Saga #13 – Review

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

The Story: For once, a mother-in-law gets her ear chewed off.

The Review: Fresh from three big wins at the Eisner Awards, and still riding a powerful wave of near-universal popular and critical acclaim, Saga comes back from its second hiatus raring and ready for another banner year.  While I certainly share in the enthusiasm for the series, I have to admit that the sheer amount of love it’s received has surprised me—in a pleasant, if bewildering, way.  After all, once you strip it down, Saga has really been a modest little story thus far.

Or perhaps it only seems that way because Vaughan spends so much time fixating on individual characters, rarely pulling back to reveal the larger context they’re operating in.  So much of Saga’s tension comes from personal acrimony among the cast, to the point where you start to lose sight of the bigger stakes within the story.  It gets so you even occasionally forget there’s a war going on in the background.  This ain’t Star Wars, is all I’m saying.

WCBR’s Top Picks

Dean’s Picks

Best From The Past Week: Trillium #1 – I really liked this a lot.  I think I’ve enjoyed just about everything that Jeff Lemire has been the writer/artist on, but there has been a sense of sameness about his stories like Essex County, Sweet Tooth and The Underwater Welder.  All of those stories were very much about the relationships between fathers and sons.  That doesn’t mean they were bad in any way.  Those prior stories all had incredible gut-punch moments that you’ll probably remember for the rest of your comic life.  But…I’m very intrigued by this new work from Lemire because I don’t see how Trillium can possibly be about fathers and sons.  This will be something new.  I also really enjoyed the set-up to this issue where we have a woman in the far future who is trying to cure a galactic plague that is wiping out humanity.  Bonus points for clever use of the flip-book format too.  This is an issue that could be perceived differently depending on which half you read first.  Very strong and promising.

Most Anticipated:  Whoa….this is the week of the heavy-hitters!  Some weeks, a comic can snare Pick of the Week with a B+ effort.  Not this week.  I can’t imagine none of these books turning in an “A” performance.

1. Saga #13 – Yeah….Saga is probably the best comic being published right now.  You know how some comics go away for a few months (due to art delays, usually) and you realize you just don’t care anymore?  That’s not the case with Saga.  I’ve missed it dearly since the last issue came out a few months ago.  Welcome back!

2. The Walking Dead #113 – The last issue really ended on a tense note, and I’m really eager to see what Negan will do now that Rick has completely exhausted Negan’s patience.  That time Rick pulled a stunt like this, [MAJOR CHARACTER] got bludgeoned to death as punishment.  Expect something bad to happen….

3. East of West #5 – Last issue showed this excellent new series turning the corner from clever concept to cool story.  I’m fully on board with this tale of an alt-future where the Four Horseman have to deal with a traitorous Death.

4. Batman #23 – So far, Zero Year hasn’t been awesome, but it hasn’t sucked either.  Sometimes I think I expect too much of the Batman team based on their past excellence.  They’ve been so consistently good that it’s like their still pitching a shutout into the 11th inning.  So, the last few issues have been the equivalent of giving up a run or two, but it’s still a pretty solid story and I’m confident that it’ll have its awesome moments before all is said and done.

5. Infinity #1 – It’s funny how much more I enjoy Marvel events now that I don’t compulsively read all of the Marvel titles.  It’s easier this way and I don’t have to worry about how how all this EVENT stuff can be going on while not affecting the other 20 Marvel books I read.  This is Hickman’s first real shot at an event.  Let’s see how he does….

Hugo’s Pick

Best From The Past Week: Manhattan Projects #13 – There were a lot of release this week, yet none that really caught my attention or thoroughly impressed me. The best thing I did read, though, was this delightful issue by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra. A nice story with some scene with the evil Einstein, Oppenheimer and the same entertaining and crazed super science that make this series worth it.

Most anticipated this week:

1. East of West #5 – Hickman may have a big week with the release of his big event comic from Marvel, yet I’m pretty sure this series will be better in term of ambition and pure enjoyment. Ambitious settings, mysterious characters and innovation are three great strengths this series possess and I’m convinced it will continue to showcase it in this issue.

2. Saga #13 – It’s back. Hurray! I have to admit I had missed the fantasy/sci-fi vibe ith a touch of romance and family life that this series uniquely used in order to make its story progress. Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples have something really great here and it’s nice for us readers to see it come back after a few months of wait.

3. Thor: God of Thunder #11 – The conclusion to the, dare I say, epic storyline that Jason Aaron begun is there and I am really curious to see how he can finish this in a satisfying fashion. This title has been a true treat with every issue and with the promise of great cosmic and divine action with the ever-so gorgeous artwork of Esad Ribic makes for something I have high hope for.

4. Infinity #1 – As a comic book reader, I should know better than to believe the hype behind any type of event comic, yet this one does seem promising. Cosmic adventures with tons of fan-favourites, connecting the plot threads of Hickman’s Avengers and New Avengers run with Jim Cheung as an artist, I’d have to say it’s a bit hard not to be optimistic on my part after reading all of this. Here’s hoping Hickman delivers.

5. Six-Gun Gorilla #3 – The second issue wasn’t as strong as the first one, yet it did show us a lot of weird sci-fi goodness with some acceptable amount of fun. It’s a rather unique book that deserves some attention and some love and believe me, it does deserve it thanks to the neat ideas of Simon Spurrier and cartoonish art of Jeff Stokely.