To recount the new status quo here would be to spoil the entire comic. The drawbacks then, come from the fact that, at 43 pages in length, Saga #55 doesn’t do much beyond catch-up work.

From tragic love to unabashed smut, Saga makes room for all kinds of human experiences, as any family should. Saga always felt a bit like wandering around Staples’ dream-world, one whose aesthetics could depict tenderness and violence and explicit sexuality with equal humanity. Fiona Staples’ art remains one of the most singular styles in comics, with endlessly imaginative character designs (this issue features flaming skeletal cops and a Koala-man) rendered with painterly expressiveness and inky precision. Thanks to the time jump, Saga #55 isn’t really about grieving that loss, but showing what Hazel and her family has become since.Ī lot of the fun of the issue is in returning to all of these characters and seeing what they’re like now - new readers ought not to start here - with only the slightest teases of what’s to come. War and tragedy have followed her from day one, and Saga’s long hiatus began with her most severe loss yet: her father Marko, finally killed by the bounty hunter the Will after 54 issues worth of pursuit. Whether you’ve been following Saga for the last decade or only recently caught up, readers know that Hazel has been forced to grow up faster than most.

Hazel was a newborn when we met her, and now she’s an alleged thief. We’re re-introduced to her in media res, as she’s being pursued by someone accusing her of theft. Saga is the story of how Hazel grows up in a family that the entire galaxy wants to tear apart.Īt the start of Saga #55, Hazel is now ten years old, having aged the exact number of real-world years that have elapsed since Saga began in 2012. Each world views Marko and Alana’s union as sacrilege, and Hazel - who has wings and horns - as an abomination. Her father, Marko, is a horned man from Wreath, Landfall’s moon, and a world of magic. Her mother, the winged humanoid Alana, is from Landfall, the largest planet in the galaxy, a world that built an empire on technological supremacy.

It remains as it was at the start: a story about Hazel, the child of parents from two warring worlds. Vaughan, has finally returned from a three-and-a-half year hiatus with issue #55, the story leaping forward about as much time. Saga, the acclaimed comic from Fiona Staples and Brian K.

Saga fiona staples