Saga #7

Written by Brian K. Vaughan
Art by Fiona Staples

I know this issue came out a couple of weeks ago, but the store where I shop got shorted their entire order (thanks Diamond!), so it took until this week before I scored myself a copy.  As expected, it was worth the wait.

In the last issue, which marked the ending of the first arc, Marko's parents appeared rather suddenly on the family's new tree-ship.  They zapped Izabel, the ghostly baby-sitter, and now are confronted with the fact that their son has married an 'enemy', and that they have had a child together.

Marko and his mother take off to try to rescue Izabel (as it turns out, she wasn't killed, but banished to another planet), while Marko's father starts to get to know Alana, although the two of them don't hit it off so well.

Among all the things that make Saga such a rich and gorgeous read is the extent to which Vaughan has structured this as a character-driven series.  We know that Marko's parents are going to be around for a while, and I like how Vaughan has tossed the family into two different situations that are going to give the readers a chance to get to know them.

This book reads very smoothly, and is drop-dead beautiful.