Saga #53 Review

Writer: Brian K. Vaughan / Artist: Fiona Staples / Image Comics Whenever you open an issue of Saga, it’s hard to anticipate how exactly Vaughan and Staples are going to eviscerate you emotionally. There is a complex network of personal and political relationships that, over the course of fifty plus issues, have become intricately entangled. Every plotline seems perfectly timed with the flavor of the month. Perhaps Vaughan is precognizant or, perhaps more realistically, he is exceedingly aware of the universality and timelessness of these struggles for acceptance in a world where the other is ostracized and it’s hard to determine truth. Saga #53 opens up with a seedy exchange in a underground garage. Staples harkens back to old school cloak and dagger. Deepthroat exchanging information about the highest order of governance. Special Agent Gale with Landfall Intelligence confronts the Upshear and Doff’s editor-in-chief about their brewing hit piece with a cold demeanor. It is calculating and vicious, and a bit too reminiscent of the character assassinations and proliferation of a particular narrative that is rampant on news networks. It also reminds us of the vast significance of Hazel’s mere existence in the grand scheme.

Meanwhile, our central cast of characters is still searching for Squire. And all of the plot points, all the rising tension, come to a breaking point. Well, breaking points would be more accurate. Every lead finds themselves facing the cumulative consequences…