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In 2012, award-winning author Brian K. Vaughan and illustrator Fiona Staples teamed up and began their run of Saga, a fantasy, space-epic graphic novel series following Alana and Marko, star-crossed lovers from warring planets, and their mixed daughter, Hazel. Despite some outrage over its explicit depictions of violence and sex, the series has received widespread critical acclaim, earning over two dozen awards and becoming one of Image Comics’s best sellers since its initial release. One decade and one almost four-year-long hiatus, Saga is still praised by the comic community. In the vast landscape of the modern comic scene, Saga’s success raises the question of what continues to captivate comic audiences amid numerous other options.
In the video “How Is Saga Still So Good?!” by pop culture review channel Make Stuff, the creator argues that Saga continues to be so fascinating because despite being set in a universe so far beyond this one, it still challenges its audience on societal issues and personal morals (Make Stuff, 7:40-8:32). The series does this exceptionally well with its women characters, continually challenging the audience’s expectations of comic book women and creating more modern, relatable depictions of feminine identities. At ComicsPRO 2014, Image publisher Eric Stephenson claimed, “Right now, the fastest growing demographic for Image Comics, and I’m willing to speculate, for the entire industry, is women” (CBR Staff, 2014). To appeal to this demographic, many graphic novel creators have started changing how they represent women, shifting away from depictions of women tailored for the male gaze to characters relatable to real women. This shift is especially evident in Saga, whose narrative employs a diverse cast of women characters that function as more than just objects to be desired by its heroes and audience. Saga’s success amongst this emerging demographic of comic book readers is thanks to how it portrays women.
Saga may be most progressive in its depictions of female sexuality, and this is especially true of Alana, the main female protagonist. Though her story begins with her entrance into motherhood, she is more than just a mother. Like any parent, she was a sexual being before parenthood. Her daughter Hazel, the narrator of the story, explains, “Long before I was old enough for ‘the talk,’ Mom told me about sex” (Vaughan, 518). Typically, adults introduce children to sex through an explanation of reproduction, but Alana distinguishes that sex is not exclusive to baby-making. Throughout the series, Alana has sex mainly for pleasure and comfort. Even leading up to the conception of her daughter, getting pregnant is more of a concern than a goal. Hazel continues, “Mom also warned me not to expect fireworks like the ones in Mister Heist’s romance novels every time (519)”. Despite idealizing storybook romance, she also recognizes the disconnect between fictional and real-life expressions of female sexuality. Alana’s views on sex tackle some of the most common misconceptions about female sexuality in the media: it is not always explosive perfection like in fiction nor done solely for reproducing; it can be personal, pleasurable, and imperfect.
While Saga does not shy away from depictions of sex, it also does not limit its women and their bodies to simply being sexual objects. Upon its release, Saga faced criticism from illustrator Dave Dorman for showing Alana breastfeeding on the cover of its first issue. The article “‘Saga’ Artist Fiona Staples Responds to Dave Dorman Criticism of ‘Breastfeeding Cover’” explains that Dorman’s main gripe with the cover is that it is “marketing a comic to kids with adult content on the cover” (Wheeler, para. 2). While Dorman did misunderstand Saga’s intended audience, his comment begs the question as to why breastfeeding would be considered inappropriate in the first place. Comics have long been known for sexualizing women, an issue that the Comics Magazine Association of America tried to tackle with the invention of the Comics Code of 1954. Many restrictions were put on creators, including but not limited to prohibiting nudity, suggestive posing, and females with exaggerated portions (The Comics Code of 1954). However, upon loosening the Comics Code in the late 80s and 90s, hypersexualized and unrealistic representations of women became rampant once again, and “any sense of natural humanity was…lost at the expense of aggressive power” (History Channel, 1:41-1:47). Women in comics were no longer women but props in a sexual fantasy catered to a primarily male fanbase.
The controversy surrounding Saga’s breastfeeding cover reflects this longstanding norm in the comics industry that women’s bodies are inherently sexual. Wheeler argues, “[Dorman’s] attitude seems grounded in a ‘think of the children’ instinct that links boobs to sex and sex to immorality” (para. 10). Due to the hypersexualization of women in comics, any use of the female form, even the most innocent, is automatically deemed sexual. Saga challenges this concept by representing women as actual people. Alana’s breastfeeding is just one way the graphic novel shows that women can function outside of fanservice. From pregnant bellies to stretch marks to body hair, the women of Saga continually break the perfect, modelesque fantasy of the traditional comic book heroines by simply being human, or at least human-like.
Additionally, Saga gives its female cast the voice many other comic book women never get to have. In 1999, after an issue of Green Lantern where the hero’s girlfriend is murdered and left in the refrigerator, comic book writer Gail Simone identified the trope known as “women in refrigerators” or “fridging.” This trope represents many “superheroines who have been either depowered, raped, or cut up and stuck in the refrigerator” (para. 2). If not silenced by limiting her capabilities to merely that of a sex object, the comic book heroine is often literally silenced in death. However, the women of Saga demand to be heard, acting with their own sense of direction and morals. The essay “Bad Girls in Outer Space: Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga and the Graphic Representation of Subversive Femininity” argues that “Saga…reworks the ‘bad girl’ paradigm by showing that it can function as a productive and desirable version of femininity that can successfully replace more traditional models. In Saga, the bad girl is someone who can see beyond the conventions of patriarchy (including the cult of war heroism) and heteronormative sexuality, and who rarely and only briefly becomes part of a community” (Precup & Manea, 2017). Saga challenges its audience to rethink the traditional comic book “good girl,” the silenced, brutalized heroine, by replacing her with “bad girls.” In doing so, it modernizes the ideal comic book heroine as someone with more agency and generally more active within the narrative.
Lastly, Saga’s wide range of feminine identities gives women readers the representation they have always lacked in comic books. The 2017 study “Analyzing the Gender Representation of 34,476 Comic Book Characters” by visual journalist Amanda Shendrunk found that out of all characters in the DC and Marvel ComicVine database at the time, only 26.7 percent were female (para. 2). Evidently, the representation of women in comics has been minuscule, and those very few stories that do exist only cover an even smaller scope of perspectives, specifically those that are white, straight, and cis-gendered. In a 2014 interview with The Verge, Brian K. Vaughan revealed when brainstorming Alana, he defaulted to imagining her as white. He states, “I blame myself that, particularly when thinking about fantasy, that white tends to be the default when thinking about characters… It was Fiona who pointed out, ‘Look if you really do want to explore the real world, this book should look like the real world’” (para. 5). Representation, especially in a universe of this scale, is so essential because it allows readers to better relate to the characters, grounding the narrative in some sense of reality. Diversifying Saga’s female cast helped to tell a broader range of stories, making it more relatable to women readers.
In such an absurdly fantastical universe, Vaughan and Staples have created a cast of realistic feminine characters, challenging expectations and revolutionizing the comic book woman. Doing so has made itself accessible to fans looking to see themselves in something more than an overly busty costumed lady or a dead girlfriend in the refrigerator. Part of the beauty of Saga is its diversity, but the question remains why have comics been so challenged to deliver on this aspect that the community is clearly craving. The answer may lie within the publisher rather than the medium itself. Saga’s publisher, Image Comics, is a creator-owned publisher meaning that the comic creator fully retains their rights to the work. Illustrator Fiona Staples testifies that this format is responsible for giving the pair the freedom to tell the story they want to tell (The Comics Archive, 1:49-1:54). The sad reality is that not every comic publisher follows this format, including Marvel and DC, who remain the most significant comic publishers to this day. Trying to appease shareholders and long-time comic readers often comes at the cost of creativity and story diversity, sticking to the same plotlines and characters already shown to sell well. However, Saga’s success proves that comic fans are looking for a change, and hopefully, this will inspire other creators to deliver.
Works Cited
Duhaime-Ross, Arielle. “Listen as Saga Writer Brian K. Vaughan Talks to Us about Comics, Gaming, and Star Wars.” The Verge, The Verge, 18 Dec. 2014, https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/18/7415049/saga-comic-brian-k-vaughan-author-comics.
History Channel. “Superheroes Decoded: The Hypersexualization of Women in Comics (Season 1, Episode 1) | History.” YouTube, YouTube, 1 May 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2YpB-CAppA.
Make Stuff, director. How Is Saga Still So Good?! YouTube, YouTube, 7 June 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QideL9Iv_I8&t=159s. Accessed 21 July 2022.
Precup , Mihaela, and Dragoş Manea . “Bad Girls and Transgressive Women in Popular Television, Fiction, and Film.” SpringerLink, Springer International Publishing, 4 July 2017, https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-47259-1.
Shendruk, Amanda. “Analyzing the Gender Representation of 34,476 Comic Book Characters.” The Pudding, https://pudding.cool/2017/07/comics/#:~:text=They're%20also%20rare.,superhero%20comics%20have%20female%20protagonists.
Simone, Gail. Women in Refrigerators, Mar. 1999, https://www.lby3.com/wir/.
Staff, CBR. “Image Publisher Eric Stephenson Emphasizes Direct Market Importance in
ComicsPRO Speech.” CBR, 28 Feb. 2014,
comicspro-speech/.
The Comic Archive, director. YouTube, YouTube, 25 Feb. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GxREXx054Y&t=292s. Accessed 21 July 2022.
“The Comics Code of 1954.” Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, http://cbldf.org/the-comics-code-of-1954/.
Vaughan, Brian K., and Fiona Staples. Saga. Compendium One. Image Comics, 2019.
Wheeler, Andrew. “'Saga' Artist Fiona Staples Responds to Dave Dorman Criticism of 'Breastfeeding Cover'.” ComicsAlliance, 9 Jan. 2012, https://comicsalliance.com/saga-fiona-staples-dave-dorman-breastfeeding/#:~:text=Celebrated%20illustrator%20Dave%20Dorman%20took,breastfeeding%20to%20promote%20a%20comic.