Saga has been in our lives, with some breaks, for thirteen years and the weight of that time can be felt now more than ever. The series has evolved from the days of two young parents on the run, and has now reached a point where the narrative itself is really living up to the name of the series. This always has been a “saga” in grand terms, but Saga #72 brings us a check-in point for so many specific characters, places, and points in the plot that it feels like the creative team of Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan are reminding us of the scope that their world has. Not to mention, the pair deliver a story where they show that they can change everything without killing anyone (for once) and with just a single piece of shattering dialogue.
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Saga #72 not only concludes the latest arc of the series, but puts the entire series on a path toward what will be the final batch of stories (Vaughan notes in the letters section the series is now “two thirds complete”). The framing device for Saga #72 is a proclamation by King Robot, it’s a simple one, with major ramifications for not only all the characters that we know but some brand new ones that have just arrived in the series (and some that got lost along the way). Vaughan is able to take this simple message and frame it around every little nook and cranny of the galaxy, not to mention the varying perspectives that come with that and how they all react. It’s par for the course to denote “Brian K. Vaughan is a good writer,” but he wields an effective pen in this issue.
Some sequences with characters last a few pages as they breakdown and try to dissect this major change in the series, while others are just one panel (the reactions here given depth by the always on point Staples, of course). Vaughan manages to find ways to look at this change (a shifting in allegiances that shocks everyone) through the lens of all manner of people that it will effect, leaving the reader to really sit and wonder about what comes next. To bring it all home of course, Staples and Vaughan remind us at the end of the issue what this story is really about and who our main throughline is; and they do it by making us laugh.
Staples’ eccentric ideas across Saga continue to be a defining attribute in this issue. From a small radio that screams at the listeners with a tiny mouth to a spaceship made of bones, each new page brings a delightful surprise and something you’ve quite literally never seen before. Even when Hazel was just a kid, Staples had an uncanny knack for making her expression a specific focal point of the entire narrative. Now that she’s a teen, with even more personality than readers could have predicted, it’s a unique facet of Saga‘s visual motifs that are its bedrock.
Saga #72 has positioned itself as a unique turning point for the series, not only in how it has concluded this specific arc (one could argue it didn’t fully gel at times) but in how it frames the final 36 issues of the series (Vaughan’s letter column says they’re still aiming for 108 total). The series has always lived up to the hype that it had behind it, but with this specific tale Saga has cemented its place as fully embodying its name. Now all we have is the wait once again, and the questions about what comes next will keep us afloat while we wait for what comes next.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Published by Image Comics
On March 19, 2025
Written by Brian K. Vaughan
Art by Fiona Staples
Letters by Fonografiks
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Image courtesy of Max
