Monstress #13
Image Comics
Written by: Marjorie Liu
Art By: Sana Takeda
Lettered by: Rus Wooton
It’s been quite a while since we had a new issue of Monstress and now it’s finally back from its break. If you have been keeping up with Monstress then you’ll be glad to know that the new issue starts off well as it brings back what’s familiar to fans of the series. We get to see a new monster bursting out of the seas and I love it everytime we get to see new beasts make their mark in this series. Takeda’s art is also just as stunning as it always has been. If it wasn’t for her style, I don’t think I would enjoy the series nearly as much as it enhances the dark tone that the book is known for but it still works when we are given panels of happy moments with our characters. Continuing on this issue still has me not liking the cat Ren who has been traveling with Maika and Kippa. He’s not a bad character; I believe the intention is to not feel completely trusting towards him. He seems to care about Maika but his motives are still not completely clear, so it leaves me with a lot of anticipation to see what exactly it is that he want’s out of Maika whenever we get to that point.
We also now begin to see some of the fallout from the recent events as a war is brewing and it, of course, has to do with the power that has been “given” to Maika. Now politics in real life and in fiction depending on the subject can actually come off boring for myself. What made this interesting though was as we see one party preparing their defenses, we see the side of trying to help the area where Maika and her friends are currently residing in so that no one is hurt here if the war was to break out. The decision to help the area is now up to Maika and you can’t help but feel a bit bad for her as she now has to continue to use a power that she doesn’t want and all it’s done is brought trouble to her along with nearly dying multiple times. Up to this point, we’ve felt the struggle for Maika as she continues her journey on being rid of this power but now you feel that uneasy nerve that things are about to get more difficult because of where the rest of the world is going. Hopefully, Maika along with her companions will be able to make it through it.