Saga #55 Picks Up Where It Left Off With A Story About Family & Survival

Saga #55 hit stands this week, bringing the acclaimed Image Comics series’ three-and-a-half-year hiatus to an end. Writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Fiona Staples previously rationalised this extended break as a much-needed opportunity to recharge their creative batteries, and it clearly paid off: they dive straight back into their epic sci-fi/fantasy story as though no time has passed at all. Saga #55 is itself set three or so years after the events of Saga #54, with fugitive Marko long dead, his wife (and fellow fugitive) Alana reduced to smuggling to make ends meet, and their daughter Hazel, now a rebellious 10-year-old. We spend most of Saga #55 reacquainting ourselves with these characters, the people they care about, and the wider intergalactic community that’s so hellbent on wiping them all out – and honestly, it’s a joy.

It’s hard to describe how reassuring it is to slip back into Saga’s fully realised make-believe world, even after such a lengthy break, but it’s a very real feeling all the same. A big part of this is down to Vaughan’s scripting, which is as sharp as ever, and Staples’ distinctive blend of sketchy figures and painterly backgrounds, which has lost none of its sumptuous appeal. But more than that, it’s the comfort of reconnecting with people (fictional or not) who we relate to and who matter to us. It’s been more than three years since we last saw Alana and Hazel – or other major players like The Will, Gwendolyn, and Lying Cat – and we missed them. And yet, Saga #55 isn’t meant to reassure us. Unlike most other space operas out there, this isn’t an uplifting story about good triumphing over evil or love conquering all, and it never was. Instead, fittingly enough for a comic book series many feared had died a quiet death, this is a story about survival.

Not just in the literal sense, either – although there’s plenty of that sort of thing in Saga #55, too. Alana is doing everything she can to provide for Hazel and her adopted brother Squire, and although we don’t witness the direct aftermath of Marko’s death, it’s clear his murder is a wound mother and daughter are still recovering from. They’re not alone in that sense: Squire’s father died alongside Marko, and the trauma has left the poor kid mute ever since. Family has always been at the heart of Saga, and Saga #55 is a portrait of a family that’s just hanging in there.

Beyond the obvious stuff, Saga #55 is a story about how ideas survive, something that Vaughan and Staples signpost in the very first panel of the very first page. But then, ideas fighting for survival is a theme that runs throughout the entire series, just as Hazel runs for her life through the opening pages of this issue. Parenthood as a stand-in for artistic creation is Saga’s central metaphor, and we’re constantly reminded that, like children, ideas are incredibly fragile and rely on devoted caregivers to make it through to fruition.

So, it’s not just the collaborative idea that Hazel represents – peaceful co-existence between Marko and Alana’s warring factions – being tested in Saga #55. The very idea of Saga itself, the idea that Vaughan and Staples had of an independent mature readers comic book series about a real family in an unreal world, is fighting for survival. So much could go wrong at this point in Saga’s run, most notably creator burnout and audience apathy – and either of these factors could have killed the series with this latest issue. Vaughan and Staples are more aware of this than anyone, so it’s hardly surprising that the opening pages of Saga #55 are all about a crazy, brilliant idea – namely Hazel – just barely outracing disaster.

Hazel ultimately escapes her dire predicament because Vaughan and Staples believe passionately enough that both she and the comic book series she now effectively headlines is too good an idea to give up on. And that’s another thing Saga #55 reminds us of: not even good ideas flourish on their own. Heck, Marko worked overtime to make a better version – a better idea – of himself over the preceding 54 issues, only to wind up as the hollowed-out skull at the centre of Saga #55’s harshest scene. Ideas constantly need to be protected, supported, and even fought for, or they risk dying out. That’s as true in the real world as it is in the fictional universe of Saga, and it’s a truth that posed as much of a threat to Saga #55 – coming off the back of such a lengthy break – as it does to the characters within its pages. This story about survival could’ve easily transformed into one about extinction, instead.

Fortunately, early reviews and the online buzz surrounding Saga #55 suggest that Vaughan and Staples aren’t the only ones willing to do whatever it takes to keep their idea alive. Image Comics hasn’t released the official numbers yet, but the general sense is that Saga #55 will match earlier issues’ strong sales – or even exceed them. Collectively, comic book readers have agreed to help Vaughan and Staples continue raising their hyper-violent, profane indie comics baby, most of them until it’s all grown-up when the last ever instalment, Saga #108, finally drops.

Saga #55 marks the moment they recommitted to doing this – and that, above all else, is what makes this latest issue a story about family and survival.

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