Vol. 1
Immediately compelling, and while the dialogue is a little rough around the edges (with one particularly jarring r-slur), the characters, story, and worldbuilding are interesting enough to keep me going, especially given its reputation. Also my coworker lent me his entire collection, and they’re pretty breezy to get through, so the cost to me to keep reading is negligible. Looking at the 1-star reviews it seems like a lot of the people who don’t like this are just incurious, impatient puritans who don’t want to have to chew their food—but I can also understand not wanting to go out of your way to keep reading a series that didn’t immediately grab you.
Sad that Izabel seems to be gone, though, she was fun.
Also, is this getting the “guy with TV monitor for a head” thing from Rice Boy or are they both getting it from something earlier? Man I gotta re-read Rice Boy. And I never finished Vattu. Oh man and there were a couple other webcomics I was reading at the time and then completely forgot about, I think I posted them on Facebook though? *searches* Yes! Unsounded and Ultrasylvania. I’m so getting back into comics.
Vol. 2
In most ways I liked this better than Vol. 1, I think it’s really starting to come together, but the storyline with The Will and the 6-year-old child—who someone really needs to ask her what her name is in the next one because I’m not calling her that—is not hitting the beats it needs to hit to justify itself. I honestly liked it better when it was about The Will trying to save her and failing because of larger systemic forces outside his control, which is at least an interesting tragedy that could help inform the character’s arc. Now it’s just…you did a daring swashbuckle rescue and she coincidentally with no explanation is magic and points you to exactly where your targets are? And you still haven’t asked her name (except in a dream??) I’m willing to hold out hope they manage to salvage it and make her more of a character and less of a plot device but even if they do they absolutely bungled it in this one.
p.s. Izabel!
Vol. 3
I feel like I should be rating these higher given how much I’m enjoying reading them, but I don’t know, there’s nothing in here so far that I’m excited to talk about, it’s mostly just the forward momentum of the plot keeping me going. It’s not that everything else is bad, it’s good, but so far it’s mostly just good.
I’m glad Sophie has a name now, it’s only slightly undercut by the fact that The Will just unilaterally decided to name her after his sister who then also shows up in the story. The scene with her and Lying Cat is really sweet though, and notably is actually about her and not The Will or Gwendolyn.
Speaking of whom, their relationship is entirely unbelievable. I don’t think I need to elaborate on this, it feels fairly self-evident.
I also realize I haven’t said anything about the art, and that’s because I don’t have anything to say about it. It’s good! There’s nothing wrong with it. I just have a preference for more stylized art and there’s nothing here that’s really stuck out to me. I think the only panel that made me pause was the one with the two journalists and the robot watching the airstrike, I liked the composition of that.
Vol. 4
Getting pretty Game of Thrones-y with this body count.
The merging of wrestling and soap operas is very clever.
I assume we’re going to get a story about that sword and shield, and it better be a good one, given Marko’s whole pacifism thing that was kind of thematically central to a story that’s feeling like it’s maybe forgotten what it’s about a little.
Vol. 5
Ghüs!
Otherwise kind of a mess, definitely felt the most disjointed so far. And Marko’s whole arc in this volume…was actually a circle? Still pretty confused by that.
Vol. 6
It was kind of inevitable that I’d have to give one of these 4 stars eventually, given how much I’m enjoying them, and I think this was the perfect confluence of events: the plot was way tighter than in the last one, I actually paused to appreciate the art a few times (I’m a fan of big constructs with lots of lines so this one was really for me specifically), and child-Hazel is finally old enough to be a real character. Also they didn’t kill off Ghüs(!) and I really appreciate how much restraint that must have taken. And for that matter the escape plan was primed to go tragically wrong and pretty much didn’t. Overall it’s just a nice change of pace for things to actually sort of be working out.
Would have liked to see what Gwen and Sophie have been doing when their lives aren’t centered on The Will or the fam, but then again I did just say the plot was tighter in this one and that would’ve have severely loosened it. Well, hopefully will get some of that in the next one before The Will barges back in but I’m not super optimistic.
We did finally get an explanation for the sword and shield, albeit a fairly arbitrary one.
Vol. 7
I really don’t think you can overestimate the narrative value of Hazel finally being a sentient being within the story and not just as the narrator.
The Fam as witnesses to tragedy rather than causes of tragedy feels potentially more powerful, thematically. I could see them traveling around, seeing how bad everything is and that slowly congealing into some sort of concrete intention, rather than the mere survival instinct they’ve been operating on so far. I’m not sure if that’s where the story wants to go, as they’ve generally resisted making these characters into Epic Heroes, but it could be good. I’m not really sure where it’s going if not that—for all that there was a lot of loss in the volume, we do end it with the core team together and headed back to Quietus, at which point, what? They just settle down? Kill off increasingly bottom-of-the-barrel Freelancers as they show up? Unless this is like a shonen and actually the Freelancers will just keep getting more impressive because for some reason they didn’t just start with the best (behind every shonen is a woefully inefficient bureaucracy that doesn’t know how to allocate its resources effectively; this is only kind of a joke).
I am sad about Izabel but that was foreshadowed in Vol. 1 so I guess it had to happen eventually. Also Kurti, but man that was so well-done. Really sad but really well-done. They do generally know how to make every death resonate, even as the bodies stack up.
I do think at some point they really need to decide on what they’re doing with Marko and violence, because they kind of just keep saying things about it but nothing seems to stick.
Anyway, curious to learn who that mysterious masked figure is, and who will when in the ethical tug-of-war between Sophie and Gwendolyn.
Vol. 8
It’s on the nose, but one get’s the sense that they didn’t want to run the risk of people missing the point, and it’s otherwise handled well, I think. Also, owl sheriff with the head-turn “But you didn’t hear it from me” is great, perfect use of an owl character.
And once again I appreciate the herculean levels of restraint it must have taken to not kill off Ghüs since they so clearly want to.
Vol. 9
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
Vol. 10
Man they really played with the tension in this one, very well-executed. And a rare volume that focuses almost entirely on the family (with a couple brief glances at The Will and Gale), which I think was necessary under the circumstances (especially keeping in mind that there were 4 years in between volumes). And god that ending, somehow maybe the saddest thing thus far?
My only problem with it is that based on the cover I was really expecting some magic tricks and I was sorely disappointed.
Also, I meant to mention this in the last one, but the art in the last few volumes has been really good, definitely feels like Staples stepped up her game. There are some nice big setpieces in this one (e.g. Hazel flying above the city, and obviously the skull-and-bones ship) but weirdly I think my favorite panel is during the 2nd chase at the beginning, the one where Hazel ducks into an alley. I have no idea why, there’s just something about it that it really struck me.
Vol. 11
There’s a degree to which serialized fiction (or I suppose serialized media generally) is uniquely positioned to be not only self-aware but aware of its audience as well. I think I can pretty much guarantee that if Saga had been written and published all at once, this volume would be significantly different. I think the r-slur scene is pretty clearly commenting on their past use of the word (and is arguably not great? At least not good enough to justify using the word again). But also the structure of the climax is so clearly aware of audience expectations and the reputation this series has at this point, and uses that very effectively.
I think, though, it would be more effective if (GIANT SPOILER AHEAD) I actually still cared about Sophie. Or rather, if the story actually still cared about Sophie. She got shunted off to school for the last volume, and now she’s back all tension between her and Gwen is gone and she’s just a sycophantic, nationalist teenager who has no problem forgiving The Will for all of his many many crimes because he did one good thing once but also has no problem believing Marko deserved to die because he was allegedly a shitty boyfriend. I thought she might grow out of all that but she really just grew into it, and at this point is maybe the most boring character in the cast. So like, I’m not glad she’s dead, but I’m not nearly as shook up about it as I thought I would be (or as, I think, the authors want me to be.)
But anyway, once again they have resisted the urge to kill Ghüs, so.
p.s. Easily my favorite cover art thus far. Not as much a fan of the back cover, what are they using as void-fill, paper towel? There’s no structure to it all, you’re gonna have to use so much of it for it to be at all effective, especially since she’s using a box that’s twice as big as it needs to be. Get the right sized box and real void-fill, that’ll be 1, 2 sheets tops. Sure the good stuff’s more expensive but I guarantee it’ll make up for it in efficiency, not to mention fewer damage claims from customers.
Vol. 12
My hot take is Marko was actually the Tasha Yar of Saga, i.e. the character that had to die for the series to truly come into its own. Because it really has (for the most part) only gotten better since volume 9. (Probably helps that Sir Robot died, too.)
Rarely have I been more satisfied at having correctly judged a character’s character than when Whist stabs that clown in the face.
Really my only problem with this one is I liked Squire better when he didn’t speak.
I have read 12 of these things and I feel like I should have more to say but every critical muscle in my body strains against making too many specific, definitive judgements of a story that’s not finished yet. So for now I think I’m just along for the ride. Gonna be rough having to wait for them like everyone else now, though.
Certain of Eventual Failure 