Monstress #22

Monstress (Single Issues)

by Marjorie M. Liu (Writer), Sana Takeda (Illustrator), Rus Wooton (Letterer)

Maika is forced to rethink her entire past and future when she finds herself in the center of a dangerous conspiracy against the Known World.

Genres: Comics, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Horror, Graphic Novels Comics, Steampunk, Comic Book

32 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 22, 2019

About the author

New York Times bestselling and award-winning writer Marjorie Liu is best known for her fiction and comic books. She teaches comic book writing at MIT, and she leads a class on Popular Fiction at the Voices of Our Nation (VONA) workshop.

Ms. Liu is a highly celebrated comic book writer. Her extensive work with Marvel includes the bestselling Dark Wolverine series, NYX: No Way Home, X-23, and Black Widow: The Name of the Rose. She received national media attention for Astonishing X-Men, which featured the gay wedding of X-Man Northstar and was subsequently nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for outstanding media images of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Ms. Liu also wrote the story for the animated film, Avengers Confidential: Black Widow and Punisher, which was produced by Marvel, Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan) Inc., and Madhouse Inc.

Her newest work is MONSTRESS, an original, creator-owned comic book series with Japanese artist (and X-23 collaborator) Sana Takeda. Published by Image in Fall 2015, MONSTRESS is set in an alternate, matriarchal 1920’s Asia and follows a girl’s struggle to survive the trauma of war. With a cast of girls and monsters and set against a richly imagined aesthetic of art deco-inflected steam punk, MONSTRESS #1 debuted to critical praise. The Hollywood Reporter remarked that the longer than typical first issue was “world-building on a scale rare in mainstream comics.”

Ms. Liu is also the author of more than 19 novels, most notably the urban fantasy series, Hunter Kiss, and the paranormal romance series, Dirk & Steele. Her novels have also been bestsellers on USA Today, which described Liu “as imaginative as she is prolific.” Her critically praised fiction has twice received the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, for THE MORTAL BONE (Hunter Kiss #6), and TIGER EYE (Dirk & Steele #1). TIGER EYE was the basis for a bestselling paranormal romance video game called Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box.

Liu has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, MTV, and been profiled in the Wall Street Journal.com, Hollywood Reporter, and USA Today. She is a frequent lecturer and guest speaker, appearing on panels at San Diego Comic Con, the Tokyo Literary Festival, the New York Times Public Lecture series, Geeks Out; and the Asian American Writers Workshop. Her work has been published internationally, including Germany, France, Japan, Poland, and the United Kingdom.

Ms. Liu was born in Philadelphia, and has lived in numerous cities in the Midwest and Beijing. Prior to writing full-time, she was a lawyer. She currently resides in Boston.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 4 out of 5]

(A-) 83% | Very Good
Notes: Read in trade paperback. Collective review for issues #19-24 can be found here: Monstress, Volume 4: The Chosen.

[Mitticus · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

No Zinn in this issue.
Kippa knows how to make stranger friends.
Maika still not impressed with daddy (but , until now, looks like mommy was way worst)


Las cosas apuntan cada vez mas a una inevitable confrontación. Me sigue costando el delimitar los diferentes lados o mejor dicho facciones de esta guerra. Ente Cumeanos, las Cortes, los Arcanos y demases se me ha hecho un lio pues todos estan al parecer infiltrados y ninguno es digamos de 'los buenos'.

Hay más información en esta entrega que en otros, pues de dimensiones pasamos a estrellas. Este asunto se me empieza a hacer comun con mis lecturas recientes y entre The Outside (que todavia no termino) y the Song of Blood (idem) damos vueltas en el tema de seres superpoderosos del exterior que terminan siendo expulsados o perseguidos y envidiados/temidos a muerte.

Aunque , a decir verdad, lo que más me dejó woa fue la explicacion acerca de la Baronesa. Asi que parece que soy más ingenua que Kippa.

Dibujo: No me gusta cuando parece que hay trazo como muy basico como en las primeras paginas, nos malacostumbro Sakeda a cosas mas detalladas .

[Adrian Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weak issue

This series still has a lot of promise but its’ publishing schedule has hamstrung its potential as I expected. The art is beautiful as usual but the plot is stagnant. A lot of info dumping which was necessary as several characters have not appeared in a very long time. When you are only doing six issues a year (and not even monthly) this is what happens. We still haven’t seen the inquistrixes, the twin that were sent off by the federation, ren, the cumea and so on. The Kippa plot fell flat with a lackluster reveal which should have been more detailed. The witch and her sudden appearance at The Doctor’s side is not addressed.
Considering the limited space, it is a credit to the author that she can still manage a serviceable script.
However, the other big issue is Maika. Her history is still shrouded in too much mystery and has hurt the character’s development. Not to mention, without Zinn she is decidedly less interesting. It is quite odd that we have not yet had a flashback from the Doctor with two issues left. The cliffhanger was also weak.
I am still interested in seeing where Marjorie Liu is taking all this but like the last arc, this one suffers from too little space to do too much with a lack of momentum and info dumping the result.

[tammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing, golden, transcendent material, wicked

THIS WORLD IS SO COMPLEX AND COOL

maika, kippa, and... yep that’s it. i lov them

[Su · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this issue up from my lcs and it’s not a bad issues, but also not one of the best. There’s some good pages with Kippa and a little forward progress there, pages with Maika’s current plot line are interesting just to see more character development in the newly introduced folks, but for the most part I felt like there was lot of talking and very little action in comparison - which wouldn’t be as much of an issue for me if the discussions between characters moved forward rather than restating information we knew already or teasing at characters finally learning information we’ve been sitting on for several issues. Instead it seems Liu plans to drag many of those plot lines out a little longer and that pacing drives me nuts. I was also disappointed that we didn’t see anything more of what’s going on back in Pontus with Ren and the ancient hiding out there. Another minor complaint is that it still doesn’t make sense (and possibly just to me) how and why the shaman empress is directly related to the Halfwolfs but it’s Maika’s biological father who inherited the blood? It’s a little frustrating to me that we still have no real idea what and who he is in terms of familial connection to the Halfwolfs that would explain how he could have the Shaman Empress’s inheritance rather than Maika’s mother, Moriko.

The art is spectacular as ever. I really liked how dark everything was in comparison to the earlier issues in Pontus and other locations. The tonality this issue really lends itself to the idea that we’re about to reach a major incident...possibly the climax? But whether or not there’s a real pay off there will have to be determined with the release of subsequent issues.

Again, not a bad issue, but definitely not my favorite either.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Vyshakh Aravindan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tuya returns—and with her comes a storm of memory and betrayal. Her dynamic with Maika is intensely emotional: two women bound by love, trauma, and radically different visions of survival. Their conversation is restrained, but each word is heavy. We see Maika pulled in opposite directions—toward connection, and toward control. Kippa, once again, watches from the margins, her eyes full of silent concern. Trust fractures here in ways that don’t fully break until later, and the heartbreak is already humming beneath the surface.

[Victor Ahumada · Rating 3 out of 5]

Estoy dejando pasar demasiado tiempo entre uno y otro capítulo, por lo que se me ha complicado mantener el hilo narrativo, que es complejo.
Por otra parte, la historia parece enredarse en un montón de idas y venidas sin sentido y un contínuo recuerdo de eras y grupos que nunca quedan bien explicados, se hace demasiado difusa la narración. Pero sigo embelesado con el dibujo, por lejos, muy lejos lo mejor que he visto en años.

[Zian B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kippa goes on a rather odd adventure and makes an incredibly strange friend(?), because raising my anxiety by running off. I worry for Kippa and just want her back to Maika.
Speaking of, I’m unsure of what’s going on with Maika considering she can’t hear Zinn. There was also a lot more info-dumping in this comic issue which took a moment for me to process.

[M. Ashraf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Monstress
Issue#22
Volume#04
The Chosen
Marjorie M. Liu

It is like a shift forward from the last volume,
We met Maika's father 3:) a scarry Silkroad figure :p
New creatures the Dracul
The gift of the little fox awakened
A War is coming!
The artwork is still amazing!!
Do not know when is the next volume :( But I will be waiting!

[Skeptic Hecate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this issue more than the last one. However I have to say that some of the illustrations are not as high quality as the ones we are used to, and the repetition of the same panel for dramatic effect is slightly overused. I still recommend the series though.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Issue#22
“In my experience the almost-good are nearly as malign as the all-evil.” – Dracul

“Come with us, Lady Dracul. Someone who has travelled the stars shouldn’t live so far from the sky.” – Kippa
..

[Tim Nowotny · Rating 4 out of 5]

The grander scale of this series becomes more and more apparent. Sometimes I would wish for longer comics as the pacing feels a bit off with the big storylines sometimes

[Devon · Rating 5 out of 5]

That cliffhanger though!!!! I can’t wait for the next issue!!!

[Mousmi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 5 Stars.

[Wn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Getting bored

[Cats W. Bats, Esq. · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5

Perfection