Target: Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga. Art by Fiona Staples. Collecting issues 7-18
Profile: Comics, Science Fiction, Space Opera
It’s been too long, but I’m finally getting around to reviewingSaga Volume 2 and, as a limited time bonus offer, you get Volume 3 thrown in for free. Back when I first picked up this epic comic series, I noted that the one flaw holding it back was the lack of focus and development. To quote myself, “While many of the details needed for true long-term success are still missing, Saga tantalizes with an incredible spread of fantastic ideas and well-drawn characters.” Vaughan has done a lot to build a cohesive story from the flighty bits of Volume 1. The pacing and, more importantly, unfocused nature of the comic are still getting in the way of strong narrative flow, but Saga somehow transcends these limitations and is building a beautifully cohesive world out of the narrative equivalent of confetti.
After the cliffhanger ending of Chapter 6, Volume 2 disjoints briefly from the narrative of Marko and Alana to take time for some flashbacks. We look at Marko’s youth, Alana’s time as a solider and their joint experiences as prisoner and guard that preceded the events of Volume 1. We also meet a whole gaggle of characters from Marko’s past and pick up some of the threads from The Will’s side story.