By Zack Quaintance — So, it’s been a while since the last installment of the Saga Re-Read, which we posted way back on Sept. 20...like six weeks ago! To be totally honest, I thought we’d have an announcement of a return date by now, especially with writer Brian K. Vaughan appearing at New York Comic Con. Part of me thought his presence at the show was all about announcing a Saga return.

And maybe it was at one point. I went to the show, and I also saw Vaughan a couple weeks later at Baltimore Comic Con. At both appearances, he was very clear that work is well underway on the new issues of Saga, but that he and artist Fiona Staples would like to essentially bank a full arc of issues before bringing the book back. It makes sense. Saga is so big it won’t be forgotten, and, if anything, new readers are likely discovering it throughout this hiatus. So why not take the time to get it right?

Anyway, the point is that delay has slowed the urgency of this Saga Re-Read. But we’re back now, so let’s get to it!

Saga #52 

Here it is, the official preview text for Saga #52, which first hit comic shops back on May 30, 2018. Which is obviously 18 months ago at this point, which sounds and actually is very very long ago. But that’s why we’re doing a re-read!

Danger approaches.

It sure does! I remember back when this solicit came out. I was so innocent back then, thinking, well yeah of course this is a comic. If I’d only known...

The Cover: This is a fun cover, one deliberately at odds with the escalating tension happening in the plot. From a certain perspective, the concept of this cover — a few characters floating in their (false, it turns out) sense of security — could be a metaphor for us as an audience, having let down our guard and thinking the cast and story and all that had mostly settled in and become if not predictable than at least a little safe. Past that, I just also really like every Saga cover that depicts the alienness of this world with familiar everyday life, a common thread throughout the entirety of this series.

The First Page: I love it. It’s a full-page splash (always a Saga favorite), and not only is it visually stunning, it also somehow manages to capture the dual ideas we describe above — threats looming (with Hazel yelling attack and Prince Robot IV projecting a shark mouth on his face) with false sense of security (they are, quite clearly, just playing). 

The Summary: Open scene — Hazel, Prince Robot IV, Ghus, and Petrichor are play fighting in the water. Play stops when Hazel reminds them and us that Prince Robot IV, Petrichor, and Squire are preparing to fly off to their happy ending today. Elsewhere, Marko and Upsher are making lunch over a bonfire on the beach. This scene has an idea that I think about constantly, with Upsher telling Marko that writing (fiction or non-fiction) is a violent act. “Putting new ideas into another’s head is an aggressive act, and aggressive acts have consequences. Face it, you can be a writer or a pacifist, but you can’t be both.” The quiet is interrupted when Alana tells everyone together that Squire is missing.

Cut to that terrible bounty hunter Ianthe who’d been holding The Will prisoner but no longer, after Doff freed him during a struggle and lost his life in the process. Ianthe finds a note from The Will telling her that they’re even now, and if she leaves the planet, no one gets hurt. Ianthe crumbles it up and runs off. Cut to the family finding a similar note from Squire telling them that he can’t join in the forthcoming happy ending and has to go home. Prince Robot IV takes it hard and says it’s all his fault, admitting that during a recent disagreement he struck the boy. They set about searching, with glowing mushrooms to be used as signal flares.

Squire, meanwhile, is alone wandering that creepy neglected amusement park, with only the stuffed Ponk Konk for company. Someone is watching him. Then a cartoon-looking worm straight out of a children’s cartoon wraps him up in its tentacles and starts to pull him into a giant vagina in the ground with teeth...because Saga. Ianthe shoots him free, and then says something utterly sinister as poor sensitive Squire runs to give her a hug. Then things get crazy.

Prince Robot IV is alone searching for Squire, when he comes across the neon flying sting ray that was there when Doff was killed. As he puzzles over the creature, he turns and is attacked by The Will, who has hacked his lance and can use it now without permission of his freelancers union. Prince Robot IV bemoans being so close and caught by such a threatening force...and then makes a dastardly offer to sell out Hazel, which gives us our cliffhanger.

The Subtext: Marko practically states the thesis statement of the book’s subtler side here (making it not so subtle and no longer subtext but literal text), telling Upsher, “Every violent action, no matter how seemingly insignificant sends ripples throughout the cosmos, inevitably causing more of the same.” If he only knew. 

The Art: The visual highlight of this issue is the three splash pages, starting with the first page, continuing with the toothy vagina ground monster, and ending with Prince Robot IV’s offered double cross. Strong stuff, as always.

The Foreshadowing: It’s thick here. It actually kind of starts on the first page. Hazel is demanding that Prince Robot IV attack. Knowing what we know now, this feels like an intermingling of a few ideas, including the violence begets violence thread that runs throughout. It also does the emotional work of reminding us that Hazel has become quite close to Prince Robot IV, that he is actually a member of the family at this point. I’m also acutely aware in this issue that Hazel is referring to her father in the past tense...which is maybe something she’s done all along in regards to him and other characters, but still. 

Saga #52
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Fiona Staples
Letterer: Fonografiks
Publisher: Image Comics

The Saga Re-Read is taking it slow and praying new issues will arrive soon. Also, Prince Robot IV cracks me up, “Should the need arise, I could happily drop mud in the middle of congested thoroughfare.” As the kids say, weird flex. 

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.