I’m lost. I have no idea what the hell is going on in this wackadoodle book anymore. Look, you can take your little six month hiatus if you want to but it doesn’t mean it’s gonna work. It works for Saga, they have a clear story line. I can flip through their previous issue on my comic rack and within seconds go ‘Oh yeah, that’s where they left off’. I’m flipping through issue 41 of this jumblethon and my head is spinning. Liu! WTF? This ain’t a novel it’s a comic book. You’re not Ursula K. Le Guin or Piers Anthony mmkay? You’ve got a bazillion different story lines, plot devices, character arcs, mythologies and locales and I officially cannot keep up anymore.
There’s the Dusk Court, Evening Court, Midday Bangeroo Court, The Welcome 2 The Dawn Purple Court and probably Rucker Park and all these courts are run by God knows who and they’re all drawn with intricately detailed armor by the wonderful Sana Takeda so whomever is leading them is hard to make out half the time. Everyone betrays everyone. The foxes are being hunted by the, I don’t know anymore, Matt Fraction on acid? There’s Goths and Lesbo Loving and a Dad who hires an anthropomorphic cast of Sea Pirates. The Anime Fox is now traveling in the dreamworld to rescue the main character while she’s being swallowed whole in the real world on a lab table by a snake that James Earl Jones turned into as Thulsa Doom in the Conan the Barbarian movie. Now there’s robots and mechanical arms being welded onto humans and is that Michael Caine in a robe with a glowing orb? Yeesh, he’s in everything.
This all comes on the heels of a slew issues that dealt with the war between everybody and nobody. There were pages and pages of military strategy and envoys between Sharks with Dicks and Wolves with Tits who are about to be ambushed by flying pirate cats with swords. It got to the point where I didn’t know who was fighting who and why other than the fact that lots of Lion Headed Dudes and Screechy Witches were angry about it. I’m really starting to think Marjorie Liu takes these hiatuses as a way to keep her series going.
Image: Hey Marjorie, thanks for coming in. So, we’re thinking we want to wind down this –
Marjorie: Oh emm gee, I totally spaced, my flight to Mongolia leaves in an hour not three hours. Yikes! Gotta go! I’m going to be churning butter in a farm two four seven, zero reception. Ta!
The tragedy in all of this is that this began as an amazing series. Add in the fact that Sana Takeda’s art never fails to amaze or disappoint and it’s hard to want to put this comic in the ‘see ya’ pile. I mean, does Marjorie have an expensive shopping addiction? Is she on Wayfair buying endtables and spice racks all day long? Does she have a Dom in a Dungeon that she goes to who charges her a cigarette on the arm a bruised leg and a thwack to the thighs? Does she need to keep extending this series as long as possible to fund said addictions?
The most integral relationship of this series is that of Maika and the ravenous mystical ancient God that lives inside of her. That and how it ties in to Mommy’s blind ambition for power. Everything else is fancy window dressing and the b,c,d,e etc. stories. There was a major revelation that took place in issue 40 but now we’re on the astral plane where anything can happen and I mean anything.
Here's why there's no way I can ever give this series up notwithstanding the fact that I've been in the ride since day one so I've dropped about $150 so far trying to keep up: This book is full on straight jacket bonkers but in a good way. Look, the imagination and world building of Monstress has always been off the charts and now in this issue we get the main characters floating on an asteroid made up of the ancient God in a dreamworld where Maika's inner child is there along with her decapitated talking head from the real world. The Anime Fox is there along with the main Cat character as well. All of a sudden a gi-normous Cat Monolith appears in space with a wide burning opening in its stomach and after some trepidation all the characters jump in the burning cat stomach. Dude.
Wasn't there an article that came out that said having a lot of cats around you makes you crazy? Like there's some hormone or toxin they release in the air that affects your mind? I think it's safe to say that Marjorie Liu probably has two to three dozen cats where she lives and they're in essence writing this entire epic tale. They probably let her sleep, have a cup of coffee in the morning and then command her to her laptop where she's taken over by an Abyssinian and a Maine Coon who take turns writing scene descriptives and dialogue. So, I gotta give it up to the cats for the flat out chutzpah and wildly out of this world plot developments they come up with. They must be digging on some serious high potency nip.
There never has been a jumping on point for this book. There also never really has been a jumping off point. There's only been a 'jump through this hoop of insanity and join us on this feline journey where it may not be coherent but it will certainly crawl into your soul'. Damn you Monstress. You're like that crazy lying ballerina chick I used to date who did releves and demi plies while stripping to 'Pour Some Sugar on Me'. Sometimes you gotta stick with the crazy cuz it'd be fucking crazy not to.
Rating: 7.4
Verdict: Pull
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