Saga # 55 deals with the aftermath of Mark’s death

Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples never intended to Saga that I haven’t been here this long. When they announced that the beloved series Image Comics go on break 2018, was expected to last about a year. Until … it’s not. AND now Saga is back to pick up the pieces he had left behind, adding a fascinating twist to one of his biggest shocks.

Saga # 54, all these years back, he left the series in a gloomy note: Marko, one of the main protagonists of the series, was killed in a brutal act to save his daughter Hazel and his wife Aluon, and their motley team of friends and associates picked up in pursuits along the way, from the clutches of Will’s bounty hunter. It was shocking to temporarily conclude the series even if SagaThe creators stuck to their original plan, which lasted a year, but given the extended period, fans had to sit with grief over the loss of one of the series’ protagonists – half of her messy, complicated heart – it just got more shocking. As Saga came back this week with his long-awaited number 55 and entered the beginning of its end, it was hard to imagine how he would cope with the textual break of Mark’s death and with the broader metatext of the series’ long absence.

Well no entirely heavy. From the announcement of the return of the series at the end of last year, we know that we will be dealing with a certain time skip, which will in some way enable SagaThe main characters sat with the time we as readers sat with his absence. But it also gives Saga # 55 fascinatingly melancholy, one that asks us to consider the possibility of Saga he does not want or need to immediately address the grief he concluded three years ago, because perhaps, like us, he had time to rise up and move on. “This is how the idea survives,” says Hazel’s ever-present narrative to open the issue. “It grows and changes … often far beyond the intent of its creators.” This surviving idea is intentionally readable in several ways, referring to Hazel herself Saga, on Mark’s own legacy in the series, in Death. Sometimes the people we know simply change over time, go further in some ways and refrain from others, but always try to move on.

Even if Mark’s death is not directly addressed in Saga # 55, the shadow is retained throughout the issue. It informs itself in the way we meet both Hazel and Alanand, years later – who became in their later life on the run as targets of both Mark and Aleways people. Hazel is a little older, a little wiser and smarter on the street, and she is no longer the completely innocent young girl we knew many years ago, rebellious and not always so willing to listen to her remaining parent. Alana, who is now trying to build a career as a drug racer, has this fascinating shift between having somehow hardened in her isolation and softened to others while still longing to find a way to find peace, away from the ever-present conflict between Wright and Landfall, and simply being the mother now not only of Hazel, but of a similar orphan son of Prince Robot IV, Squire.

Saga Slow pace # 55 as he re-establishes a new status quo and also manages to carry out a terrorist attack, two police interventions and an encounter with pirates flying around in a giant, rather literal ship with skulls and crossbones. appreciated and almost disturbing. It’s moving so quickly, and never dwells on the past – he sees no need to recapitulate what was before, despite the long distance, believing his readers that they were invested enough in this journey to know it all. But that speed and ease also surprises you with how carefully they push aside any lingering hint of sadness that the series may have retained due to Mark’s death. No time to look back, just run ahead and ask you to join or leave.

It’s refreshing as well as a little sad, if only in the knowledge of it Saga he had already given us time to move on – instead of waiting for him, his story was simply waiting for us to catch up before he moved forward.

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