..........well DAMN. 💔 ( )

I'm speechless and blown away.

I'm also out of my collection and will have to remedy that ASAP.

How is this series so consistently phenomenal?!

Over 54 issues the only problem I can remember having is introducing a trans character with transphobia, but then she went on to be portrayed awesomely and I love her.

Honestly, who even cares about a review when you're this deep in the sauce? ( )

Well, damn.

This is the kind of book that makes me inclined to stop rating books, because my reading experience does not correspond to a Likert scale. On the whole, I was impressed by the storytelling here and the course this volume charts for the rest of the series.

And yet, I continue to be disappointed by this series' treatment of LGBTQ characters. Calling out a trope is not the same as deconstructing a trope. The scene in question felt like a refrigerator moment in a way that other deaths in the series did not.

(Litmus test for dignified death scenes: what if your character was replaced by Indiana Jones? Does this feel like an appropriate death for him, one with a certain tragic dignity? Does he feel like the hero of his own story? If not, you may have fridged your character.) ( )

Fiona Staples & Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga Volume Nine collects issues 49-54 of Saga illustrated by Staples and written by Vaughan. The story sees Alana, Marko, and Hazel along with Petrichor and Prince Robot IV reunited with Squire, Ghüs, and the reporters Upsher and Doff. Though reunited, their relative safety is threatened as Ianthe uses the Will to track the family and their companions in order to collect on the bounty on Hazel and her parents. Meanwhile, Prince Robot plans to sell information he received in the previous volume about a false-flag operation in which Landfall and Wreath partnered to destroy the comet world of Phang, despite their seeming perpetual animosity and war that has forced everyone in the universe to choose a side. He hopes Upsher and Doff will publish the story in exchange for giving him and his son, Squire, new identities away from the Robot Kingdom and its conflicts. Unfortunately, both of these two threaten the momentary tranquility of the family. A great continuation of this space opera! ( )

Damn, that was traumatizing. ( )