Monstress #20
Image Comics
Written By: Marjorie Liu
Art By: Sana Takeda
Lettered By: Rus Wooton
The new issue of Monstress is here and it’s giving us quite a revelation that I won’t give away here. The issue continues to see Kippa escape from her captures and Maika is out searching for her. Ren is also in his own corner since his secrets are out and he’ll have to explain why he hasn’t been truthful. Right now, I would have to say that I am really enjoying the pacing for this arc. In the past, there were times where it felt a bit slow but this one seems to really move along quite nicely. It may also be because of how much we’ve been seeing Kippa grow and even though she is still scared for her life, the actions she has been taking to assure her own safety are quite something as she would never have even to make these sorts of attempts way back when we first met her. She is a key factor for some reason and we still don’t know why she’s being chased outside of being a friend of Maika who already has enough people chasing her. The only thing we see with Maika is her making the attempt to find Kippa and she still seems to have trouble finding her. What I love is how she is just fed up with everyone. Maika is still enjoyable to read every time she appears in the pages and now she is about to meet someone who I’m guessing hasn’t been around in a very long time.
One of the biggest things I find to look forward too when reading Monstress is the art. The style and detail just go beyond of what I can come to expect generally in comics and she clearly deserves to be the main artist premiered for bigger projects. However, I definitely don’t want anything to take her away from Monstress because of the unique style she has to give our characters such life in this world of darkness. The creatures and monsters are still some of my favorites to see here along with the outfits that really have quite a fun design to them and just look so elegant at times. I also appreciate how Wooton, our letterer here places everything well so we’re not getting any of this great art blocked and the reading flows very nicely. Even without a lot of variations of word bubbles such as each character getting a distinct color of letters for them, it really isn’t necessary here because of how well the placements are.
Monstress issue 20 gives some new reveals and has you rooting for Kippa to keep going forward. It’s not an issue anyone can jump in because of how lost you’ll feel, but I still feel like a new reader will find enough here to convince them to start from the beginning. Monstress is a fantastic dark fantasy with some amazing imagination put into it that I believe everyone should be reading or at the very least, give a shot.