COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Saga #28 – Reluctant

Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples delve on the human behavior of self-loathing and redemption in the continuing fantastic run of Saga #28. As always, it has three interconnecting stories that slowly but surely getting more sense between virtually all characters involve in the SAGA universe. There is no new character introduced here, but a new name was mentioned for a relative of one of Saga’s most beloved arachnid (just pick the copy…you will LOVE IT!). And, there are a couple of tense scenes and a battle that make this chapter worth reading a couple of times.

Vaughan’s seemingly plain dialogues are a goldmine of serious reflections of humanity’s frailties and on how to deal with these inconsistencies, contradictions, flaws, mistakes and even hypocrisies by doing the best out of the worse situations, or simply, “let it go” and “move on”. That last statements are best exemplified by one of the creative teams’ greatest contributions yet: Ghus! Read and rereading Ghus’s soothing and reassuring words of advice to his guilt-ridden and drug dependent (plus, life-wrecking) Yuma. I could not help but amazed how Brian brought these old words of wisdom to the modern (and jaded) comic readers. He really makes clichés into worthy quotable statements that could transcend beyond the printed literary genre. No wonder why this work is once again re-nominated in this year’s Eisner’s Awards (tough competition, but all nominees are true winners in my opinions… Go BKV!).

Even the exchanges of words between The Brand and Sophie are worth the time to re-evaluate the choices we made in real life and experiences. Notably, we see that the topic of abortion is neither pleasant nor comfortable to discuss or deal with (what more in the conservative society like ours in the Philippines!). Yet, the writer handled this with care and wit that is too disturbing to engage with (and followed up the morality of taking one’s life or lives in the professional level, or the choices of going down to that level of no return). Brian is one of the few writers who neither demonize nor preach the virtues/evils of assassination/murder/deaths, just highlighting the ambiguities and complexities surrounding the professional nature of assassins.

And, Hazel’s dialogues were expanded in length for the first time in Saga series. Aside the typical meta-voice or narration she often does in all proceeding chapters, the toddler Hazel “speaks” in a bit mature voice for her age, possibly due to the fact that she is already experiencing the conflict her parents tried to avoid or escape in the first place for her own sake. Once more, this proves of Brian’s excellent handling of sensitive moments to his characters. Hopefully, readers can read more of Hazel’s dialogues in future installments.

Fiona’s art is truly amazing and impressive to behold with. She proves that even less inks can make a significant difference in storytelling and plot twists, aside from her excellent coloring and minimal artistic styles she is highly regarded with. Ad, the mind-boggling door-knob-shaped spaceship she drew is one of the proofs why she is dominating the artistic circuit nowadays. Her creativity seems to grow further since chapter one.

Saga #28 is a gem in itself. This is the testament of true collaborative craftsmanship. No surprises why Saga deserves to be nominated again in major comics award-giving bodies. Highly recommended!