So, some good news today! I woke up yesterday morning to an email that said my Heavy Red re-order had shipped! And it's due in on Monday!!! I can't wait for tomorrow now (if only I didn't have to go to work).
I've started reading Saga by Brian K. Vaughn. So far so good... but there's still a few tropes present that mark it as the work of a male author. Like we are shown that The Will is a "good guy" (or at least an anti-hero) because despite his negative qualities, he makes it his mission to free a young girl from sexual slavery. Don't even get me started on Sextillian. The other thing I'm concerned with is Gwendolyn, though I haven't gotten that far yet. Visually, she's stunning. She's quite possibly more beautiful than Alana, or at least on par with her. But from my understanding of the Moonies (based on Volume 1), I thought they were more animalistic. At least Marko has goat ears... but all Gwendolyn has are horns - horns which make her look more like a hot succubus than an animal-based alien race. But I've only seen the one picture of her online since I haven't gotten to her appearance in the comic yet.
The story itself is engaging thus far. The social commentary on war, religion, politics, and otherness is good, if occasionally strained. The characters are often a tad more vulgar than I think is needed... regardless of race or gender. It's as if this universe defaults on a certain level of crassness, which comes off as strange to me. The only non-vulgar characters so far are background characters. Shouldn't there be some main characters that are at the other end of the spectrum too? Perhaps the intention is to showcase the effects of war on the inhabitants' psyches... but my grandfather served in WWII without losing his sense of self or decorum. In fact, he joined the fight before he was even 18 by lying about his age to the recruiter. But getting off this tangent- it just seems more like juvenile crassness than war-hardened vulgarity anyway.
This is probably starting to sound like I don't even like the book, huh? I have a bad tendency of doing this. I do actually like the book. I'm admittedly on the fence about some stuff, but that's part of why I'm eager to read Volume 2 and see how things progress. I really like Hazel and Izabel and Lying Cat. Alana and Marko are strong, interesting leads. There's good pacing and suspense. And the author does a good job of getting you attached quickly to characters that expire before the end of the Volume 1. I really appreciate the way that motherhood in never shown as a detriment to Alana's character. She remains both mentally and physically strong. And the baby is portrayed well. She doesn't get cast into obscurity the way some authors treat children or animals characters. Nor does she get more attention than she should (no projection of adult characteristics or abilities on her). The first volume talks about a lot of characters I can't wait to meet. Everyone from Heist to Even! Also, and I can't stress this enough, the artwork is absolutely breath-taking. I adore Fiona Staples' work!
So... getting Volume 2 is my comic book priority at the moment. I'm actually pretty lackluster about comic books right now due to the ending of Hellblazer and X-Factor. I'm actually still waiting on the last issue of X-Factor since there seems to have been a mix-up with my pull list or I lost a bag. Not really sure. The ending of Hellblazer hurt a lot though. I'll be brief since I really need to get dinner soon. I didn't think it was the right ending. Up til now, Epiphany had been through hell and back to be with John, to prove she was an equal capable of surviving the horrors of his life. That's why he conceded to marriage. But in the end, he pulls the trope of "it's too dangerous for you to come with me" and she caves. Just like that. BULLSHIT. While I can see John resorting to this paternalistic "for your own good" savior complex routine, I cannot reconcile Epiphany just fucking bending over for it. She's too strong of a character to put up with that kind of bullshit from John. Even the horrors of what she went through surrounding John's death and her seeking solace in John's nephew were in no way anything all that out of the ordinary that would give me reason to believe she'd had a change of heart. John's death/disappearance isn't enough for many of his adversaries to leave Epiphany alone (take Julian coming after Epiphany as an example) so it's not like she's that much safer on her own. In fact, hiding out in that little Irish town seems a helluva lot safer than Epiphany staying in the big city and staying on everyone's radar. Not that I think John would necessarily have the foresight to see this, but Epiphany should have been so perceptive.
Now, if John had left in the middle of the night with nothing but a letter to Epiphany, leaving her no choice in the matter, then I would accept this ending. (Especially if Epiphany had found a way to secretly follow him and call him out on his bullshit.) Or if John had reasoned that taking Epiphany with him would have made it easier for his enemies to track him down because everyone knew she was alive, so if she suddenly disappeared it would be suspicious... that I could accept as a reason for them to split up. But that's not how it's nuanced. John just wakes up and realizes that keeping Epiphany with him means she'll be caught in the crossfire with his enemies some day in the future. (Didn't we already get over this shit before the wedding?) There's never any thought as to how bad shit's going to find him in this tiny Irish town, as the whole purpose of going there was to live out the rest of his days in complete mundanity, never being discovered and avoiding magic at all costs. You can't just say that it'll suddenly be dangerous if Epiphany tags along unless you explain why (which I think I did a nice job of just a moment ago). That's asinine!
I mean, I'm sure Epiphany would be bored to death in a place like this, much as John seems to be... but she'd be living out the rest of her days in peace with the man she loves. Shouldn't she at least have that choice? Why is she suddenly a coward for whom their love is not strong enough? I will reiterate that it makes more sense for her either to pursue John, to believe that staying put is protecting John, or for her to never be given a choice at all. Anything else is character assassination. I strongly feel that the author took her completely out of character merely to advance the plot and give the book a poetic ending rather than a realistic one based on where the characters' were taking it. Instead of acknowledging John's growth as a character or the series' growth into new territory, they slaughtered the "newness" whole sale and brought the story back to its roots for an ending that was practically a retcon, leaving Epiphany and fans of the recent changes behind as casualties of war. As if the end of the series wasn't bittersweet enough, this turned it to simply bitter.
