After the first two volumes of Saga which involved a lot of running and a lot of chasing by our respective heroes and villains – boiling it all down nice and simple of course, this volume was a nice interlude amongst the action for everyone to catch a breath.  The running ceased, for the moment, as Marko, Alana and the gang reached their goal and thus a moment to rest in the eye of the storm.  The chasing was also halted as Prince Robot IV ran out of leads, momentarily, and The Will seemed to have a crisis of conscience.  So while everything may not be perfect for anyone on either side, it looks as if everyone is able to take a little time and get their bearings.

Brian K. Vaughn weaves another solid arc of his ongoing adventure that sees Marko and Alana learn more about themselves and just what it is they want and where they see themselves going.  We even get to know a bit more about Marko’s mother of all people and it is actually quite nice as she adds another dynamic to the group that was not present before.  Hazel still narrates the tale and it is a perfect choice as she details her life growing up, and how her parents and everyone around her dealt with the fact of being on the run and being literal outcasts from both of their races.

The ongoing plot featuring The Will, Liar Cat (or Honest Cat depending on who you ask), Slave Girl and Marko’s ex-fiancée Gwendolyn, is by far the most interesting part of the book this go round.  Vaughn takes our bounty hunter, The Will, one of the most dogged and determined of all bounty hunters in the universe, who has decided that he has had enough, is tired, and wants to retire.  While his thoughts were being influenced by the very planet they were camped upon, it was a complete reversal of the character that was a little surprising.  Even though his thoughts might have been pushed in that direction, he must have already had such inklings present for them to be realized so surely.  There is also a little bit of sadness every time he thinks about his former beau, The Stalk which is not helping him or his comrades should they want to get off the planet.

This particular volume also has a little sub-plot featuring two reporters similar to Woodward and Bernstein who have discovered a story that keeps getting more interesting with every bit they find out, specifically our lovers, Marko and Alana.  As they go about their job though, they run into one roadblock after another until finally they are set upon by a woman named The Brand, a woman most people do not like to call as she is clearly psychopathic.  She threatens them instead of killing them because she actually enjoys their writing, though that threat is more than verbal and happens to be a poison that is triggered by any mention of the story they are working on.  It is an amusing solution to a problem that some feel would do more harm than good.

Fiona Staples continues to illustrate this book as beautifully as ever and if possible, has gotten better with every issue that passes.  Her pictures are as strange and gorgeous as can be and the fact that all of her character work is so different from the norm, helps put across the theme of tolerance and acceptance that is so prevalent in the book.  Whether it is a guy with one eye, or goat horns or skin of a different colour, her designs work wonderfully with Vaughan’s interstellar Romeo and Juliet.  If she were to ever decide to leave the book, it would definitely suffer without her.

In the end, it is not to say that there is no action in this issue, there is, and that there is no killing, because there is some of that too, but for the most part, we get to see how both our heroes and antagonists deal with a little downtime where they do not have to worry about anything other than themselves.  Almost.  Saga remains one of the best books on the stands today because not only is it consistently well written and well-drawn, but because you can associate with the material, some to a greater degree than others.  It also works because you root for them; you want them to come out on top.  When a writer, and artist, can do that for a fictional character, you know you have something special on your hands.

4.5 out of 5