Note: Some spoilers within for previous issues in this series.

This is the long-awaited follow-up to Saga, Volume 9, from 2018. If you follow this outstanding graphic novel/comic series, you know that Saga tells the continuing story of the little family of Marko and Alana - a mixed-race couple - and their daughter Hazel. The family is struggling to stay together in spite of a war between their two races.

Alana is from the planet Landfall, where inhabitants have wings on their backs, and Marko is from its moon, Wreath, where all people have horns on their heads. The two defied all convention (and propaganda, viz: those people have horns on their heads!) and fell in love. Hazel was born with both horns and wings, and it is Hazel who narrates the story.

Marko and Alana just want to find a way to be safe and happy and live in peace, but it doesn’t seem possible. The three of them are being pursued throughout the galaxy by a number of beings trying to exploit them or kill them (or first one, then the other).

In Volume 9, however, both Marko and Sir Robert - once an enemy but eventually an ally - are murdered. It is now three years later, and Hazel and Sir Robert’s son Squire are being raised by Hazel’s mother and a male named Bombazine, or “Bomba” for short. Squire hasn’t spoken a word since his father’s death, but they all get along fine. Nevertheless, Hazel, while she loves having a sibling, is uncomfortable with Squire’s persistent grief:

“I mean, it made complete sense that he was in so much pain . . . so why I feel so little?”

In a brief interlude from more serious and violent action, Hazel shares her favorite album with Squire, which includes her favorite song. She explains to him:

“It’s literally the greatest thing I’ve ever heard. …. I don’t need to tell you what song I played, because you already know it by heart. … [Your parents said they hated it. When they did] you began to understand that the universe no longer belonged to the generation who raised you. You could hear something that they couldn’t, something strange and beautiful and perfect. By the time the final chords faded into nothingness, you were already changed forever.”

What reader couldn’t relate to those sentiments?

Alas, the sweet interlude ends with an attack by pirates. Bombazine explains that pirates are “just regular people who happen to be poor and hungry.” With Vaughan’s usual combination of social commentary couched in humor, he has Hazel ask: “They why don’t they get jobs?”

The installment ends with the revelation that Alana has gone back into drug dealing: “Judge all you want, but my family was just falling back on the same profession that’s always kept marginalized communities alive.” ( )