“The strongest relationships all contain some element of mutually assured destruction.”
Keep reading for a review of Saga #69.
Minor spoilers below: I avoid the biggest plot points but I do talk around the edges of several of them.
I don’t think you could ever simplify any issue of Saga into one “theme,” but if I had to try I’d say this issue is about how opening ourselves up to another human being always gives them the ability to rip our hearts out.
It could be fairly benign, like Hazel’s new friend Emesis telling her she’s not that great a guitarist and should maybe sing instead. Hardly life-threatening, but Hazel’s twelve years old and has made her identity all about being a guitarist. Anybody stomping on our dreams at that age, however nicely, stings like hell.
Or it could be the Will getting Gwen hooked on Heroine (good job, dude) and not knowing exactly what dead person she’s dreaming of. The full-page reveal of that shocked the hell out of me, I never saw it coming.
Or it could be actually life-threatening, like Alana getting closer to her friend Feld. She and Hazel are hiding from entire planetary governments, but the draw of human connection is too strong to resist, even when you know better. I hope she’s not going to regret her choices but man alive, this is Brian K. Vaughan we’re talking about. Of course she’s going to regret her choices.
Not related to that theme, but a plot point came up this issue: I’d forgotten about Gwen’s deal with the Robot Kingdom. We pick up the threads of that in the final few pages of the issue, and it’s definitely going to get interesting. Also Lying Cat is back, yay!
As for the art, it’s not just gorgeous, it’s also wonderfully designed. The cover for starters: what a lovely play on the concept of 69. The full-page reveal I mentioned before is also fantastic, especially with the silhouette of Gwen’s head taking up more than half the page, it makes the reveal that much more like tunnel vision, hyper-focused on one thing. And the final page is gorgeously composed with so much emotion coming through, I love it.