SAGA #11

Review by: ghostmann

What did the
iFanboy
community think?

1401
Pulls
Avg Rating: 4.8
 
Users who pulled this comic:
Users who reviewed this comic:
Story by Brian K. Vaughan
Art & Cover by Fiona Staples

Size: 0 pages
Price: 2.99

“Daddy! Daddy! Tell me a bed time story! Please!!!”

“Okay, okay. But just a little one cause it’s getting late and you have to wake up early for school tomorrow.”

“Thanks Dada.”

“Okay then let’s see…. hmmm…. Once upon a time there lived a turtle named, uh, Turtle Turtlebaum. He lived in a quiet house in a quiet countryside and enjoyed drinking green tea and sitting by the fire warming his shell on cold winter nights.

One day a knock came at the door and Turtle went to open it to see who it could be. It was his friend Bruce the Shark.

“Bruce, my friend. How good to see you. Won’t you come in.”

“Thank you Turtle.”

Turtle offers Bruce some tea and….”

“But wait Daddy. How can Bruce the shark breath out of water?”

“Oh, well, uh you see, he uh, he wears a helmet full of water. That way he can walk around on dry land and be okay.”

“But Daddy, how can a shark walk on land?”

“Well baby, you see, Bruce gets around on a skateboard and wheels himself everywhere he needs to go on dry land.”

“Oh well, I guess that makes sense.”

“Yes, okay, now where was I, oh yes, Turtle offers Bruce some tea and they begin to talk. Turtle asks to what he owes this visit and Bruce very worriedly says that the Earth is trouble. That a giant cosmic entity known as The World Eater is on its way to Earth to eat it and that they must do something to stop it.

“Turtle looks very intently at Bruce and says he knows just what to do……”

“What Daddy? What are Turtle and Bruce going to do to stop the World Eater?”

“Well honey, you see, the only way to defeat The World Eater is to uh….. is to uh… oh yes, the only way to Defeat the World Eater is to subject it to a very high pitch tone. A high pitch that has never been uttered in over 30 years. The last time it was was by the Band The Bee Gees. They were able to hit this high pitch tone – that tone that will defeat the World Eater.

“So where are the Bee Gee’s Daddy?”

“Well sweetheart, they broke up a long time ago. So the only way for Turtle and Bruce to ask the Bee Gees for their help is to use a time machine and travel back in time to the year 1977 and ask them to come back to the year 2013 to help save the world.

But that is enough for tonight. Time for bed.”

“Ahhh Dad,. okay. Goodnight. I can’t wait to hear the rest of the story.”

“Yeah, me too.”

This is based on a real event that took place between me and my daughter. The story I told here is a real one I told her that night, making stuff up off the top of my head. I’m sure people reading this review with kids have done the exact same thing – telling a story on the fly – free styling – making shit up as you go. It’s fun and a exciting and can lead to some pretty outrageous events taking place in your story.

When I read Saga I feel like Brian k. Vaughn is telling me a bed time story – making shit up as he goes along to further the story and enrich the plot and also to get his characters out of hairy situations they find themselves places in by their creator.

Not that is a bad thing – in fact it can lead to some pretty spectacular events such as we have seen in Saga – Cliffhangers that we find ourselves eagerly waiting for to see how BKV will get them out of this one – but again, it’s the “bedtime story” juxtaposition, there is always a way that our heroes will make it out of their predicament because the person telling the story can make up any thing we wants because this a bedtime story and the “real world rules” don’t apply here. There is always someway, some magic sword, some special word, some mystic orb, that will appear and keep the story moving forward. But I should expected nothing less from the dude that gave us “Ex Machina”

A deus ex machina Latin: “god from the machine” pronounced [ˈdeus eks ˈmaː.kʰi.na]; plural: dei ex machina) is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved, with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object. Depending on how it’s done, it can be intended to move the story forward when the writer has “painted himself into a corner” and sees no other way out, to surprise the audience, or to bring a happy ending into the tale.

I think about the 1966 Batman film with Adam West – there he is, Batman, stuck on a buoy in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by sharks, no way of getting out of this. Batman is doomed. But wait, Batman just happens to have a can of Bat-Shark Repellent to help him escape. Thank god!

So, that is my one problem, my one “bug” with Saga. It’s a great tale and one I enjoy but still – it’s a bedtime story for adults that don’t need to be tucked in anymore.

Story: 4 - Very Good
Art: 5 - Excellent

Leave a Comment