Saga Volume Two by Brian K Vaughan and illustrated by Fiona Staples

Saga Volume Two, written by Brian K Vaughan and illustrated by Fiona Staples is the second volume of collected comic issues. It contains issues 7 to 12. It continues the story right where Volume One left off, telling us more about the background and history of Mako, the narrator's father.

SAGA is sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the universe. Thanks to her star-crossed parents Marko and Alana, newborn baby Hazel has already survived lethal assassins, rampaging armies, and horrific monsters, but in the cold vastness of outer space, the little girl encounters her strangest adventure yet... grandparents.

I didn't think about it that much when I was reading Volume One, but I quite like the style of the narration in Saga. The way it's included puts me in mind of voice overs in movies which take place over action-y scenes and that was exactly how I pictured it. It also means that, despite the narrator still being a baby in the comic (not much time has passed since it started), we can start to get to know her as an adult.

Volume Two introduces a few new characters — one in particular that I wasn't expecting to see so soon — and progresses the plot incrementally. That is one of the frustrating things about reviewing comic books; the nature of the medium makes them very brief and difficult to go into much depth over. (I say this before having listened to the Galactic Suburbia Spoileriffic episode; I'm sure they found plenty to talk about for almost two hours.) So I present a few random thoughts.

I was amused that the language written in blue letters is called Blue. I also checked what it was with Google Translate. I had suspected it was Esperanto, and turns out it is. It was an interesting choice to have a couple of pages of dialogue written entirely in Blue. That was the point at which I decided to check what the language was, but I ended up not translating all of it because it wasn't mysterious from the context (and also because lazy). Still, it was an interesting contrast to other scenes where only one person is speaking in Blue and the other doesn't necessarily understand them.

I was also really taken by the style of the historical vision art. (I would call it a flashback but it flashed to before the character's lifetime.) The way it sort of blurred was really cool. It was only used in one bit, but it was memorable.

Saga Volume Two is a recommended read for people who have read and enjoyed Volume One. I don't recommend starting at Volume Two because of plot continuity. I am definitely going to read the third volume.

4 / 5 stars

First published: 2013, Image Comics
Series: Saga, Volume Two of ongoing (? Three so far)
Format read: Paper!
Source: Purchased from the Science Fiction Bookshop