Monstress Vol: III Haven written by Marjorie Liu Art by Sana Takeda

Monstress Vol: III Haven

Written by Marjorie Liu Art by Sana Takeda

It's been a while since we've covered this series, so let me start from the ground up. Marjorie Liu was born in 1979 in Philadelphia, in the United States. Her father was Taiwanese by birth and her mother born in the United States. She would attend Lawrence University in Wisconsin, majoring in East Asian Languages and Cultures and minoring in Biomedical Ethics (Woot! I too studied biomedical ethics extensively). It was while in college that she found herself drawn into the world of comic books. Afterward, she would attend law school at the University of Wisconsin. While there she would also take an internship in Beijing working in the American embassy for the Foreign Agriculture Service which was dealing with the Chinese government's newly created rules in regards to importing genetically modified foods. She graduated in May 2003 and was swiftly admitted to the bar. However, she quickly found that lawyering wasn't working for her and decided to become a writer She published her first novel Tiger Eye in 2005, and started writing for Marvel comics in 2009. She would start publishing Monstress in 2015 but we'll get to that. She currently teaches a course on comic book writing at MIT and a class on popular fiction in the Voice of our Nation workshop. Sana Takeda was born in 1977 in Niigata Japan. She got her start as a professional artist at age 20 working as a 3D CGI artist for Sega, she would become a freelancer at age 25 and found herself working for Marvel, in 2010 she worked with Ms. Liu on X-23. In 2013 Ms. Liu would first pitch her idea for Monstress to her and well here we are.

Monstress is a creator-owned comic published by Image. Volumes one and two both won Hugo awards for best graphic novel, in addition to winning a swath of Eisner awards for its writing and art and honestly, it earned each and every one of those awards. It is set in a matriarchal world inspired by 1900s Asia, a world that is still reeling from a race war and teetering on the edge of another one. The division lies between humanity and well...everyone else. Whether that be the cats who are traditionally neutral and focus on gathering knowledge and learning; the Ancients, immortals who look like various animals and tend to have vast magical powers; or their half breed children the Arcanics who trace their origin to interbreeding between the Ancients and the humans. Humans and Arcanics once lived together more or less peacefully but the rising power of the all-female religious order the Cumaea has spread a poisonous doctrine of human purity... Backed by magical powers they gain from using Lilium, a material created using the bones of Arcanics or Ancients. The last war ended in an uneasy draw and even now various forces push everyone towards the brink of a new war. In the middle of this Maika Halfwolf embarks on a journey to learn more about her past, who she was and what the hell is this thing she's carting around in her body? That thing turns out to be Zinn, one of the Old Gods, creatures that had been cast out of the world and can now only be seen as massive but harmless apparitions. Zinn, however, is very physical and even more dangerous, as he brings Maika plenty of power to achieve his aims. As long as he gets to feed and he loves best to feed on sapient life. Along the way she is joined by the Nekomancer Cat, Ren who has his own hidden agenda and loyalties and companion/foster daughter Kippa, who is a fox blooded Arcanic with no hidden agenda and a disturbing amount of faith in Maiko's ability to chose to do the right thing.

This volume opens up with Maiko fleeing to the city of Pontus, a city in the very heart of human territory but protected by a shield built by Maiko's long dead and lost ancestor the Shamen Empress, who is also the person who brought Zinn into this world. In Pontus, Humans, Arcanics, and Cats more or less live in peace but things are tense. The city is full of refugees fleeing purges and slavery in human lands, meanwhile, the shield is old and can only be powered by someone from the Shamen Empress' own line. At any moment the shield could fail and if it does, it's a death sentence for everyone in the city. Maiko, of course, is not helping the situation, having made a number of powerful enemies among them an Arcanic ruler known as the Blood Queen. The forces of her enemies have followed her to Pontus and are threatening the city. The government of Pontus thus makes a deal with Maiko, she and her buddy Zinn the life eating abomination can go into the forgotten depths of an installation build by the Shaman Empress or the city will use everything in its power, including weapons created by the Shaman Empress to kill things like Zinn, to subdue her and hand her back to her enemies to keep them from burning down the city. Maiko for once makes a deal and goes in with Zinn, to plumb the secrets of her ultimate grandmother and try to preserve some corner of safety for innocent people. Meanwhile, Kippa finds herself drawn into the affairs of the Fox People living in refugee camps. The refugees having survived one batch of screaming chaos, now know the signs of the approach of a whole slew of problems and this time they aren't standing still for it. They're planning their own way out of Pontus, hoping to find hiding places in the wilderness to preserve them from the wrath of a humanity gone mad. As if this isn't enough, Ren is called upon by his superiors to decide where exactly his loyalties lie and made aware of what the price of choosing poorly might be. Just in case all of this wasn't enough, we also have intrigue boiling away in the Human lands, as the Prime Minister of the Human Federation is making her own moves to try and win independence from the Cumaea and the remaining factions of the Ancients are making deals and drawing together to make their own plans for the war and for Maiko. Leading these people is someone who was once very close to Maiko, so the danger for her is growing by the moment and she doesn't even realize it yet.

Fair warning, if you haven't read the first two volumes, you're going to be completely lost. The story picks up more or less directly from volume II and keeps driving forward with no brakes. The plot of the story also thickens as we start to see moves by the greater powers of the world in the military and political sense as almost everyone has given up on preventing a war and is working to either survive it or win it. The writing is amazing and the art is drop-dead gorgeous, the amount of detail and the careful work of light and shadow in what is much more subdued color scheme then most comics creates a very unique and amazing style from Ms. Takeda. Frankly, I would tell any writer who had an artist this talented working on their series to do whatever they had to do to keep them, marry 'em if you have to, whatever. The world is dark but engaging and fearsomely realistic and the characterization is well done. We see Maiko as a person, she cares about members in her family but is still a teenager, by turns rebellious, angry at her unjust and brutal treatment and eager to dish it back to sullen and at times even happy and joyful. I can't recommend this series enough. I'm giving Monstress III: Haven by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda an A.

Red text is your editer Dr. Ben Allen
Black text is your reviwer Garvin Anders.

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