Saga #46

Previously, in Saga #45

Alana, Marko, and Hazel have lost a lot due to the war. They’ve been separated from each other for extended periods of time, and they’ve seen people they cared about die. No loss has been as profound or as painful as the loss of the baby Alana was carrying. Kurti only exists in their hearts and via the projection spell Alana can cast because of the miscarriage, yet his presence served to bring a measure of comfort and much sorrow to the trio. As the Endwife prepares to remove the fetus from Alana, Kurti sits with Hazel in another room and wonders if he’ll “deaded.” Hazel sings to her baby brother as he quietly fades away.

The Endwife is a wolf-like creature who doesn’t look like anything you’d want performing your surgery. I imagine it’s what many pro-life people think abortion doctors are: monsters. Despite her yellow eyes, bloody hands, and sharp teeth, the Endwife is actually quite pleasant and comforting. She does this work because it’s necessary. Marko, who’s still on his “all life is precious” kick, passes moral judgment on a female elephant who had a fetus removed at 30 weeks. The Endwife quickly explains that the baby would have been born with defects making it incapable of having a long, healthy life. What would Marko do in that woman’s place. This gives Marko — and the readers — something to think about.

[bctt tweet=”Ideologies are lovely… but down here, is only reality. - The Endwife #Saga46″ username=”ProjectFandom”]

Meanwhile, Prince Robot IV grants the pro-life cowboys who tried to kill Petrichor mercy, and allows them to ride off into the sunset with only a few wounds. At first, Petrichor rails against him, insisting she didn’t need his help. Prince Robot realizes Petrichor wanted to die and wonders why someone with her life be suicidal. This is interesting coming from him when he was also trying to die a few issues ago.

The two bond over some of Petrichor’s homemade hooch and he reveals he’s aware she’s a transgender female; being quite fluid himself he takes no issue with this. It’s not long before the two are at each other’s throats again, each with their own reasons for not trusting the other’s people. All that rage and frustration threatens to turn violent, but instead turns sexual — which I think might also be quite violent given who we’re talking about.

We need to take a moment and talk about how amazing Fiona Staples’ work is; in one issue she gives us this menacing creature (whose words are the exact opposite of what you’d expect when you see her), laugh-out-loud panels featuring a bickering Prince Robot IV and Petrichor (she evokes emotion from a character who has a TV for a head), and heartbreaking tenderness in the eyes of Hazel and Kurti. And that cover? Wow. Saga remains one of the best books, if not THE best, around.