Marjorie M. Liu

Monstress, Vol. 1

Sooooo much of this that I love in theory but it failed to truly grab me in practice. The art is gorgeous, the worldbuilding is excellent and complex, the story is intriguing and its mystery is really engaging. There are quite a few tropes I enjoy here too.

But this barely gets to breathe among the wall of text on every page. I am a big book reader, I do not mind text. But I feel like a visual medium should actually... show something. Expressions accompanying the dialogue, movement, sound. There are whole panels here that could have been 5 different ones, showing character expression and emotion that are in reality just wide frames - too wide to see detail of the faces - with speech bubbles being exchanged.

I will probably pick the next volume up though, see if once I become more comfortable with this I enjoy the story more.

Sooooo much of this that I love in theory but it failed to truly grab me in practice. The art is gorgeous, the worldbuilding is excellent and complex, the story is intriguing and its mystery is really engaging. There are quite a few tropes I enjoy here too.

But this barely gets to breathe among the wall of text on every page. I am a big book reader, I do not mind text. But I feel like a visual medium should actually... show something. Expressions accompanying the dialogue, movement, sound. There are whole panels here that could have been 5 different ones, showing character expression and emotion that are in reality just wide frames - too wide to see detail of the faces - with speech bubbles being exchanged.

I will probably pick the next volume up though, see if once I become more comfortable with this I enjoy the story more.

Monstress #1

Vicky  Nuñez 

I usually don't read single issues. Volumes are short enough, an issue is just a tease. But it was recommended to me by a friend and I could not resist the artwork. 
Basically its just an introduction to the story, but a great story by the looks of it. 
Like I said Sana Takeda did a great work, sometimes I just spent minutes staring at the beautiful illustrations. 
And the storyline was all kinds of great. To sum it up: Two societies not at war with each other, but about to be. And It starts with the main character who is bound and been sold in an auction. And things take off from there.
 I loved how it hooked you from page one and I honestly can't wait for the next issues to fill in all the blanks. I also loved how it ended even though I feel so silly to not see it coming since its basically in the title.

Marjorie Liu

Maika has spent most of her life learning howto fight, but how will she fare when the only way to save her life...is to makefriends? Collects issues 13-18 ofthe Hugo Award and British Fantasy Award series.

Monstress

Mel 

I didn’t love his arc as much as the other ones but the art is still so phenomenal and there’s a lot of action in this one too!

Monstress, Vol. 2

It just keeps getting better and better! Everything is so grey and you really feel for Maika as she starts to get answers about her journey. 
I loved getting to know more of this world and meeting even more interesting and complex characters. 
The art was stunning and I highly recommend if you like an epic and bloody fantasy.

2017 British Fantasy Award, Best Comic/Graphic Novel 2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Writer 2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Painter/Multimedia Artist 2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Continuing Series 2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Publication for Teens 2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Cover Artist 2018 Harvey Award winner, Book of the Year 2018 Hugo Award winner, Best Graphic Story 2018 Hugo Award Winner, Best Professional Artist 2018 British Fantasy Award winner, Best Comic/Graphic Novel 2018, 2016, 2015 Entertainment Weekly's The Best Comic Books of the Year" 2018, Newsweek's Best Comic Books of the Year 2018, The Washington Post's 10 Best Graphic Novels of the Year 2018, Barnes & Noble's Best Books of the Year 2018, YALSA's Great Graphic Novels for Teens 2018, Thrillist's Best Comics & Graphic Novels of the Year 2018, Powell's Best Science-Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Graphic Novels of the Year 2019, Hugo Award nominee Maika and Corvin make their way through a warped and lethal land in search of Kippa, who is faced with her own terrible monsters. But when Maika comes face-to-face with a stranger from her deep past, startling truths are uncovered, and at the center of it all lurks a dangerous conspiracy that threatens the Known World. Maika is finally close to getting all the answers she ever wanted, but at what price? With war on the horizon-a war no one wants to stop-whose side will Maika choose? Collects MONSTRESS #19-24.

Beautiful art as always! Complicated politics and just a lot of information at once. I was confused at many points and had to pause to look things up 😭

anita

Set in an alternate matriarchal 1900's Asia, in a richly imagined world of art deco-inflected steampunk, MONSTRESS tells the story of a teenage girl who is struggling to survive the trauma of war, and who shares a mysterious psychic link with a monster of tremendous power, a connection that will transform them both. Entertainment Weekly praised MONSTRESS as one of "Image Comics" most imaginative and daring new series and dubbed it the "Best New Original Series" in their year-end ñBest Comics of 2015î list. Collects MONSTRESS #1-6

Monstress Vol. 1

Residual6

روایتی زیباست از صحنه‌ی نبرد. جایی که بد و خوبی وجود ندارد؛ همه‌چیز بقاست.

Anyaconda

Beautiful art style, very dark fantasy novel. Great start, but not amazing amazing.
At the beginning it was hard getting into the story and what was going on, but I do want to continue with the series. Mainly because I don't have to buy them, but borrow them from my local library.

Maika, an adolescent Arcanic (magical race), is searching for her past and searching for revenge.  There is a precarious peace and a wall separating the Arcanics and Humans. Bubbling hostilities threaten a war that could break out at the slightest provocation. Maika is also being hunted by basically everyone for secrets and the power she has from the monstrum (demon-like entity) hidden inside her. The art is stunning! Stunning! The world building is detailed and complex, slowly revealing the mythology and history of this world. At the end of each chapter there is a page of infodump in the form of an excerpt from a lecture given by a talking Cat (another race in this world) to a group of kittens. It is an enjoyable way to quickly get more background. There are a lot of characters of different fantasy races. The main ones that band together with Maika in the beginning are Ren (Cat), and Kippa (young Arcanic fox girl). This is dark, violent, and adventurous. Characters are developed subtly. This is epic scale fantasy horror. Volume one has me invested to continue.

Cheryl Hedlund

Jamieson

Becky A

Note: I actually read this in single issues, but it's much neater to just select the Volume 1 option. Anyhoo.

This is gorgeous and fascinating, albeit darker and more violent than I expected. (I'm not sure *why* I didn't expect that, though.) The worldbuilding in particular was great as it continued to widen. Who held power and why was never confusing, though I did appreciate the expository cat lectures at the end of each issue. 

I gasped aloud at big moments a couple of times. I also loved Maika -- she, like the series, was darker than I expected, but the whole point is that she's struggling against the darkness and hunger inside that threatens to consume her. It is very much a story about war, and the terrible things that happen as a consequence, and it doesn't pull punches at all.

Ryan LaFerney

At the start of MONSTRESS: AWAKENING, 17-year-old Maika is sold as a slave, becoming a prisoner of a sect of deadly nuns who steal a powerful drug from the bodies of their young victims. She and a handful of potential victims escape, but there's no safe haven for them. Maika seeks to understand what happened to her mother, who disappeared years ago, and the trail of clues leads to encounters with winged warriors, human/animal hybrids, and perhaps even the Old Gods. 

I wanted to rate this higher than four starts but truth be told, I think this is a bit of bumpy start to a very promising series. Monstress, Vol. 1 plunges readers in the middle of the action with little preparation. In Monstress: Awakening, clues to how this world works are scattered hither and yon, and it's up to the reader to collect them and put them in the proper order. This is fine but it made for a bit of a confusing and slightly frustrating reading experience. I feel like the world building is a little too complex for a graphic novel. It’s trying to squeeze so much information in, but it can’t quite cope with the amount it has. 

But, at the same time, this graphic novel is packed with awesomeness. Sana Takeda's gorgeously painted illustrations, which mix the traditions of both European comics and Japanese manga, are truly stunning. The art is often intriguing, strange, horrific, and beautiful. 

I might be complaining that the story is hard to follow but really Maika holds a dark power- in this case a literal demon living inside her- and is caught in the middle of an old war. That's really all you need to know going into this. 

You got to work hard with this one but I think its worth it. It's a dense and beautiful illustrated story. Magical!

Update: Reread in 2022. The world building and storyline holds up and is AMAZING on a second reading. One of my favorite graphic novels. It's an absolutely remarkable work of art and imagination.

Izza

The art in this graphic novel is absolutely stunning. It is clear that there was a ton of effort put into the world-building. There is so much lore, the backgrounds are very complex and the detail work is top notch. Just high-quality all around.

That being said, the story may be a tad too complex as there was parts that I felt minor confusion and had to work to remember certain characters. I also didn't feel as attached as I would like to the characters, but that is a problem I find myself struggling with in most short form stories. As this is only the first volume, I expect to grow more attached as the story goes on. But first I feel like I may need to reread this first volume before continuing on in this series.

The world is brutal and the story does not shy away from danger and consequences. I am intrigued with the monster inside Maika and was is going to happen as it, and she, grows in power. With how dark the story has already been, I am sure it won't be without repercussions. 

Kayla

The art in this graphic novel is absolutely stunning. It is clear that there was a ton of effort put into the world-building. There is so much lore, the backgrounds are very complex and the detail work is top notch. Just high-quality all around.

That being said, the story may be a tad too complex as there was parts that I felt minor confusion and had to work to remember certain characters. I also didn't feel as attached as I would like to the characters, but that is a problem I find myself struggling with in most short form stories. As this is only the first volume, I expect to grow more attached as the story goes on. But first I feel like I may need to reread this first volume before continuing on in this series.

The world is brutal and the story does not shy away from danger and consequences. I am intrigued with the monster inside Maika and was is going to happen as it, and she, grows in power. With how dark the story has already been, I am sure it won't be without repercussions. 

Raphaëlle

I read the 4 or 5 first issues when they got released back in 2015 and i loved them but didn’t keep at it for some reason. It was a pleasure diving back in. I think this a story that benefits from being read volume by volume, rather than single issues, because the world building is so intricate and complex.

I'm speechless. Everybody needs to pick this up. The art is stunning. Beyond words really. The plot is intriguing and the world building is really ouf of this world. It's something you would expect from a novel rather than a comic book. 
Fair warning though: it's pretty violent / brutal and it has its fair share of goriness.

Emelie

4,5owls

There was nothing i really disliked with this graphic Novel! The art was beautiful and the story was interesting all the way through! Looking forward to next volume!

Julia Lotz

"Die Welt der jungen Maika wird bedroht, als sie psychisch mit einem Monster von unglaublicher Macht verbunden wird. So gerät sie inmitten eines vernichtenden Krieges der zwischen Mensch und übermenschlichen Mächten stattfindet. Steampunk trifft auf Manga in diesem Fantasy-Epos von X-Men und Black Widow Autorin Marjorie Liu und dem Comik-Künstler Sana Takeda. " (Quelle: Verlag)

Meine Meinung 

Mit Monstress habe ich schon lange geliebäugelt. Nicht zuletzt deshalb, weil mich das Cover so beeindruckt. Der Klappentext gab dann den Rest und ich positionierte dieses Buch sehr weit oben auf meinem Wunschzettel. Bei einer Leserunde auf lovelybooks hatte ich dann das Glück, ein Exemplar des Buches zu bekommen und startete begeistert mit dem Lesen.

Ich fand Sana Takedas Zeichenstil schon beim Betrachten des Covers sehr schön. Beim ersten Durchblättern des Buches war ich jedoch noch begeisterter und dies nahm auch während des Lesens nicht ab. Sie kann sehr gut die unterschiedlichen Stimmungen, besonders farblich, rüberbringen und zeichnet sehr detailverliebt. Ich bin wirklich länger als bei anderen Comics und Graphic Novels auf einer Seite verweilt, weil man überall so unglaublich viel erkennen kann, was aber nicht unbedingt wichtig für die Story ist. Gerade auch die großen Panels, die sich über eine Doppelseite ziehen sind episch und ganz abgesehen von der Geschichte, wird der Comic allein durch die Zeichnungen wundervoll.

Auch die Geschichte ist sehr spannend. Ich finde es sehr gut, dass der Klappentext noch nicht allzu viel verrät, denn so wird man das eine oder andere Mal von der Geschichte überrascht, was mir sehr gut gefallen hat. Sie ist weitaus komplexer, als der Klappentext es erahnen lässt. Anfangs fiel es mir relativ schwer, alle Andeutungen zu verstehen aber am Ende jedes Kapitels findet sich eine kleine Geschichtsstunde über die Welt, in der wir uns befinden, ihrer Geschichte und den einzelnen Spezies, die diese Welt bevölkern. Auch die Karte im Umschlag der Broschur war das eine oder andere Mal sehr hilfreich und half mir, mich besser in der Welt zurecht zu finden.

Ich denke, hier wird definitiv ein Reread fällt, denn ich möchte die Geschichte noch einmal mit dem gesamten Hintergrundwissen erkunden um sie noch besser zu verstehen und einige Theorien entwickeln zu können. Falls ihr ein Fan von genau so etwas seid, dann empfiehlt sich der Comic für euch. Die Geschichte ist unglaublich komplex und obwohl wir sie in Band 1 sehr gut nähergebracht bekommen, bleiben viele Fragen offen, die sich erst in weiteren Bänden beantworten lassen. Mich stört das nicht, ich habe vielmehr Lust bekommen, bald mit Band 2 weiterzumachen und bis dahin ein bisschen weiter über meine Theorien zu grübeln.

Was mich dann doch sehr gestört hat, das war die Fäkalsprache. Natürlich ist das ein Comic für Erwachsene und kein Kinderbuch und ich komme sehr gut damit zurecht, wenn es mal etwas derber wird. In Monstress erschien es mir aber häufig übertreiben und an einigen Stellen auch einfach unangebracht, da die nicht unbedingt Schimpfwörter etc. gebraucht hätten und man so etwas ja auch häufiger anders ausdrücken kann. Hier mag ich jedoch auch keinen Punkt abziehen und ich denke, ein kleiner Hinweis an euch ist nicht schlecht. Für mich war der Comic ansonsten episch.

Monstress von Marjorie Liu und Sana Takeda überzeugt nicht nur durch die epischen Zeichnungen und den detailverliebten Zeichenstil. Die Geschichte ist komplex und genial und das Warten auf Band zwei sorgte schon bisher für einige Theorien und eine ganze Menge Spannung. Allen Comic- und Fantasy-Fans kann ich dieses Buch nur empfehlen.

Vor langer Zeit habe ich mir der Monstress-Reihe begonnen und ich muss an dieser Stelle auch sagen, dass neben A House Divided dieser erste Band ein wenig Schuld daran ist, dass ich wieder absolut ins Comic-Fieber abgesunken bin. Wer meine Rezension zum ersten Band noch nicht kennt oder wissen will, was das überhaupt für eine Reihe ist und wie sie mir gefallen hat, kann die Rezension hier lesen. Wie lange es her war, dass ich Band 1 gelesen habe, merkte man daran, dass ich erst einmal unglaublich lange gebraucht habe, um wieder einzusteigen. Die Geschichte gefiel mir damals so gut und hatte so faszinierende Ansätze, war auf der anderen Seite aber auch so vielschichtig, dass mein Gedächtnis zahlreiche Lücken aufwies. Nach einiger Zeit war ich also wieder voll drin und konnte mich mehr auf die Story und ihre Entwicklung konzentrieren.

Dabei muss ich ganz ehrlich gestehen, dass Band 2 für mich der schwächste der Reihe war. Das lag nicht daran, das sich lange gebraucht habe, um einzusteigen sondern vor allen Dingen daran, dass die Geschichte einfach nicht voran gehen wollte und ich mich ab einem gewissen Punkt sehr gelangweilt habe. Ab einem gewissen Punkt zu Beginn des dritten Bandes kommt dann jedoch viel Fahrt in die Geschichte, sodass dieser in meiner Rangfolge dann wieder etwas höher liegt. Eigentlich dachte ich, die Reihe wäre mit dem dritten Band zu Ende und habe gegen Ende wirklich fragend auf eine Hinführung zum Abschluss gewartet. Die blieb jedoch aus und ich stellte kurz darauf fest, dass es sich beim dritten Band nicht um den Abschlussband handelt sondern mindestens noch ein vierter folgt. So gut mir Band 3 wieder gefallen hat, bin ich der Meinung, dass die Geschichte, wenn nicht jetzt noch ein großer Plottwist passiert, vermutlich sehr gut in drei Bücher gepasst hätte und ich mich dann während Band 2 nicht so hätte langweilen müssen.

So sehr ich doch die Geschichte bzw. viel mehr die Entwicklung, die diese nimmt, kritisiere, so machen andere Punkte die Comicreihe für mich unvergleichlich. Das ist zum einen der Zeichenstil, der für mich mehr wie ein Kunstwerk erscheint. Innen steckt in jedem Bild so viel Detail, wie es schon das Cover vermuten lässt und man entdeckt beim Lesen immer wieder neue kleine Details und Hinweise. Wundervoll! Darüber hinaus weiß ich sehr zu schätzen, wie divers die Geschichte gestaltet wurde. Körperliche Einschränkungen werden genauso thematisiert, wie LGTBQ+ und Rassismus-Themen.

So sehr die Geschichte für mich im Mittelteil durchgehangen ist: Die Lektüre von Monstress lohnt sich auf jeden Fall. Nicht zuletzt wegen des tolles Zeichenstils und der Diversität sondern vor allen Dingen auch durch die tolle Idee. Ich fiebere nun dem hoffentlich bald erscheinenden Abschluss entgegen und möchte euch die Reihe in der Zwischenzeit einfach ans Herz legen!