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Monstress (Single Issues)
Monstress #43
Thousands of years ago, the court of the Shaman-Empress was a tangle of palace intrigue. Maika and Zinn find themselves caught in that web as they sink deeper into Zinn’s lost memories…if that’s truly what they are.
29 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 22, 2023
10 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Marjorie M. Liu
319 books4,304 followersNew 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 8, 2025
(B+) 78% | Good
Notes: Read in trade paperback. Collective review for issues #42-48 can be found here: Monstress, Volume 8: Inferno.
Notes: Read in trade paperback. Collective review for issues #42-48 can be found here: Monstress, Volume 8: Inferno.
March 4, 2023
Maybe I read this at the wrong time, but I can barely make heads or tails of what’s going on in this issue. I feel like this story’s starting to get too big for itself. I really hope this is winding down soon. Otherwise I might consider abandoning it.
ETA Mar.04th:
I think what it is getting me is the epic fantasy lore-dump element. I don’t think it works well in a comic that often goes on hiatus. I’ve said this elsewhere (I think when I was reading the first arc) but I’m sure this reads better when it’s all collected. Or at least somewhat better for this part. It could also be me, I know I’m not as into epic fantasy as a genre as I used to be.
ETA Mar.04th:
I think what it is getting me is the epic fantasy lore-dump element. I don’t think it works well in a comic that often goes on hiatus. I’ve said this elsewhere (I think when I was reading the first arc) but I’m sure this reads better when it’s all collected. Or at least somewhat better for this part. It could also be me, I know I’m not as into epic fantasy as a genre as I used to be.
July 4, 2025
We begin to see a return to form for Maika—but it’s not a clean recovery. There’s a confrontation that strips away even more of her defenses. Zinn’s voice is more prominent again, but there’s a new kind of desperation in his tone, as if he senses something slipping from his grasp. Meanwhile, Tuya continues her arc of moral ambiguity; her choices remain complicated and deeply human. Themes of control, identity, and the cost of survival rise again. This chapter sets pieces into motion rather than resolving anything—but it’s purposeful.
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February 23, 2023< cue headache >
March 7, 2023
As with most single issues of this book, I’m sure this will read better as part of a whole sweeping story. Liu and Takeda are crafting a true epic set in a world with a robust but utterly unfamiliar mythology, and it’s very difficult to take this in piece by piece. But the single issues can be very effective on their own when they’re focused on parceling out just one bit of the story — and when there’s some visceral, kinetic artwork — both features of this issue.
We get a new status quo, with Maika becoming the monstrous extension of Zinn and the duo thrust into a new setting. The Old Gods have been a bogey man from the start of the series and perhaps now they’ll come back into the story with full force…
We get a new status quo, with Maika becoming the monstrous extension of Zinn and the duo thrust into a new setting. The Old Gods have been a bogey man from the start of the series and perhaps now they’ll come back into the story with full force…
December 7, 2024
#43 - "It feels as though I'm wearing the mask fragments. AND THEY'RE ON FIRE." - Maika
I assume ‘inferno’ correlates with Dante’s depiction of trapped in hell. Epic series, but this volume just gets bogged down in this otherworldly dream- state prison of the old gods.
I assume ‘inferno’ correlates with Dante’s depiction of trapped in hell. Epic series, but this volume just gets bogged down in this otherworldly dream- state prison of the old gods.
February 23, 2023
We missed a bunch but have jumped into this one which is beautiful and interesting.
May 10, 2023
The story was easy to follow, but the art was little chaotic. Monstrums really make it difficult
May 11, 2023
A bit of lull for me
August 7, 2023
I miss Corvin
June 6, 2024
Well
Fate is cruel. Somehow, some way, Makia and Zenin are transported to the last place they could have gone. To make matters worse, they are captured.
Fate is cruel. Somehow, some way, Makia and Zenin are transported to the last place they could have gone. To make matters worse, they are captured.
March 29, 2023
I'm all for wackadoodle bonkers in a comic but the story and overarching narrative of this book seems to have gotten lost. Liu admits to writing as 'flying by the seat of her pants'. If you look up the origin of that phrase it means 'flying without the ability to communicate or fully plan things out'; yeah that sounds about right. No doubting Takeda's glorious art which is gallery worthy but this comic is officially off the rails like dozens of other trains in the USA. Full take at:
https://standupcomicreader.blogspot.c...
https://standupcomicreader.blogspot.c...
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews