Saga, Volume 2
Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples (Illustrator)
Family to the fore
In this second volume of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples's Saga most of the stories expand the feeling of family. At the end of Volume 1 Marko's parents Barr and Klara had just popped in (hee, hee) to Marko and Alana's spaceship-tree. Klara hit Izabel, Hazel's babysitter, with a banishment spell, so Marko and Klara head off to retrieve her. Alana is thus left alone with Marko's father Barr, who turns out to be unexpectedly nurturing.
Then we join up with The Will -- you remember him? -- he's one of the mercenaries who was sent after Marko and Alana. He's has been side-tracked by rescuing a slave-girl from prostitution. He and the girl and Lying Cat are a new proto-family.
In other family-themed entertainment, we see the birth (or hatching) of a "giant evil space fetus" (Izabel's words), and we catch up with Prince Robot IV, whose wife/consort is visibly pregnant. We also get flashbacks with more detail on how Marko and Alana got together, and meet the author of a novel that they bonded over. The author tells Prince Robot some stories of his son.
I enjoyed this one more than Volume 1. It helped that we know most of the characters already, so fewer pages are spent on exposition. Not all -- there are a few new faces. It was also quite funny in places -- I laughed out loud several times.