[divider type=”space_thin”]Writer: Brian K Vaughan / Artist: Fiona Staples / Image Comics
What left off as weird and disturbing last issue strangely mellowed when diving into #46. Alana having passed out, the ghost brother is still present and the ominously named “Endwife” is coming to their rescue. Their appearance is unsettling but is made even more so, weirdly by how serene and straightforward their home and decorum is. Surely, the other shoe has not dropped yet in the Endwife’s aid of Alana, but we also get a bit of Marko’s politics as well, having to face some real hard truths and idealism while his wife’s life is being saved by a doctor that performs abortions.
Alongside this story is Hazel and her heartwrenching interactions with Kurti as she is forced to face the most brutal of realities again and again. Vaughan and Staples, side by side, pull some heartstrings on this as we can’t help but feel for the little winged and horned girl who can’t catch a break.
Elsewhere, we see the aftermath of Prince Robot coming to save Petrichor. It is definitely as funny as one would imagine with these two characters together, but admittedly it goes some pretty expected places. For a book that is so good because it successfully finds ways to go left, I was surprised to see how streamlined and conventional their story went. Though, there’s till plenty of time for that to turn around.
As I stated before, what seems most crazy about the art is how clinical and “normal” Endwife’s domain looks and that’s a credit to Staples. In addition to just the general consistent quality she pumps out, I sincerely enjoyed just about every physical representation of Prince Robot this issue. Staples is really doing the Lord’s work there.
Not as potent as some previous issues, Saga continues to bring a quality, weird book each month. With not a ton happening, it did set the stage for some interesting movements to come.
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I come here for the best Saga reviews. 🙂
OK, this cover is like the #43 cover: that one has person riding a zebra, and this one has a *bone saw*.
When I saw the preview, I thought “OK, Alana doesn’t need any cuts in her *skeleton* to remove the dead fetus, Petrichor wouldn’t need any skeletal cuts either because sex-change surgery doesn’t go there, so who *is* the bone saw for?” When I read the issue and it had no amputations, I was like, what?
It looks like a Civil War-era bone saw, and those were used to save soldiers from gangrene by amputating dead limbs, and Alana’s had gangrene too what with all the dead flesh in her womb. So there’s that reminding-us-of-gangrene theme. ..but bone saws can’t treat *all* cases of gangrene, just the ones out on a limb.
As for the scene of Kurti disappearing, it did seem like he was dying again a la Isabel. 🙁
Then I thought, wait a minute, wasn’t the possibility of him being alive *already* ended back when Alana’s miscarriage first began? So it’s like he’s from an already-alternate timeline and those weirdo pregnant-with-a-dead-Wreath-fetus magic powers let Alana open the door for Kurti to visit, and Alana finally ending her doomed pregnancy ends her magic powers and just closes the door. It’s not that Kurti’s gone, it’s like Hazel just can’t see or hear him anymore and he’s off doing whatever he was doing anyway on his side of the door.
Hazel and Marko, *they* still have magic…
Maybe we’ll see Kurti again in a later issue? 😉 That last letter in the letters column at the end, with its “Someone wouldn’t have been born if X happened, therefore X is bad” angle, got me thinking: what if the *next* alternate-timeline-visitor kid we see is someone who wasn’t born *because* Hazel was born? Like if X = Alana not getting pregnant with Hazel, ovulating again a month later, and having *that* egg fertilized, or X = Marko not having sex with Gwendolyn ASAP in high school then staying with Gwen instead of meeting Alana?
The term “endwife” is a clever spin on the word “midwife” but even reminded me of http://www.phillyvoice.com/doula-dying-connecting-birth-and-death/ too.
Now people can add “how do Robots kiss with those faces?” to the “how do Robots eat with those faces?” thing. 😉