“What if I’m good at…other ways of getting stuff?”
Keep reading for a review of Saga #63.
Spoilers below!
I’m going to talk about the art first this issue, mostly because that cover is awfully good. (Brian K. Vaughan even said on instagram that it was “maybe the best cover in the history of things that have covers.”) It’s beautifully composed, all the motion is clearly depicted, and Fiona Staples captured the perfect expression on Alana’s face: annoyance, boredom, a little exhaustion and repressed rage. The way she looks right at the reader, it’s like she’s accusing me of something. It makes me a little uncomfortable and I love it.
The art in the rest of the issue is, as always, amazing. So much of it is beautiful (Gwen’s face when she tells Sophie to speak her mind) or ridiculous (the ancient painting of a Robot king, hilariously weird) or even off-putting (Alana’s bathroom break, or Sir Robot’s face when he suggests someone come back to bed), but no matter what she tries she always pulls it off.
As for the story, we’re split between four fronts this issue:
Alana chats with one of her coworkers in the mind-numbing Why No I’m Sure That’s Not Supposed To Be Amazon warehouse, and juggles wanting to protect her kids with wanting to do absolutely anything to get them off the planet. Also we see a teeny tiny crack in her I Will Not Do Anything Stupid armor, I hope it’s not a premonition of things to come. It’s probably just a little reminder that she’s human, and all the smart, tough decisions she’s been making didn’t come easy, but she made them anyway.
Meanwhile we see Gwen and Sophie having a chat with a Robot Kingdom representative. Gwen’s been playing a very long game in her overtures to the Kingdom, a group that’s always been loyal to her enemies, the Wings. Going by the expression on the Robot’s TV-face, I think she’s making progress. Anyone want to take bets on how long it takes for it to blow up in her face? Because you know it will.
Meanwhile meanwhile Petrichor reminisces about Sir Robot; she tortured the information she needed out of her prisoner so she can relax for a bit.
I love this little look into Sir Robot and Petrichor’s relationship, it looks squalid and unbelievably sweet. He’s so in-your-face with his reassurances: reminding her that she’s not a worse person than he is because of how many people he’s murdered, and scoffing at the idea that anyone is irredeemable.
“You infuriating and magnificent creature. I want to tell you something about forgiveness…”
Finally we see Hazel and Squire go back to talk with the pawnshop owner about bringing people back to life. I’d assumed Squire was going to do this on his own, and I was actually glad to see Hazel went with him. I mean, this means they’re both going to be heartbroken, but at least they’ll be heartbroken together.
It’s ironic that Alana hasn’t jumped at some of the sketchier options to get off planet; she thought the quicker alternatives would be dangerous for Hazel and Squire. If she’d gotten off planet faster, Hazel and Squire wouldn’t have jumped on a plan that’s way more dangerous than the alternatives.