With almost impossibly high expectations from the comic book community, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples had a lot to live up with the debut of Saga . In the opinion of this reviewer, they succeeded with flying colors. But now that the story is in progress and the hype has settled down (kind of), is Saga #2 still as grand an experience? You bet.

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While it's not as viscerally engaging as issue #1, Vaughan proves with Saga #2 that we should expect the unexpected for this series, already changing the book's status quo significantly. While the future monologue of baby Hazel removes any danger from the element of her survival, Vaughan deepens the mystery of the context that her future exists in. It was clear from issue #1 that Hazel's upbringing would be wrought with wartime terrors and constant struggle, but the stakes have been upped so drastically that the tension of the book's key driving factor is at a high despite our knowledge of the eventual outcome.More impressively, Vaughan manages to introduce even more bizarre creatures and concepts into issue #2, again giving the reader their due credit for being able to catch on and, hopefully, accept things the way they are with the promise of more information down the road. We get the bare essentials for the various Freelancers out to kill Alana and Marko, but Vaughan hints at a deep history between these assassin characters that will likely be explored in the many issues to come. One detracting element to this issue's willingness to expand this world is that a lot of it is done through dialog; we only see a precious few of the many things referenced by the characters in conversation. Without some sort of visual accompaniment, the names of off-screen characters and such will no doubt be lost amongst the many other elements that we've got to wrap our minds around.

Saga is Back!

Those that we do see, however, add a horrifying new dimension to the series in a horror film kind of way, adding yet another complex facet to the gears that make up the world of Saga. Still, Vaughan continues to lace this universe with very familiar markings of the real world; he mentions cheap romance novels sold at grocery stores and even uses the term "baby daddy." Saga #2 still features a bizarre place that seems to incorporate our world own in some way, despite everything being a direct contradiction to everything we know as it exists. While it's this evolving mysterious that leaves the world of Saga so fascinating to me, it's not hard to see where it could be a point of contention for some readers.Fiona Staples shines once again, getting a chance to really display her talent for expressive characters in the latter half of the book. There are some wild events that occur, and Staples is sure to let every character's body language and facial expressions convey their emotions visually. Alana and Marko showcase it best through the waves of emotion that they ride, going from fear to joy to panic all within the pages of Saga #2.Of particular note is the character of The Stalk (a gruesome design in and of itself), a character that has 6 eyes and a spider-like body. Staples is able to portray her as a vicious monster and then, turning on a dime, shift that terrible facade into cowardice at the first sight of something even more terrifying. Through this, Staples lets the reputation of creatures called The Horrors cement in our minds before ever glimpsing it. And when The Horrors are at last revealed, our surprise at their outward appearance becomes coupled with the utter fear that the characters showed when speaking of them, leaving us with a creeping sense of dread and anticipation as we close the book.Saga continues to be a multi-layered experience that asks a lot of its readers. It makes no apologies for being thematically dense and is all the more rewarding because of it. If this issue is any indication, it's not going to be long before Vaughan and Staples really kick it into high gear, so it's probably best that you climb on board now.

Joey is IGN's Comics Editor and a comic book creator himself. Follow Joey on Twitter , or find him on IGN . He will love Star Wars until the end of his days.