Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Saga #1Saga #1
Image Comics
Vaughan & Staples

Vaughan's return to comics launches this week with Saga, a Star Wars-TV drama hybrid, epic tale. However, I would not agree with that paraphrased, pitch line one bit. This book focuses on characters and builds up the world(s) they live in with a forty-plus page book that I simply couldn't put down. At only three bucks you have no reason to not sample this book at all. If you like Romeo and Juliet-like tales that involve love, war and survival then this is the book for you.

The story is about Marko and Alana, beings from two civilizations that are at war with one another. They fall in love and have a baby. Their two home bases figure out their defections (they were both involved in the war to some capacity) and give the couple chase. Naturally, the couple just wants to hide and live their lives, but that is difficult when their entire galaxy is at war.

The summary doesn't do the book justice at all. Vaughan brings this couple to life in a believable way. They bicker, they discuss mundane things, they learn more about each (which helps the reader) and they are frightened, making decisions hastily, simply to get away from whatever is chasing them in the moment. Vaughan puts these characters in a position that the readers can, and probably will, care about to some extent.

The world building aspect of the book is done as a narrative (mostly) from the baby's perspective. We learn about the planet and its moon where the war began and how everything unraveled from there.

The other piece to the puzzle is the factions that are chasing them. We learn about the kingdoms that probably started the war and their reasons for wanting to find Marko and Alana. We also gain insight into what powers or abilities these beings possess. There are definitely some very unique things in this book.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsAs Vaughan builds up the universe in this issue, Staples takes us along for the ride. The pencils jump off the page (almost as if they are in 3D) to bring these characters, creatures and settings to life. I realize that a lot of the backgrounds are sparse or absent, but the expressions on the character's faces and the details in the creations easily overcome that subtle flaw. Visually, this is a great book.

I wouldn't describe this book as Star Wars at all. Star Wars was a band of characters getting patched together to unite on a cause. Sure, the galactic war element is similar but there is no sense of good or evil here. Everyone that is not helping the couple are potentially the bad guys. Vaughan has putting together a good idea and it is executed very well in the first issue. I definitely recommend checking it out. I think you will enjoy the read.

4 out of 5 Geek Goggles