Saga Volume Eleven

Saga Volume Eleven by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (2023 Image Comics Inc. softback 160pp) 

 

This is going to be brief because there’s simply not a great deal to say about this, the eleventh collected volume of an on-going comic book series. Saga has been going since 2012 and I’ve been collecting these softback versions for about a decade. This volume is certainly not the place to start reading if you’re new. I understand all previous volumes are still in print and are readily available. All volumes are also available in digital form and I surprised myself by discovering I had volume 1-9 as pdfs already as part of a larger set of Image Comics publications that were offered by the Humble Bundle website recently.

To the uninitiated, Saga has been telling the tale of Alana and Marko, soldiers on opposite sides of a galactic war who fell in love, created a family and then went on the run as the authorities, media and other interested parties decided to hunt them down.

There was a major development a couple of volumes back that took Marko out of the story followed by a four-year hiatus of the comic series. Now it has resumed I’m not sure the story-telling has really resumed the momentum. Although things still happen, it feels like its treading water somewhat but perhaps the author is just laying the groundwork for big things that are still to happen.

In this volume we find Alana and the family seemingly stranded on a backwater planet scrabbling to raise money to survive and perhaps find their back way off-world. Alana is working with assorted aliens in an Amazon-like warehouse while the children beg on the streets and look for their own hustle.

Meanwhile the mercenary ‘The Will’ is having adventures which involve his former girlfriend and their associates while Landfall government agent Gale has found new leads which brings him closer to finding the family but puts his own life in danger.

Alana discovers a possible way out but then has to rescue the children who have essentially gone looking for magic beans to bring back Marko.

Overall, there are not huge developments in this volume but you can’t fault the writing – Vaughan can generate emotion from the reader in a couple of panels while Staples remains on top form with her artwork.

Good but are we still 10 volumes away from any resolution?