Comic book fans you guys have seen me review alot of books featuring mainstream characters but for once I thought i'd dig a little deeper and find something that's not as well known. After many hours of trying to find the perfect comic book to write a review on I think i've found something truly special and it's also something that I myself havn't even read so here is my review of volume one of Saga.
The plot of the first volume is newly weds and new parents Alana and Marko are members of different races which were at war with each other. After the birth of there daughter Hazel the couple decide to escape the planet in search for a better life and do so by looking for something called the Rocketship Forest. In terms of what I thought of the actual story it's not badly told nor is it a bad story it's a pretty simple story and it's because of that that the story works in my opinion.
Now i've done a bit of digging and this is listed as an epic space opera / fantasy epic which to me makes it sound like Star Wars mixed in with Lord Of The Rings. With that being said that's pretty much exact what this first story is and if that's something you think you'd enjoy then this is the series for you. Even tho I like both Lord Of The Rings and Star Wars I don't really think that they should have been mixed together and in all honesty this first story is pretty dull.
I know i'm going to get alot of hate for what i've just said but in order to do a review you have to list both the positive and negative aspects of whatever it is your reviewing. That said there is alot to love about this story for example the lead characters are really likeable which is always a plus because you want your main heroes to be likeable but at they same time they also feel very relate-able.
The book is written by Brian K. Vaughan who's also worked on alot of X-Men books and alot of stuff for DC. I've not read anything that this guy has written and based on this first arc i'm really missing out because this first story is really well written and given how well received the whole series is i'm going to assume that it's the same for the rest of the series as well. What really did shock me was how good the world building is in this first story like I want to get to know more about this world and that's just from reading the first six issues.
The artwork was done by Fiona Staples who's shockingly not worked on that much outside of the ongoing Archie series from 2015. That really is a shame because damn is her artwork beautiful i'm, not even kidding her art work looks so freaking good it's easily the best artwork that i've seen in a long long time and I hope that she gets to work on more high profile books since her art needs to be seen by more people.
How do I put this but alot of not only the images but also the content in the book it self for a more mature audience and the more mature content doesn't actually feel forced if anything it feels very freaking natural and organic. I will say tho that having a lot of mature images doesn't help reviewers like me since now i've got to choose my images very carefully and this is also a warning to adults as well because there's a lot of swearing nudity and scenes of a sexual nature and that's just in the first issue heck there's even planet who's sole purpose is for people to get laid.
Now just to make things a bit more clear for you guys the first volume of this book is the first six issues of the series. One story lasts six issues and thus one volume is only six issues long and given that there's over fifty issues of this series there's going to be a lot of volumes to collect which i'm sure is worth it if your a die hard collector but since that's not me i'm going to tell you right now i'm not going to review the next volume of this series this will be the only review you'll see for now just because reading alot of volumes is alot of work for any sane person to even try.
These two images form part of the reason why i've had to throw up a warning earlier in the review just because I could very easily see alot of people taking issue with the fact that i've used images that not only feature nudity but also gore. Also possibly adding to that fact is the fact that in a rather bold move the front cover shows a young woman breast feeding that's something that's never seen on a comic book cover and I think it's brave of Image Comics to allow a book that has that as the cover to get released.
Now there is a little bit of action in these first six issues and I have to say that the action is honestly pretty decent and I hope that it gets better later on in the series run. Now alot of the comic books i've reviewed all feature characters i'm familiar with for example when you pick up a Deadpool comic even if you've just seen the movies you know what to expect from him here tho I was discovering these characters for the first time and that was honestly really refreshing since it was like I was reading the book when it first came out.
Overall I know that this review didn't do the book as a whole justice and it's only just scratched the surface of what was in the first volume but I honestly feel that i did a good job covering this epic volume because that's the best word I can use to describe it as epic and I hope that this doesn't get adapted into anything this first volume gets an 9 out of 10 from me.