This review originally appeared on Goodreads on May 2, 2014.

Saga, Vol. 1

By Brian K. Vaughan (Writer) & Fiona Staples (Artist) – Image Comics – October 23, 2012

Review by Robin Marx

While it's definitely not the first story dealing with star-crossed lovers (almost literally in this case, as it involves a romance between soldiers on opposite sides of a genocidal moon/planet war), Saga handles this high concept trope in an action-packed, engaging way.

Furthermore, Saga very skillfully blends the core family drama with grand scale space opera. This series has super science, magic, robots with CRT TV heads, lie-detecting mercenary cats, living tree rockets, and more aliens than the Star Wars cantina scene. This isn't “by engineers, for engineers” hard SF, it's “wouldn't it be cool if...?” space opera. Vast, with a barrage of cool stuff on every page. And the artwork is some of the most beautiful I've seen in comics.

The characters are ridiculously appealing. For a pair of aliens, central couple Alana and Marko feel like real people, with all the foibles that entails. They're resourceful, brave, and admirably devoted to each other, but can also be dense, stubborn, or petty. I won't spoil it, but the inspiration for Alana's initial interest in Marko (revealed in Volume 2) is funny and seemingly trivial, but also authentic-feeling. Alana and Marko talk to each other like a real couple, not like an idealized Romeo & Juliet, and as a new parent I found it easy to relate with their interactions involving their baby daughter.

Saga feels like a SF comic for adults. Not because of the sex, violence, and profanity (although it has all of these, in detail), but because it's uncommonly smart and mature. It avoids treating its aliens like mono-cultures, with members of the same alien species look and act differently, rather than being more or less interchangeable. There are different ethnicities, body types, and sexual preferences represented within the same alien species. The characters have different points of view, and even the antagonists are usually treated with sympathy and nuance.

Highly recommended for comics and/or space fantasy fans, and new parents.

★★★★★

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