I’m really impressed by Saga but don’t know why. If you try to describe the plot to someone, you’re just left with ‘Romeo and Juliet in Space’, which is surely a dull and unoriginal tale. There are none of the clever ideas and slightly-smug storytelling tricks that I love and look for in Gaiman, Moore or Ellis’s work. It’s just a straight story of love-struck teens running away from their warring factions.
There’s something addictive about it though. The central characters, their dialogue and relationship seem so very believable and the weirder things in their world (spider-like assassins, rocket trees and TV-headed nobility) are left unexplained just like weird things in the real-world are (unless you believe there’s a capricious god… but that’s another debate creeping in!)
I also love protagonist-couples in stories. It makes such a refreshing change from the more predictable young single man (or woman) protagonist who you know will ‘get the girl and kill the baddie’ at the end. I don’t want all my heroes to be forty year old blokes in stable relationships (just so that I can empathise with them!) but I also hate to think of stories written by committee to appeal to a preordained age group or lifestyle.
Off subject, I never realised that I did empathise so much with my heroes until I first dyed my hair black many many many years ago. I looked in the mirror and didn’t recognise myself and then looked at the TV (the other ubiquitous mirror) and realised that many of my favourite heroes (Kuryachin in 'The Man From Uncle', Sundance in 'Butch Cassady and the Sundance Kid' etc etc) were generally blond and I was going to have to find a new pantheon to go with my new appearance!
Anyway, I must try to get hold of some more Brian Vaughn to see how he does whatever it is that he does… and just for good old fashioned enjoyment!
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2013-02-07 09:55 pm (UTC)There’s something addictive about it though. The central characters, their dialogue and relationship seem so very believable and the weirder things in their world (spider-like assassins, rocket trees and TV-headed nobility) are left unexplained just like weird things in the real-world are (unless you believe there’s a capricious god… but that’s another debate creeping in!)
I also love protagonist-couples in stories. It makes such a refreshing change from the more predictable young single man (or woman) protagonist who you know will ‘get the girl and kill the baddie’ at the end. I don’t want all my heroes to be forty year old blokes in stable relationships (just so that I can empathise with them!) but I also hate to think of stories written by committee to appeal to a preordained age group or lifestyle.
Off subject, I never realised that I did empathise so much with my heroes until I first dyed my hair black many many many years ago. I looked in the mirror and didn’t recognise myself and then looked at the TV (the other ubiquitous mirror) and realised that many of my favourite heroes (Kuryachin in 'The Man From Uncle', Sundance in 'Butch Cassady and the Sundance Kid' etc etc) were generally blond and I was going to have to find a new pantheon to go with my new appearance!
Anyway, I must try to get hold of some more Brian Vaughn to see how he does whatever it is that he does… and just for good old fashioned enjoyment!