Saga, Volume 7

Saga, Vol. 7 by Brian K. Vaughan
Illustrated by: Fiona Staples
Published: 2017
Publisher: Image Comics
Length: 152 pages
Collects: issues #37–42

I had no idea the new volume of Saga was out until I saw it on the shelf, so that was a nice surprise. This series has had some ups and downs, as most do I suppose, but overall it’s still been fantastic. And honestly, even the downs haven’t been that bad, forgettable but still enjoyable to read.

In this volume the group is forced to land on a war-torn comet to gather fuel. They end up staying longer than expected and allowing a local family of native inhabits, who are now refugees, to stay with them. It’s basically just the story of their time on the comet, but a surprising amount actually happens. Relationships are built up and torn apart, and it was probably a good idea to slow down the plot and reestablish the group dynamics after having the crew scattered for the last couple of volumes.

In a way this is a self-contained story arc, the sort of story-of-the-week that usually really annoys me in comics and television. I hate when series do side-stories that don’t move the main plot along, and this did feel like that, but it also managed to rise above. Enough happened that the emotional repercussions will affect the crew for the rest of the series, so it definitely gets a pass in my book. In fact, it turned out to be one of my favourite volumes.

I love how much character development this series has seen. Some of these characters are unrecognizable from how they were introduced, and the relationships continue to be complicated without feeling unnaturally dramatic (although past issues were guilty of this). I have no idea if this is true, but I’ve read in a couple of comments that they plan to do ten volumes of this, so there’s only a few left. I’m excited to see where it goes, but also sad to see it ramping up to finish.