Oh, Brian K. Vaughan, your cliffhangers are so precious. Especially when you don’t have them payoff.

After turning the softest of all possible cliffhangers into a hard cliffhanger last issue, Vaughan does the opposite here. He turns a hard cliffhanger into a soft one. Big yawn.

To say the least.

As for the resolution to the last cliffhanger? There isn’t one. Instead, Vaughan skirts the resolution in a fantastic dialogue scene. It’s incredibly well-written, insightful into relationships between couples and so on and so forth. It’s just not a payoff for a cliffhanger.

Most of this issue’s scenes are rather well-written, with some great details (a disemboweled ghost amusing a baby), but the issue is incredibly problematic. He makes the protagonists exceedingly boring.

The plotting machinations show through, making it very hard to get invested in the characters. Vaughan forces one to keep his or her guard up.

CREDITS

Writer, Brian K. Vaughan; artist and colorist, Fiona Staples; letterer, Fonografiks; editor, Eric Stephenson; publisher, Image Comics.

It doesn’t take long for the Runaways to, you know, runaway. The protagonists–whose names I really can’t remember, the mom and the dad–are left with one. She’s a ghost who floats around with her intestines hanging out. Staples manages not to make it too gross, just uncomfortable.

Vaughan’s pacing is once again questionable. They still aren’t out of the literal woods yet. While they move along, the supporting cast has a couple scenes. The icky gross bounty hunter from the last issue calls the suave one from the first issue. It’s a funny scene, but these aren’t compelling characters.

However, the robot prince turns out to be a prince in the Dubya sense and tortures a prisoner. He might turn out to be an interesting character.

And Vaughan’s big cliffhanger? Eh. Maybe at issue nine it would work, but at issue three only he’s invested, not the reader.

CREDITS

Writer, Brian K. Vaughan; artist and colorist, Fiona Staples; letterer, Fonografiks; editor, Eric Stephenson; publisher, Image Comics.

Did Vaughan just have a Runaways crossover in Saga or is it just a coincidence? Technically I guess it’d be Staples, but whatever.

This issue doesn’t have as much sci-fi, except at the beginning. The beginning has its problems though–Vaughan blows off something he took time setting up in the previous issue. He might come back to it, but it’s a bad precedent to set right off the bat.

Otherwise the issue’s good. Vaughan’s humor makes up for the bumpier spots. Not a lot goes on–the two protagonists are stuck in a forest (again, it feels like an eighties fantasy movie–oh, right, Princess Bride), while the robot prince arrives to hunt them down.

The finish has a lot of action, with a good icky surprise. Thanks to Vaughan and Staples, Saga has a lot of potential, but they need to get out of the damn forest.

CREDITS

Writer, Brian K. Vaughan; artist and colorist, Fiona Staples; letterer, Fonografiks; editor, Eric Stephenson; publisher, Image Comics.

Have you ever seen Krull or Legend? I feel like Brian K. Vaughan’s seen both and figured he could do something better. So far, Saga is a galaxy-trotting sci-fi comic with fantasy elements (most of the alien races seem to have their basis in traditional fantasy) and Vaughan’s biting modern humor. There’s a bounty hunter who gets an unlimited AmEx card but he’s also got a magical cat for detecting liars.

Oh, and a unicorn woman hires him.

It’s an oversized issue, which introduces us to the narrator–the baby of the two protagonists, a fairy girl and a guy with horns–and the some of the supporting cast. There’s the bounty hunter and then a robot prince with a TV for a head and some performance issues.

Fiona Staples’s art has personality and Vaughan’s having fun.

Saga‘s either different or gives a great impression of being so.

CREDITS

Writer, Brian K. Vaughan; artist and colorist, Fiona Staples; letterers, Steven Finch and Staples; editor, Eric Stephenson; publisher, Image Comics.