MONSTRESS #43 - Review

 

Are we at the point with Monstress where it’s become nothing but Art Gallery material? I can imagine seeing the art in this book at one of those Culver City Art Gallery Openings where it’s painted on large pieces of wood and plastered over the walls in no particular order. Everybody sipping on their two buck chuck wine and nibbling on week old carrots and broccoli florets would ooh and ah and pose near them but in no way would they think there was an actual story behind them - unless of course you were tripping balls. I would love to go to a 'Monstress Gallery Opening'. Wow. I mean. I'd probably set a record for 'How many Artsy Fartsy Asian Girls can reject you in an Hour' and I'd be proud of it.

 

Sana Takeda’s art has consistently been gorgeous, surreal and unique but the story is officially off the rails. Honestly, the story probably went off the rails twenty or so issues ago when the ‘War’ began but now it’s crumpled into a heap releasing toxic fumes into my head. I bet you Norfolk Southern Rail/Black Rock was reading this comic before deciding how to go about derailing all of its trains around the country. Look, Monstress has always been Batshit Crazy, in a good way, but now it’s a combo of a Fiery Latina on a Drinking & Hallucinogenic Binge while she's TikkyTokkaWocckaing and watching Mainstream News 24/7 kinda Batshit Crazy.

 

I think it’s time to figure out what’s going on with Marjorie Liu. Is everything all right in her world? Is she going through a break-up of some kind? Does she have it out for someone at Image? Is she and Sana developing a little rivalry? Like were they at a Con and more people were gushing over Sana than her? So did Marjorie think ‘Fine bitch, draw these Batshit crazy words, since you’re oooh, sooo talented and gifted’. First of all, let’s consider the fact that Marge is a certified wow comic babe:

 

I mean, cmon, this is like if Fiona Staples went Victoria’s Secret on us. This is the kind of girl who would want nothing to do with me or any of you comic book geeks out there. No frikkin’ way. This girl doesn’t date down she dates up. She’s probably had boyfriends named Bjorn, Mattheus or Kingsley. I’m not going to assume she’s always been straight either so if she’s dated chicks they’re the kind of chicks who are super intelligent yet spell their names wrong like Lysa, Karlee or Jynnipher. Well, turns out Marj has been with the incomparable bad-ass novelist Junot Diaz for over a decade. Junot fits into the whole ‘odd yet elevated’ name theory of who a girl like this would be dating, so ha I was right. So, are Junot and Marj quibbling? Everything okay in the land of amazing writers?

 

Look, clearly Margie is smart enough to understand how to plot a comic book series. Listen to her here clearly speaking about that very fact in this interview of her:

 

So it’s not like she doesn’t know what she’s doing but this story has veered off into the eye bleeding land of Jodorosky. You know, the 70s filmmaker who took a kettle full of drugs and acid, wandered onto a set or two and called himself a director. Yeesh, God forbid you tell a cinephile that his film ‘Holy Mountain’ is better at putting people to sleep than Valerian Root and Ambien, you’ll find yourself in a van with ex-CIA Agents and ten sheets full of acid with the Grateful Dead Bear waving at you.

 

What’s the big deal Issac? I thought you like wacky out there stuff. I do. But, I like to be able to follow it. Let’s just recap the past couple of issues shall we? Well, we had a year plus (or more I lost track) of this interminable insufferable war narrative that sucked the air out of this title like an AA Meeting being held in the middle of Mardi Gras. Then our lead gets captured and poked, prodded and sucked on by lizards or whatever while all these wackadoodle scenes in dreamland/fantasyland/candyland take place while she’s unconscious. The feisty anime fox and the flying backstabbing emo cat decide to astral travel (are you even following this) to wake up our lead in astral travel land. The ancient God in our lead becomes a floating orb in deep space where the fox, the cat, the floating conscious head of our lead and her inner child represented by a visual of her as a child stand on the orb of the God while it blinks its ancient God eye.

 

Oh, there’s more, a floating cat monolith (my goodness Marj & Juno must have an aerial circus of cats at their place) appears in deep space and opens up its floating cat belly to reveal a void where they all jump into. It turns out it’s a prison world of Ancient Gods, it feels more like a wacky Star Trek planet. Meanwhile, I’m not sure who’s consciousness is actually here. Our lead’s floating head which is now tethered to our ancient God gets chomped on by a canine looking God. The big cliffhanger is a God Convict who was apparently put in God Prison by the Monstress Ancient God (Was he a lawyer? is this Law & Order WTF?)  Now God Convict is all pissed and staring down Monstress God like he’s Grossberger staring down Gene Wilder in Stir Crazy. Did you follow all that??? Meanwhile, I have NO fucking idea where we are in relation to everrrrrything that has happened for 40 issues. Dude.

 

Again, I am all for Batshit Crazyville as long as I can follow a base narrative. It feels like Miss Liu has forgotten to take the basic breakdown of how to plot a comic that she in fact gave from the vid above. I mean, there’s no way I’m dropping this title. I’ve put about 170 smackers down so far to keep up with this fever dream. Is this the sacrifice you have to make if you want a comic book series to last more than 12 issues? You have to have your eyes peeled back like Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange so you can slowly watch the story you’ve come to love slowly go up in flames?

 

Funnily enough Sana Takeda drew the exact reaction I had after finishing this book in this issue:

 

Well, I did a little digging on Ms. Liu and I found this interview she did with EW a little while ago. EW, hahaha, remember when we all subscribed to them as an actual magazine and let their issues pile up near our couch until we used them as a side table for our coffee? She had this to say:

 

How do I put this? Life is nothing but one long exorcism, basically. And by that, I mean, we come into this world as ourselves, and then everything gets heaped on us. There's intergenerational trauma, there's personal trauma, there's anxiety, there's fear, there's all of that. I don't mean literal demonic exorcisms, but I just mean that as we go through life, we're always trying to expel these things. We're always trying to heal, if we can. If we're even aware of it…

 

…Part of the healing, what's helped me anyway, is having compassion for oneself and having compassion for those ghosts, having compassion for those wounds and saying, "All right, you know what? This is what I've got to deal with, and there's no reason to hate myself for it. There's no reason to be angry at myself. This is just what it is." And so, when I'm working on Monstress, I'm thinking about ghosts and thinking about monsters, but I'm also thinking about... Well, what is the path to healing? How does one reintegrate? How does one heal? How does one become your full self? 

 

Sigh. Dammit. Well said SkipToMyLiu, well said. Now I feel bad. Awww, my little bonkers Monstress comic, I never want you to end! Okay fine, so I jumped through a Space Cat Belly and we’re now in Prison God World with the head of our cute Riot Grrrrl’s Head floating around while Foxy and the Flying Pussy are still in Astral Travel world. Sure. Gotcha. No problem. I’ll be here next month. Hmm, I don’t do acid but the fizzy blue Kombucha that I like gets me tripping balls if I drink it too fast. I guess I'll have that on hand for issue 44 so I can get in the mood.

Rating: 6.3

Verdict: Pull and watch El Topo