Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening (Paperback)

Staff Reviews

        Writer Liu and illustrator Takeda have created a rich, dense world in Monstress: Maika Halfwolf, our heroine, is on a quest to avenge her mother’s death. When we meet her she’s been picked out of a slave camp by Cumaean “witch nuns” to be one of several lab rats. She and the other children selected are Arcanics, powerful human/Ancient hybrids, and are used to harvest and study “lilium,” a mysterious substance Arcanic bodies produce. Ancients are deities who tend to appear as oversized animals. What the Cumaeans don’t know is that Maika’s body is host to an immensely powerful being that emerges, tentacled and monstrous, whenever she is threatened.
        Over the course of three volumes (collecting the first 18 issues) we see Maika and her, in the absence of more information, demonic parasite tear through enemies as they hunt for information about Maika’s mother Moriko, a researcher who died trying to learn about the Shaman Empress, the first Arcanic, with whom we learn Maika has some connection.
        Liu’s predominantly female and gender diverse cast is composed of characters laboring under their own burdens, not unexpected in a world reeling from a war between humans and magical beings. For a people displaced by war and living in a society rife with racial prejudice and sudden violence, morality is composed almost entirely of grey areas. Heroine though she may be, Maika is ruthless and unkind, though not cruel without reason. At the start of her quest, we might think she’s determined to find her mother’s killer out of love but as events unfold and we catch glimpses of Maika’s childhood, we learn their relationship is much darker, and it’s not love that motivates Maika.
        Takeda’s gorgeously intricate illustrations show a world powered by a mix of magic and steampunk technology. Though her color palette is restricted to earthy greens and browns, her line work is extraordinarily detailed and rewarding to examine. The abundance of minutely decorated clothing, skies massed with constellations, crammed interiors, and profuse foliage gives Takeda occasion to demonstrate her artistry to wonderful effect.
        Monstress was an unexpected favorite for me—I picked it up on a whim one day, sucked in by Maika’s thousand-yard stare in a child’s face—and now the wait between issues feels longer every time.