Comic Book Tuesday #24: Monstress Vol 2 by Marjorie M Liu, Sana Takeda

Author: Marjorie M. Liu, Sana Takeda
Series: Monstress (Collected Editions) #2
Audience: +18
Genre:Comic Book
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: July 11th 2017
My Rating: 5 Cups
Source: Edelweiss
Blurb (from Goodreads):

The Eisner-nominated MONSTRESS is back! Maika, Kippa, and Ren journey to Thyria in search of answers to her past... and discover a new, terrible, threat. Collects MONSTRESS #7-12

*Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book from Edelweiss and Image Comics in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my rating or the content of my review in any way.

I've been waiting for a long, long time for this volume to come out, and it was just as fantastic as I'd hoped and imagined it would be.

Let me start by saying that the art is just as fantastic and amazing as it was in the first volume, if not even more gorgeous. The tone in some drawings changed a little bit, with some panels being more colorful than usual, and even more detailed than before. I love how dynamic the art looks, you can almost imagine the drawing moving. The entire time I was reading this book I could almost see the characters moving, speaking, the smell of the ocean and the sounds of the city, every little detail was present in those panels in such a way to make me imagine the story and see it in my head much like I would watch a movie.

The story picks up right where volume 1 ends, and we get to learn more about Maika, and why she's so dark and tough, especially with Kippa, all the time. I liked the glimpses we got into Maika's childhood, as it made me understand her more. I am curious to see how her story ends and if she'll find the closure she needs. Kippa, as always, was fantastic. She grew from being the little fox-child needing protection from everyone, to making choices and being braver than in the previous volume. This is also probably due to Maika's form of tough love, but also because Kippa is a brave character. Master Ren is still the snarky cat I remember, but he's taking a few risks I didn't imagine him taking in this story. I really want to understand what his angle is though, what's his endgame.

It seems to me that somehow everyone knows something about Maika that she isn't aware of herself, which is kinda sad and infuriating, because I wonder if everybody has a hidden agenda here.

The story is completed by the lectures of professor Tam Tam, and they offer a glimpse into some stuff that Maika is definitely not aware of, or so I believe. We also find out more about the monster inside Maika, her backstory, and how she ended up inside Maika, as well as more about Maika's family.

I loved this story so much, and I am impatiently waiting for the next installments, especially after that ending, although I will be completely honest with you, I am not ready for the story to end! Not at all!

Comic Book Tuesday #12: Monstress #1 by Marjorie M. Liu

Author: Marjorie M. Liu
Series: Monstress
Genre: Comic Books, Graphic Novels
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: November 4th 2015
My Rating: 5 cups
Source: Netgalley
Blurb (from Goodreads):

Steampunk meets Kaiju in this original fantasy epic for mature readers, as young Maika risks everything to control her psychic link with a monster of tremendous power, placing her in the center of a devastating war between human and otherworldly forces.

*Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book from Netgalley and Image Comics in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my opinion or my rating of the book in any way.

My latest foray into the world of comic books takes me into somewhat familiar waters. I was a bit familiar with Marjorie M. Liu's work as a graphic novelist, and I've liked what I've read so far, enough that I didn't hesitate to request the Monstress books when I saw them on Netgalley.

The story is really intriguing. The focus moves from past to present, as we get to see Maika before and after being captured and sold into slavery. We get to see a little bit of her past, enough to know her mindset in the present time, but not enough to understand why she did what she did or how she got captured. I think that's pretty interesting, from a storytelling perspective, to have the story developing on two separate timelines, yet ultimately not answering any questions, at least in this first issue.

Maika seems like a very angry young woman. She's desperate enough to do some extreme things in order to reach her goals, which at the time the first issue ends, the reader knows nothing about. Or at least I couldn't figure out much. What she's looking for is just as much a mystery as the girl herself. I think it's related to her past before the war, or maybe to when she was a little girl, but I'm not sure at this point. The mystery though didn't bother me, as it kept me on my toes and it made me want to read the first issue pretty fast, to find as many things about Maika's backstory as I could.

The graphic part of this book is also pretty awesome. The art is beautiful, with mostly dark colors and harsh lines at times, but that made it even more beautiful. I found it intriguing how the illustrator put some vivid, rich colors into some of the more darker scenes. In a way, it makes sense when you read the book, because it seemed to me that those colors underlined the differences between those who won the war and those who lost it, or at least that's how I interpreted it.

I did have a bit of an issue with how this first book ended, in the sense that it felt a bit too easy, in a way. But based on how the book ended, I'm not sure Maika will have an easy future, at least for now. I'm curious to see how the story moves on from that point. I'm also interested to see if the story will reveal how she got captured. I can't wait to pick up the rest of the issues and see how the story ends.