Saga‘s back! Everybody rejoice! After however many long months, one of the best comics out there is finally back to brighten our doorsteps. Saying that might make me sound less objective as a reviewer, but to hell with that. I’m not so much a reviewer right now as a sharer of great comics, and Saga – by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples – is great comics. Just check out the cover; says right there at the top: Eisner Aware winner for ‘Best Series’. Clearly I’m not the only one loving themselves some Saga. Nor should I be. If you’ve ever wanted to branch out from superhero comics, go find Saga. It’s good, quality, exciting entertainment.

Saga #13

Saga stands a chance of being as good as – if not better than – Vaughn’s previous masterpiece Y: The Last Man. Saga is that good, and it still feels like we’ve barely scratched the surface of where this series will go and what it has to offer. But enough rambling, let’s get to Saga #13.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

This issue actually takes place prior to Saga #12, when Prince Robot IV confronted author D. Oswald Heist on the planet Quietus – with our lovely little family unit hiding in the attic. Saga #13 tells the story of the family arriving on Quietus, as well as giving updates to what everyone else is up to, including a few new characters with their own subplot. Let’s hope it’s a good one. So the issue is pretty much just moving the pieces on the board around to get ready for the next chapter. And it’s easy to see why Vaughn didn’t want to end on this story, but instead chose the story of Saga #12 for his cliffhanger. Smart man, that Brian K. Vaughn.

The reasons I love Saga are at the forefront of Saga #13. It’s not the series’ strongest issue, not by a long shot, but it’s definitely a solid example of Saga‘s quality. This is a story about people first, militaristic space aliens second. Saga is the story of a young couple and their new baby on the run from the government, and in a larger sense, on the run from prejudice. I’m no academic. I’m not the guy to write an epic, analytical essay about Saga and all its many themes. But I can recognize the inherent humanity in this story about a goat man making sweet love to an insect girl, and the adorable half-breed baby that popped out.

Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!

Starting off with the new subplot – which I’m only assuming will be an ongoing subplot – one of the Landfall officers from the start of the series is in a hospital bed. Marko cut his hand off in one of their earlier skirmishes, and during the fight, the soldier noticed that Marko and Alana seemed to be working together. They also seemed to to be carrying a baby, their baby. A half-breed baby. In the middle of a war. That’s insane!

So insane, in fact, that the soldier’s commanding officers just laughed at him when he told them. So did the press. They scoffed at his crazy claim and told him to call the tabloids.

So he did.

And of course the camera lens is an eyeball

This could be a really fun story. I hope this isn’t just a one-off event, and that these tabloid reporters run with the story and start spreading word of little Hazel. The major plots of this series so far have been about the two governments clamping down on the PR nightmare of Marko and Alana. So it might be kind of fun to see two plucky reporters fighting against the system to spread the gospel of Hazel.

And this is coming from a plucky reporter.

The rest of the comic is split between Hazel’s family arriving on Quietus and The Will and his crew regrouping. Let’s start with our favorite space family.

They start out in orbit, flying towards Quietus. Hazel poops her pants and starts crying, waking Alana – who finds out that Marko is already awake.

He has a beard now. He means business.

He’s not doing well. And he doesn’t respond to his wife. So Alana goes to take care of the baby, but discovers that her mother-in-law has already taken care of Hazel. She’s also taken the time to read A Night Time Smoke, by D. Oswald Heist, and she thinks it’s “donkey shit”. Alana tries to protest, but Klara is quite insistent in her indignation. Alana explains that she and Marko think Heist will be able to tell them what to do with Hazel. She says that Klara doesn’t even have to come along.

“Like hell!” says her mother-in-law. If those three are foolish enough to go get themselves killed, then she’s tagging along. She’s outlived enough people already.

The family land their spaceship tree on Quietus and step out into a patch of something called ‘bone bugs’. They’re bugs that reanimate skeletons, apparently, and they provide the requisite action scene this issue. The bones and skulls come alive, and one of them bites off Klara’s ear. Ouch! Then a bunch of them start forming into a giant skeleton monster. It’s OK though, Alana has a mace (!?). She smacks the monster in the head – then Heist shows up and saves the day.

While also making the worst first impression ever.

Writers are nothing but trouble

As for The Will and company, they’ve touched down on some small planetoid to make repairs and find their footing. The Will gets on the phone with some people, but they’re quite aggravating. Slave Girl can no longer sense Alana’s ring, and her hearing is pretty bad since the incident. Gwendolyn is also running out of money to fund this whole expedition. So The Will and Gwen are kind of at each other’s throats – with Slave Girl in the middle.

We hear ya, The Will!

Later on, when he’s alone, The Will gets a visit from The Stalk. She’s either a ghost come back to give him a message, or he’s hallucinating. One of the two. Either way, she’s come back a lot since dying. She points out that the sexual tension between him and Gwen is off the charts, but he doesn’t see it. The Stalk tells him to put the past behind him, to forget about Prince Robot, forget about Alana and Marko. The Stalk tells him to settle down on this idyllic little planetoid, hook up with Gwen, adopt Slave Girl and give her a proper name. The Will protests…only to be interrupted by a sleepy Gwen, who finds him pretty much alone and yelling at nothing.

The Will resigns himself, then at least does one thing right:

I would have gone with ‘The Will Jr.’ or ‘Lying Cat 2’

And that’s Saga #13. All of the pieces are in place to catch up to Saga #12, and I’m sure the next issue will move us back into the proper time frame.

I liked this issue a lot, though it wasn’t anything special. The characters continue to be engaging and very entertaining. We didn’t see much of Marko this issue, but hopefully that means he’s building to something really special down the line. Maybe he’ll take Prince Robot IV head-on or something. That would be awesome. For now, he’s just rocking the beard, and that’s good enough for me. Klara continues to prove that adding Marko’s parents to the comic was a stroke of brilliance. She’s quite the pip. Alana and Isabel both had small moments, but still fun moments. Alana fighting a giant skeleton monster while holding her child in her arms was quite badass – even if the battle felt unnecessary. But such are comics. We all must expect a little action here and there.

It’s good to have Saga back. It’s one of my favorite comics these days, and I will enjoy having it in my monthly rotation again. This issue was all about moving characters to their proper places, and it did so with the usual strength and humanity I expect from this series. Fiona Staples’ art continues to be a real treat, and I have no problem with taking a few months off between chapters in order to let her catch up on art. Let the major comic book companies use sloppy fill-in artists to get all their comics out on time. When the quality is this good, I’m more than willing to wait.