Wednesday 10 July 2013

The Saga Continues

A few months back, if you've been following, I reviewed a graphic novel comic book by the name of Saga. If you haven't read said blog yet, go read it here first (insert link here) and then check out the first volume of Saga before you read more. I would like to call this a review, but I mean who are we kidding, Saga is fantastic. And I will say this much, these next issues keep the pace going and gives the story more twist, background and character development. This is the kind of book that shows are made out of. So it goes without saying if you got the first volume, get the second one for sure, the series doesn't skip a beat. So for the rest of this blog I wanted to go through some of my favourite moments in the book. So please come back once you've read the books, don't want to be the guy to spoil the story for you.

Warming spoilers up ahead.





•The Will: let's get this one out of the way, I love The Will! He is by far my favourite character of the series so far and you get to see more and learn more about him in this book.

After the first volume, he is a mess after finding out his former flame and fellow Contractor, The Stalk was murdered by Prince Robot IV. So you see him early on in the book very depressed and look through old memories of him and his ex. We then see a perfect dream of his, together again with The Stalk and freeing the young captive girl on Sextillion, and not mention killing everyone in the way. Upon waking up though he is introduced to one of the clients who hired him to kill Marko and Alana in the first place, Gwendolyn. That is Marko's ex-fiancé, Gwendolyn.

Needing The Will to finish the job he was paid to do in the first place, Gwen is there to see what's been the delay. She informs him that Prince Robot IV is also on the hunt for the infamous new family, and that finding them will also allow him to lay retribution for The Stalk. The Will agrees to get back to work but only if she can help him free the slave girl, which with some political push she manages to do. The Will sees that the great interest in him finishing the job must mean there's a history between Gwen and Marko.

By the end of the book though we have another family traveling the galaxy hunting for the bounty. This I loved, cause this family may be even more dysfunctional than our story's main heroes. The little girl is able to sense and hear the artifacts the Gwendolyn and Marko carry, so they use her to follow them through out space. And Gwen is not exactly The Will favourites ship mate, but they must work together now to finish the job.  And how could I not mention Lying Cat, everyone loves Lying Cat. How can you not?

•Marko & Alana: the family that changed the rules. At the end of the first volume they just got off the planet and were headed into the great unknown of space, when suddenly they are stopped by unknown intruders in their rocket ship, these intruders are actually Marko's parents.

The story starts with Marko and his mom heading to the nearby planet to rescue the ghostly babysitter, leaving Alana with the baby and her estranged father in law. We get to know the parents and how they feel about the relationship and how they feel about their granddaughter. The mother is very upset with Marko, especially for leaving Gwendolyn. The dad however wants to get to know his granddaughter and his son's wife, seeing how he has very little time left to live. That was a really good twist to the story, it was a bittersweet moment of connection.

We also get to see flashbacks to when Alana and Marko first met. We see that Alana's world is changed after reading a romance novel, the romance between two different creatures. She is inspired by the book and wants to share this book with as many people as possible. I loved that the first meeting between them ended with Alana knocking out Marko's teeth to the floor. We see them spending more and more time together as prisoner and guard keeper, Alana is able to share the story with him. It's in a desperate moment that Alana decides to free Marko and run away with him. That's how their story together begins. I love the idea that from a simple love story these two have made a connection and formed a love that has the potential of changing everything in the universe. And all this from a small little love story.

•Prince Robot IV: probably the most unlikeable character in the story so far. After killing The Stalk and stealing her ship, he has decided to go find the author of the love novel that Alana had read. When we see him for first time, it appears he is dying on the battlefield, when he is saved by a field medic. Unfortunately for said little field medic, she blows up after inhaling toxic gases. We then see it was a dream or perhaps a memory, still not sure actually. There is something about this scene that I will touch on later, if you've been following comic news I am sure you know what I am talking about. He is then reminded on finish the job to take out Alana and Marko, but remains calm and lands on the planet to find the author.

Once he find the author, he begins to question him on the book and if he knows that what he wrote could be the spark to a revolution. After a back and forth, Prince Robot IV shoots the author and decides to stay and wait for the family, as he assumes that they will be coming to the same planet to find the author. And little does he know that there hiding up stairs. And that is where the volume ends.

Okay so apparently there was some controversy over issue 12, at the beginning of the book we see a wounded Prince Robot IV on the battlefield, on his screen face though there are images of man giving oral sex to many other men. According to a lot of websites on all iOS products this book has been banned. What I am curious is about why ban it? Saga is an extremely mature book and up to this point there have been many and many graphic images. So why now? It doesn't make sense, just have an age warning and let it be, it seems a little strange in my opinion, but maybe in time we will learn. Actually if anyone knows why this happened, by all means please let me know.

It's incredible how consistently amazing this book has been thus far after two volumes, I am happily surprised by all the fantastic elements of this story, from the art work to the concepts and all the characters, Saga is going to be the book of 2013. I can't recommend this book enough to everyone, so spread the word and let the world know, Saga is a must read.

That's all the time I got right now, thanks for reading and remember to subscribe to this blog to follow all kinds of comics news and reviews and inside look at the world of comic books. Also be sure to follow me on Twitter and Instagram, by following @ChileanStorm. I am also on YouTube, doing Time Well Spent on the Maddsketch channel and also doing my own Storm VLOG videos, so please subscribe to our channel, give a like and leave a comment. And be sure to like the Spent Pencils page on Facebook, one like goes a long way. I am ChileanStorm, and remember to embrace the storm and keep running forward.




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