Every New Issue of Saga Used to Feel Special, So What Happened?

Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, was one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved titles of the 2010s. The series kicked off in 2012, and told the story of Alana and Marko, lovers from different sides of a war who fell in love at a prison camp, escaped, and had a baby. This led to both sides chasing them down, and their life as a family is told after the fact by their daughter Hazel. Saga hooked readers with its mixture of Star Wars-style action and the kind of family drama you get out of adulthood and marriage. It’s an often beautiful book, and every issue of Saga had something great going on. Fans got a yearly hiatus, but then 2018 happened and the book disappeared for three years. Saga’s return was a huge deal, but since then, the book has never reached the heights it did before. Every time Saga goes on hiatus, fans worry it will be years before it comes back.

However, Saga has greater problems than just too long hiatuses. Saga is still a great read, but fans are nowhere near as rabid for it anymore. Saga Wednesday used to be a huge deal every month. Now, it’s not talked about nearly as much. Saga is a book that connected with fans in multiple ways, and that connection feels gone. With most of the books that it premiered alongside during the 2010s Image boom already over, Saga soldiers on, diminished from what it once was. Why did this happen?

Saga‘s Fall Can Be Traced Back to One Issue

I’ve always felt like Saga‘s turning point was Saga #54. This issue was the last one before the long hiatus — we were told that it would only last a year, where the team would rest and then bank issues — and it was also the issue where Marko was killed by The Will. It was a huge moment in the story. Saga had made sure that we knew anyone could die at any time — the death of Izabel in the “War on Phang” arc still gets me to this day — but the death of Marko was something else. Fathers die in life. Parents die in life, and Saga is a book about life. That’s why it became so popular — we recognized parts of our own lives in the book — but the loss of Marko killed one of the best parts of the series. Alana is a great character, but Alana also isn’t always likable. In fact, Alana has often been the problem with the family. Marko was the rock, and Alana was the mad one. They made a good team, and now the team was gone. And I feel like this is what has hurt the book in the long run.

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Post-hiatus Saga is still very good, but it’s reached a place where it’s just kind of treading water. We’ve lost Marko, the family’s tree ship, Izabel, Prince Robot IV, and basically everything we liked about the series (if Ghus dies, we riot, folks). The book is stuck in something of an emo holding pattern, where everyone is sad, and a lot of the energy the book has is gone. Hazel and her adopted brother Squire, Prince Robot IV’s son, bring some energy to the book, but their adventures aren’t as exciting as the book used to be. Plus, there’s another problem with the book, but this one is more of a Brian K. Vaughan problem — the middle malaise. Vaughan is amazing with characters, and can build insanely compelling plots. However, there get to be points in Vaughan books where we hit a long holding pattern, meant to set up the ending of the book. Saga has hit this point in the story. Fan favorite characters and concepts are gone, and we’ve been stuck in a set-up arc for about seventeen issues now. Saga still has its moments, but they are fewer and more far between. These are the problems with current Saga, and they have leached a lot of the energy out of the book.

Saga Will Almost Certainly Stick the Landing but This Middle Malaise Is a Problem

I love Saga. Honestly most of the people who read it do. Saga is The Sandman of the ’10s and ’20s. I’ll explain. Back in the day, if you wanted to get someone to like comics, to show them that comics are more than just people in tights whomping on each other, you’d hand them The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes. Saga became that. It’s the book you can hand to someone, they love it, and then they go to the comic store, discovering more stuff they love. Saga makes people comic readers because Saga speaks to people on a level that most other comics don’t. The interstellar war, violence, and sex definitely help, but the real reason people love Saga is that we see our families in it. We see our husbands, wives, partners, and children.

Saga is still a good read, but it’s no longer the amazing comic it once was. We’ve reached a point where the story has slowed down, the characters developments aren’t as interesting, and nothing feels like it’s moving forward. We’ve had these kind of times before — the Circuit arc, for example. However, the Circuit arc still had interesting things happening. There was compelling drama and pieces were falling into place. We’ve reached a point where all of the developments aren’t as cool as they used to be. I believe Saga will get better, but the book is half the comic it used to be.

Saga is on sale now.