I know that whenever I sit down with an issue of Saga, I need to slot in a good 1/2 hour or 40 minutes, because every issue I tend to read through twice (at least) and then also pour over the entertaining, and three-pages deep letters column. I love that various writers at Marvel and Image are taking ownership over their letter columns and engaging directly with the readership. It's so much different, and more official than message boards.This issue, like every issue is a blast, and I love watching Brian K. Vaughan's work as he slowly expands his universe of characters, as well as his universe itself. He often starts off with his characters as archetypes, so you know what he's going for with the character, but he then explodes them by turning them into people beyond just "tough-ass mercenary" or "nagging mother-in-law". There's bad people in this book, but there's no straight out bad guys, just like the good guys aren't necessarily the bestest people either, even if they're really trying to be. I like Vaughan's use of technology, which is often super advanced and just as often defiantly and anachronistically retro (a lot of that probably falls on Fiona Staples' able hands), and also just as often biological, showing us things we haven't seen before.
With the heaps of praise the book is garnering constantly, I keep expecting the cynical fanboy backlash, but then I realize that even if that does happen, the book is so damn good it's still going to accelerate in popularity, drawing in many, many readers from outside the fanboy and comic con masses. This is a breakthrough book, a comic book that loves and embraces the medium without excluding those less or unfamiliar with the format. If you're a comic and/or sci-fi and/or fantasy fan, and you're not reading this book, I have to ask why not?
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