COMIC REVIEW: FTN reviews Saga #16

Written by Brian K. Vaughn

Art by Fiona Staples

Published by Image Comics

The Saga continues! Brian K. Vaughn has been building towards an epic showdown between 3 conflicting parties; Marko and Alana, The Will’s rag-tag group, and the Prince Robot IV. The last volume of the series ended with a cliffhanger that teased an ensuing battle, but when volume 3 started the story actually went backwards to show us all the paths each group took to get to the conflict. It may seem like an odd route to take in a book you read month-to-month, but it’s managed to work perfectly. While we’re not QUITE to the payoff yet, I’m happy to say that with issue #16, our 3 sides have finally been brought back together.

Brian K. Vaughn continues to show us why Saga swept nearly every award in comics this year. There’s so much I can say about his brand of storytelling that even after I was finished, it still wouldn’t do his work with Saga justice. Even though there are only a few protagonists in the story, Vaughn has managed to make me care about each and every character in the story. It’s a brilliant depiction of what an actual war is really like for the people not involved in it. From the outside looking in, there might be sides we care about more than others, but everyone involved is fighting for something they care about. While we obviously care about the well-being of Marko, Alana, and Hazel; I’ve also grown to care about what happens to Prince Robot IV and his little one that’s on the way.

I’ve said before that I wasn’t always a huge fan of the art style in this series, but boy has my tune changed! Literally from cover-to-cover, everything Fiona Staples does with each issue of Saga is something amazing. Each issue’s art perfectly captures the tone that Vaughn’s writing sets to the point that even in this bizarre universe, Fiona’s art could tell the story without dialogue. Normally I don’t talk about the covers of the books I read because different artists usually do them, but I’m absolutely in love with the cover of issue #16. Staples does her own covers for the book and this one is absolutely beautiful. It depicts the news team in the middle of heavy combat, but what really caught my eye was how vibrant the colors she used on it are. Christmas is coming up, so if anyone wants to buy this reviewer an early gift, I’d love to have a blown up picture of this to hang on my wall! 😉

I could go on and on and on about how much I love this series. If every book I loved came out in the same week, it would be a toss-up between this and Batman for which I’d read first. (Luckily that doesn’t happen, my head might explode!) If you haven’t been reading it, crawl out from under the rock you’ve been living under and pick up the first trade! I promise you’ll fall in love with it just like me and countless other people have.

5 out of 5 nerds