Saga #4 – Review

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

The Story: Alana and the Will blow some steam, but only one actually kills anybody.

The Review: If you were ever a fan of Vaughan’s seminal work on Runaways, you probably got hooked by its down-to-earth, naturalistic dialogue and its devotion to making the gang of kids come across as relatable as possible, despite the incredibly weird circumstances they had to live with (e.g. telepathically controlled pet velociraptor).  Those same qualities have been a major strength of Saga from the start, getting you closely invested in characters completely unlike you.

And while that remains true, this issue begs you to take note of the potential side-effects from Vaughan’s writing style: a glut of exposition and thus a slowdown on the plot, which—let’s face it—hasn’t exactly run on Indy 500 speed this whole time.  By plot, I mean the galactic war going on, and each side’s shared interest in pursuing Marko, Alana, and Hazel.  At this point, you still don’t know why there’s a war in the first place, and you have a feeling that our protagonists’ real adventures still haven’t begun.