Monstress #41

Monstress (Single Issues)

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

Will Kippa be able to stop Tuya and the Dusk Court? Will Maika finally awaken from her poisoned sleep—and if she does, will it be with her own mind intact?

Genres: Fantasy, Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Dystopia, Comic Book, Comix

31 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 29, 2022

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-) 82% | Very Good
Notes: Read in trade paperback. Collective review for issues #36-41 can be found here: Monstress, Volume 7: Devourer.

[Phoenix · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was bleak, but also felt very empathetic. I’m okay with having a hiatus until winter.

[Colin Post · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is an absolute heartbreaker - and yet, somehow ends on an empowering note! I’ve really loved the passages inside Maika’s mind. She’s such a guarded character that it took her being comatose and injected with a weird serum for the readers to gain a bit of access into her interiority. Sana and Liu have used this to craft some of the strangest, surreal, and haunting passages in the entire run of the series.

In this issue, Maika confronts her traumatic past, something she’s hidden even from herself. The scenes of Maika-as-child and Maika-as-gruesome-corpse are so haunting.

[Vyshakh Aravindan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quiet devastation. This chapter is less about action and more about aftermath. What’s been broken can’t easily be fixed, and Maika must reckon with what she’s become—and what she may need to become next. There is a sliver of hope here, but it’s the kind that cuts. As the dust settles, the reader is left with unease, anticipation, and admiration for just how far this story has come.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 3 out of 5]

#41 – “Once, there was a girl who ran away from the mother. She wanted to be free. But her mother was a wolf. And wolves always find their children.”
Political Manoeuvring: An entire volume with Maika still unconscious and containing the old god’s secrets.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 3 out of 5]

#41 – “Once, there was a girl who ran away from the mother. She wanted to be free. But her mother was a wolf. And wolves always find their children.”
Political Manoeuvring: An entire volume with Maika still unconscious and containing the old god’s secrets.

[Tim Nowotny · Rating 5 out of 5]

First one of the series in a long time that I thouroughly enjoyed on the story level.

[LeighAnn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This cliff hanger 😢😫