Monstress Vol IV: The Chosen By Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

 Monstress Vol IV: The Chosen

By Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

“Why are you killing us?” Unnamed character page 16

I'm not sure why there's a giant gap in our review of Monstress. I love this series. The writing so far has been intense and focused while using the advantages of the comic medium to provide world-building and different viewpoints on what is actually going on in the world. This keeps the plot moving at a good clip while providing the context needed for you to grasp what is actually going on. The art is dark in its color choices and shading but Ms. Takeda is talented and careful enough not to let that overwhelm the details in her set pieces and character design, which results in a gorgeous display of art that I would hold up against anyone. Yet the last time we looked at this series was 2018! Well, I suppose it's past time to catch up, isn't it?

Alright, so it goes like this, humanity is dominated by the Cumaea, a female religious order that preaches human purity and supremacy (And as much as Patriarchy sucks, Matriarchy is not the answer{but what if it’s backed by dark science and darker magic?}). Their domination comes from the control of science and magic which gives them a wide array of powers; the greatest of these are powered by the bones of the Arcanics (Protip: Using the bones of sapient beings to power your magic is not a good idea culturally.). The Arcanics are a widely variable group of races and peoples who are united by their shared origin. That shared origin is that they all got their start as the results of unions between humans and Ancients. The Ancients are a collection of immortals who look like humanoid animals (So, furrie), who with their incredible powers rule vast kingdoms usually populated by Humans, Cats, and Arcanics. Cats regard themselves as the first race and grow greater in size and number of tails as they age. They also have a vast array of magical schools and secrets which means no one else really fully trusts them. However segregation is increasing as trust and tolerance between the Arcanics and humans is simply falling apart under the pressure of the genocidal desires of the Cumaea and its puppet human government, the Federation (See what I mean?). This exploded into a giant war years ago, which ended when a massive explosion for lack of a better word took out an entire city and a Federation army. However, the peace is not holding and the world looks ready to plunge back into war and this one will make the last one look like a playground spat. Our Protagonist is Maika Halfwolf, a young woman who survived not only the killing camps of the Cumaea and the war but was very involved in the event that ended the war. The series has Maika delving into the secrets of her past and trying to find out just what is going on inside of herself and what that means for the world around her. This is important because inside of her is sitting Zinn, a creature that is an “old god,” now most “old gods' ' are massive images that appear in the world without substance and draw worship from the Arcanics. Zinn very much has substance and grants Maika massive power, he also afflicts her with a dark and horrible hunger for the flesh of sapient beings (Uh Oh), and trying to find a way to control or live with it has been a bit of a focus for Maika. Zinn was also connected to the Shamen Empress, an ancient but vitally important figure in their world and the exact details of their relationship and how it ended are... Shadowed but what is being implied is...Terrifying.

Maika isn't doing this alone, she's picked up companions. Such as Kippa, a fox Arcanic who has become something of a foster daughter for Maika. Master Ren, a cat Nekomancer who can speak to and in some cases compel spirits.  however, Master Ren's loyalties have been an open question lately, as he betrayed Kippa to unknown parties who abducted her (Not really an open question in my book, at least along certain avenues.). Most recently she's also picked up Corvin, an officer in the Court of Dusk (I'll get to them) and Arcanic noble. He defected under the belief that Maika could be someone that acts as a force for good in the world, which is more faith than Maika has in herself at the moment. Maika needs every companion she can get because she is becoming the center of attention for every power in the world and most of them don't have her well-being in mind. Some slight spoilers ahead folks.

Volume III ended with the fall of Pontus, a city of Arcanics in the middle of the Human Federation. The Cumaea used fragments of the Shamen Empress' mask, a powerful artifact, to tear open a rift to allow the “old gods” direct access to the world and the results are catastrophic. We also learn that certain women in the Cumaea are indwelt by creatures like Zinn but where Zinn is amoral, they are outright malevolent (Oh Joy!  Isn’t it nice when people get indwelt by ancient horrors?). While Maika and her allies were able to close the rift, many of the Arcanic citizens were driven into a mad rage and turned on each other and everyone else. The parts of the city that haven't been outright destroyed are falling into race riots as Arcanics turn on the humans living among them, ironically killing humans who had rejected the ideology of the Cumaea. Maika doesn't have the time or the resources to deal with this, however, as she is on the trail of the people who kidnapped Kippa and she is going to stop at nothing to get her foster daughter back. Meanwhile, Kippa has proven she was paying some attention to the things Maika was trying to teach her by affecting her own escape. This leads her to, of course, go someplace even more dangerous where she'll either suffer a fate worse than death or emerge with knowledge that might be important later. We also see more overt signs that Kippa might have powers of her own to call on as Kippa continues to grow into her own.

Meanwhile, Maika gets confronted with her moment of hazardous growth, as well as finding out that as bad as the situation I outlined back in paragraph two was for the world? Things are actually worse because a new faction has formed in secret. A faction with a fanatical corps of foot soldiers, whose charismatic and genteel seeming master has recruited the greatest Arcanic commanders and champions of the last war and created weapons of unprecedented power. Calling themselves the Court of Blood, this new faction has a plan. They're not going to stop the war, they're going to pour gas on the fire, encourage the Cumaea and the Ancients to throw everything they have at each other, and then strike from the shadows overwhelming both sides. Once this is done they will crush any remaining resistance, ensuring that there will never be a war this bad again by making sure that there are no competing power centers to wage a war from. Then they will rebuild society into everything it should be and turn to the stars (It’s a sound strategy, and kinda pulling the bandaid off…{These are not the people you want in charge, trust me}). If this wasn't bad enough, the master has an offer for Maika, he can provide her answers about her past, origins, and more. He can replace what she has lost and is willing to do whatever he can to provide her a home and safety. All he wants her to do is to accept the connection between them and all the worse parts of herself (Oh dear…). Oh, and possibly play into the hands of the old gods who may want to tear apart the world so they can endlessly feed on it (Okay, so evil, not ruthless.  Gotcha. {Evil, views people as objects and massively overconfident!}). In the last two volumes, we saw that Maika's Mother was at times brutal in her upbringing of Maika, normalizing violence and murder and punishing any sign of weakness. In this volume, we learn that this might have been better than the alternative. Because as bad as Mommie dearest was? Well, wait until your Father gets home young lady (Oh.  Shit.).

Meanwhile, Maika’s only surviving maternal family member, her aunt, who is also the Warlord of the Court of the Dawn hasn’t been idle. Actually, this is a good time to explain this court stuff I've been throwing around. The Ancients divide themselves into Courts, with one Queen or King Ancient ruling everyone else as an immortal, near all-powerful but usually distant and disinterested monarch (Ugh.  Monarchism.  Just give me the order, Ghost of Ilyich). Underneath them is usually Arcanic nobility made up of their children and grandchildren. Such as Maika's family on her mother's side. The two most powerful courts left in the world, the Court of Dusk and the Court of Dawn, have decided to ally against the Cumaea and force everyone else into line for a unified resistance (Good plan.  United fronts are your friend.). Part of this is a marriage between the Warlord and Tuya, a young lady who was living with Maika back in Volume I. Tuya, however, has risen far on her own account, becoming the Baroness of the Court of the Dusk. Which is sort of the Black Widow of the Court, the arch spy and assassin willing to do anything to achieve her ends. In this case, Tuya's ends are to become a power in the Court of the Dawn and prevent the war from happening. Because she's caught wind that the government of the Federation, long irrelevant, has managed to gain enough power to break free of the Cumaea and its Prime Minister intends to make peace with the Courts, not wanting to see millions of humans and Arcanics slaughtered for the obscure aims of immortal creatures or mad-scientist witches. Of course, the Warlord, who is now also her wife, isn't on board with this idea, instead wanting to try and win the war in a first strike. Although given what's going on in the Federation, their argument may be rendered moot.

This is a volume where we see Kippa and Maika grow up quite a bit. Kippa acts on her own agenda and undertakes her own journey into darkness to win her own knowledge and experience (Awww, she’s growing up!). Maika learns to use her words even in a stressful situation and to look to something larger than herself as she argues that the war must be stopped because the risk of playing into the hands of creatures beyond the void who want to eat us all is too great. This is despite her own hatred and prejudices, Maika has grown into someone willing to put her grudges to the side for the greater good of even people she hates. If that's not a sign of maturity then what is? So I find myself thinking that Maika who has been a violent, surly, hard-headed teenager bouncing across this series in pursuit of goals that are as often self-defeating as they are dangerous... Might grow up into a mature responsible person able to learn and grow past themselves. Of course, she had to do it on top of a pile of corpses but we all have our learning disabilities. As everything gets laid out, the characters will have to decide, like Maika, what they stand for and who do they stand with? Expect a review of Volume V soon folks because I want to see if Maika can find the brakes on this crazy train or if she's going to fall into temptation and embrace her own darker urges. Monstress Vol IV The Chosen by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda gets an A. 

I hope you enjoyed this review and I certainly hope to review Monstress Vol V before the end of the year. That said, this graphic novel, was voted for by our ever-wise patrons. As was our next review City Beyond the Sands by Michael Rose, in which we'll discuss a bit about the western tradition of the genre we now call isekai. If you would like to vote on what books I review or genres I discuss or theme months, consider joining us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads where you get a vote for as little as a dollar a month! Either way join us next week for City Beyond the Sands. Until then stay safe and Keep Reading!