martian is handling the separation a lot more smoothly, and not just because she has an undersea beau to lip-lock with.  She has Beast Boy, her surrogate little brother, to look after now (a situation brought about by some rather grim, suspicious circumstances).  Besides that major distraction, she’s also clearly grown in confidence, replacing her cutesiness with a much more tolerable spunk, and getting far bolder with her telepathic abilities than she was five years ago, leading to a fairly dark scene near the end of the episode which indicates she may be the “party doing something despicable” in the equation I mention above.

The rest of the episode is basically a long, action-packed set-up for a dramatic announcement of an upcoming revelation.  We really don’t learn anything new on Rann about the Krolotean invasion that we didn’t learn on Earth last episode, but at least we have enough activity and interaction going on to make the whole thing worthwhile.  The real value here are all the pieces of character exposition that get sprinkled throughout the episode: Superboy’s inability to age, Beast Boy losing his mom, etc.

Conclusion: You don’t really move forward in this episode, but you do get to trace your steps back a little bit and get a bigger picture of where the show’s been going all along.

Grade: B

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – Love the redesign of Adam Strange’s costume, by the way.  I know hoodies are overused these days to create a false sense of edginess, but admittedly he does look more hip.

– Also love that Strange quotes “Jabberwocky” in an attempt to sound like a crazy person on Rann’s subway.  Come to think of it, that would probably work on Earth, too.

– Did Superboy have X-ray vision five years ago?  ‘Cause if not, that’s new.