Monsteress Vol V: Warchild By Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

 Monsteress Vol V: Warchild

By Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

“I am the Halfwolf and my word is Law”

When I realized I had a free week in April, I decided to grab Volume V of Monstress and catch up with the series. If you missed my review of Volume IV just a few weeks back, Monstress is a comic written by American-born author Marjorie Liu and illustrated by Japanese-born artist Sana Takeda, I speak more about these talented women in the 1st review (way back in March 2017!). Published by Image Comics, which was founded in 1992, and in less than 30 years has fought its way up from a small start-up to the third-largest comic book publisher in North America (possibly the world but wherever I search market share of the entire world I only get data for North America and I'm pretty sure Marvel isn't dominating 40% of the Asian market, for example). It's known for publishing creator-owned content such as The Walking Dead, Spawn, Saga, and Invincible.

Now I went into the world in the last review so we'll just do a quick refresher, it's an Asian-inspired, matriarchal, fantasy world. There are among the sapient races: Cats, Immortals, Arcanics, and Humans. Immortals are basically humanoid animals that are incredibly powerful and practically immortal. Arcanics are descendants of the children of Immortal and human relationships. As such, they inherited magic and various animal features from their Immortal ancestors. Humans on the flip side have no inherent magic but are the only race that seems capable of industrialization, although Arcanics are fairly skilled in technology themselves. That said some human women can develop psychic abilities and one of those women founded a religion on that, and the discovery that using the bones and other remains of Arcanics would grant magic to humanity. As you can imagine this became a wedge issue. That religion, the Cumaea, destroyed all its competitors, reduced human government to a puppet state, and preaching human supremacy waged a terrible genocidal war on the various Immortal ruled, Arcanic inhabited states they share the world with (I could comment on Imperialism here, but am spoiled for choice.). They failed, and the war effort collapsed when a massive weapon took out the main Federation Army. However, now not even twenty years later the Cumaea is ready for round two (Genocide Boogalloo), but they're not the only people who've been getting ready for a rematch. In this volume, the world tumbles over the edge into an even greater war than the last one but there are still those who hope to grab the edge on the way down and pull themselves out of the abyss.

Our Protagonist Maika Halfwolf has been struggling with a traumatic past as a captive of the Cumaea during the last war, and an overlapping set of family secrets that reveal increasingly awful truths about her ancestors, parents, and herself. There's also the little fact that she is carrying around Zinn, an elder creature of immense power and even worse hunger. She's managed to assembly a motley band around her, such as the fox girl Kippa, who serves as an adopted daughter and an Arcanic noble who is fated to kill her... Maybe (That’s gonna put a strain on any relationship…{Eh, Maika is a strain all by herself}). Maika has found herself in the fortress city of Ravenna, which is the first target of the Cumaea commanded fortress city. Ms. Liu also shows us why humanity is able to do so well in wars against magically powered Immortals and their servants here because Ravenna? Has basically been abandoned to its fate. The Garrison commander and city officials all seized airships told the local people that behind the walls was the safest place for them to be, and ran for their lives (They must all be hunted down and killed.). I can only hope such utter and rank betrayal of their duty and citizens is punished in volume VI because it's not addressed here. Ravenna meanwhile is falling apart, the committee of its remaining officers are unable to keep order on the walls or the streets. Its gates are choked with crowds of refugee farmers demanding to be allowed into the one place every human gun is going to be pointed at, while the city itself is filled with people increasingly willing to pay any price for a fast ride out of town. I'm going to take a moment here, and just say if you're caught in a warzone, run. Don't try to get into a fortress or military base because that's where the fighting is going to go. Because the biggest target of any invading force is going to be the strong points of defense, that's where most of the bombs will fall. Trust me (He’s right.). Maika, intent on preventing something even worse than this war from happening is frankly willing to keep moving but between Kippa's oath to her fellow fox refugees, and Corvus the Dusk noble whose sister is a healer in the city and refuses to leave... Her feet have been nailed to the floor and she is going to be forced to take part in the battle. So much the worse for everyone else because Maika will only fight this war on her terms and anyone who tries to stop her isn't going to survive long enough to regret the mistake.

Meanwhile, the Federation is cracking, the navy is openly mutinying against the war and the government is reaching out for a peace settlement. Maika's aunt, the warlord of the Court of the Dawn has married the spymistress of the Court of the Dusk to form a block to rally the Arcanics into a single unified force. The Cumaea itself is reeling from a body blow as its capital and greatest fortress was bombed by an explosive powerful enough to decimate the city (Good). Meanwhile, Maika is going head-to-head with a veteran commander of the Federation Army, a ruthless and savage woman whose willingness to expend her troops to achieve her objective is only exceeded by her intelligence and willingness to lead from the front(Well at least she has that going for her.). This is all bad enough but hidden parts of Zinn's past are resurfacing in his memories and Maika is going to have to deal with that before too long. Maika continues to mature throughout all of this as she makes difficult and brutal choices trying to hold the fortress while outnumbered and outgunned, because it's the only way she's going to prevent a massacre, but it also means she's going to have to add a hell of people to her body count to do it.

If you're looking for a gallant tale of heroism in the face of overwhelming odds, this isn't gonna be it. This is a horrible, dirty brutal rat fight of a story with dirtier political maneuverings being played out in the background. This is a story of war as experienced by people who are caught between a genocidal war machine and an uncaring elite out to protect their positions and power.  Ms. Liu gives us a story of the horrors of war, and the individual acts of heroism and sacrifice that take place within it are often just coins to be spent or traded by the powerful for all too often fleeting strategic advantage (And a dubious cause, typically.).Ms. Takeda's art remains beautiful even as it depicts horrors and savagery, her preference for dark colors works perfectly for this subject matter if you ask me but then I think she might be the best comic artist or just artist of this generation. It's also showing us that while Maika is as savage and unrelenting as any of them, she's at least trying to save lives because if Ravenna falls, that genocidal war machine will have a free road into the heartland of the very people they want to turn into nothing but fuel. While she didn't want this responsibility, having accepted it, she'll throw everything she has into it and she'll stop this war machine or die trying. Monstress Volume V Warchild by Majorie Liu and Sana Takeda gets an A.

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