Saga #38

Saga, Issue #38 begins with Hazel reunited with her family after two years.  And zombies, I guess, because ZOMBIES!  The cast has shifted around a little bit.  Marko, Alana, and Hazel are the basic family unit, but Klara, Marko's mother, is out of the picture.  When Marko and Alana rescued Hazel from the military prison in which Hazel and Klara were being held, Klara decided to stay behind.  In her stead came another Landfallian prisoner, Petrichor, who quickly proclaimed that Alana was pregnant.  Prince Robot IV somehow became allied with the family, and Izabel, the torso of a ghost of a teenage babysitter, is with them.  And they're on the heavily-populated-with-refugees and fuel-rich comet, Phang.  For six months.  During those six months, The Will is looking for Sophie, who is a page to Gwendolyn.  When Izabel scouts out ahead, on the comet, she comes across another freelancer, The March.  He, or they, have two heads, a thick upper body, and two skinny legs.

Saga is a great amount of fun, and I'm going to post a spoiler, so if you aren't caught up, don't read on.  In On Writing, Stephen King wrote that he was 500 pages into The Stand when he hit a wall.  He discovered a controversial writing tool that he would go on to use repeatedly.  When you don't know what to do with a character, kill him or her.  When you don't know what to do with a book, kill a whole bunch of people.  Saga isn't like that.  Yes, there is an unexpected death in Issue #38, Izabel.  It's somewhat heartbreaking because she begins to fight with Hazel in the issue, making her death even more painful.  See, The March know that Marko, Alana, and Hazel are on Phang because Izabel's there.  If they had let her live, she would have only warned Marko and Alana.  Poof.