By Zack Quaintance — Well folks, this marks the end of our Saga Re-Read Project. I was really hoping the book would have a first issue announced for a comeback at this point, but hey. I saw Brian K. Vaughan at Baltimore Comic-Con, and he said the plan was to basically get the entire next arc in the can before soliciting even the first issue. So, we have no delays to look forward to!

Anyway, let’s get to the hardest to read issue of all of Saga...

Saga #54 

Here it is, the official preview text for Saga #54, which first hit comic shops back on July 25, 2018, meaning we’re going to surpass 20 months on this hiatus, given that the book has not been announced as returning in March 2020. Phew. Anyway!

END OF STORY ARC! The explosive "season finale" to SAGA's most shocking storyline yet.

Boy howdy. We will, of course, discuss why this is true in much greater depth below.

Saga #54

The Cover: A single feather floating in a pool of blood. You know, I still don’t entirely know what this means. It’s not like Alana’s wings have feathers on them. In fact, sitting here now, I can’t think of a single feathered character in this crazy story. Although, I should point out that I haven’t yet re-read this issue yet. So maybe I’ll connect the dots at some point in this piece.

The First Page: So, we open on Marko reacting to Prince Robot IV’s surprise death at the end of last issue, some of his friend’s blue blood splattered on him. He is, of course, stunned, and we get a single line from Hazel’s shaky narration: Dad’s folks used to hit him when he was a kid. Hazel, of course, knows what’s coming, and so this is perhaps her way of explaining, of coming to grips with the violent rage that would forever alter her family. At the same time, in a more meta sense it hammers home one of the central points of this entire story — violence only ever begets more violence.

The Summary: Hazel continues explaining her father being hit by his parents as The Will tries to attack Marko and finds his weapon again won’t work. The Will’s weapon explodes and messes up his hand; Marko sees red and charges him. Cut to Marko and The Will, flying off a cliff and then crashing into the house. The Will’s life flashes before his eyes as Marko strangles him. In desperation, The Will manages to shift the house, throwing Marko off him.

The others watch the house zooming through the sky from the beach. Petrichor is confused; Alana concerned. The house rises into space and Marko and The Will face each other on opposite ends of the room. During a struggle, Marko headbutts The Will with his horns — hard — knocking him to the floor, seemingly unconscious. Marko turns his back to look out at space, and The Will rises and stabs him through the torso from behind. Marko’s body slumps to the floor, dead.

It’s at this point Vaughan really goes for the tears, bringing us back to a peaceful moment between Hazel and Marko on the beach. Oh! And here’s where we get the feather, which is from Hazel’s nascent wings, apparently. Anyway, the part that has me crying now as I type this is Marko telling Hazel, “Honey girl, I don’t care what you do, as long as you’re kind to everyone you meet. That is the hardest part of being alive.”

As I’ve previously written, Marko’s death hit me so hard because I find his struggle to be a good person so so relatable. We close on Marko bleeding out.

The Subtext: Phew. Let me just get myself a little bit together here. Anyway, I think I wrote about the violence begetting violence subtext enough throughout. That’s the big thing here. 

The Art: This is Fiona Staple’s best issue of Saga. Every action sequence is clear, kinetic, and high stakes. The flashbacks intermingled with the fighting are easy to understand and laced with meaning. The two silent pages of Marko nearly killing The Will and then relenting are drawn with so much interiority that we can feel everything he’s thinking. And the final moment is rendered in a way that still brings tears to my eyes even though I’ve lived with it for more than a year now and am not one to take comics characters deaths lightly (although, obviously, this one hits harder because Marko feels so real and also it’s not likely to be undone).

The Foreshadowing: Well, this field certainly isn’t relevant at this point, although as I’ve written previously, I do think Hazel repeating the bit about her not being a war hero or a savoir, just being able to grow old thanks to her parents because “Not everybody does” is a potential sign that Alana too will not survive Hazel’s childhood. 

Anyway, in closing big thanks to anyone who read along with this re-read. I know it got sporadic toward the end there, but the truth is I just didn’t want this to be over (especially not with the book yet come back). See you all back on the blog for Saga #55!

Saga #54
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Fiona Staples
Letterer: Fonografiks
Publisher: Image Comics

The Saga Re-Read is now over, and what a ride it has been! See you all when the new issues start to drop.

Check out previous installments of the Saga Re-Read.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.

Check out Image comics at comiXology.com!