Maybe there’s a reason the word “collaborator” has become synonymous with “war criminal.”
Keep reading for a review of Saga #59.
Some spoilers below.
First off, the art for this issue was lovely as always, but also dynamic and, in places, really funny. I absolutely love the panel of the frog jumping at the other bandmate, with the caption arcing underneath, it was hilarious and perfectly composed.
As for the story, I was going to say this is a quiet issue where nothing traumatic happened, but let’s face it, if something violent and/or upsetting didn’t happen in an issue of Saga, it wouldn’t be an issue of Saga, amirite? It was just a slightly lighter amount of trauma this time around.
We get the answer to what Bombazine agreed to do: on the surface, it looks like the Skipper is blackmailing him into…staying on the ship as First Mate? I’m just not buying it. Bombazine’s past is apparently horrific, using it to get a new crew member feels like using a gold ingot to buy a candy bar. I’m waiting for the other, emotionally devastating, shoe to drop.
And speaking of emotionally unstable, hee, the Skipper’s line and his posture right after made me giggle:
Silly goose. If every drug deal ended bad, nobody would ever be on drugs.
And fucking everybody’s on drugs.
In any other comic we’d have seen the panel of him looking up as he says the last part, and then we’d move on to the rest of the story. Instead, we get a panel of him just standing there looking up into nothing like a crazy person while Alana and Bombazine are all “…..okaaaaaayyy.” That was priceless.
I thought Alana’s reaction to Bombazine’s decision was very interesting. It was perfectly natural, so it took me a second to realize it was a two minute trip through all the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance (tho let’s face it, most likely Alana’s “acceptance” is just for show and she’s still stuck in depression. About this event and other events.)
Now the secret agent’s reaction to the dead fish was also perfect in a completely different way: a good friend of mine mentioned a relative who carries water and supplies into the desert to help lost and injured animals, but fervently hopes immigrants from Mexico will die a slow and painful death from exposure. (And you’re kidding yourself if you thought I meant to say “illegal immigrants.”) The agent looked absolutely devastated about that fish.
And I have to say, the revelation on the final page shocked the heck out of me, I just never saw it coming, and my goodness is this going to complicate things.
