Monstress

[ShaunN]

Hi! I went back 7 or 8 pages and saw hardly any threads dealing with Monstress. I guess that may mean that there is not much interest on this board on discussing the series, but I decided to try to get something started anyway.

To my mind, Monstress is one of the finest comics being published anywhere, right now. The art is beautiful, the characters are compelling, the story and the universe that Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda have constructed is amazing.

I'll get the ball rolling by raising a few questions/points about one of my favorite characters, Kippa.


I have mixed feelings about the idea that Kippa may be playing a more fundamental supernatural role in the series, i.e, that she may possess more "gifts" than we realize. She has been blessed with some kind of supernatural sight by an unknown Ancient Arcanic and she is also a black hole for the different seers who are trying to predict and interpret how Maika will act. On the one hand, I find the mystery surrounding Kippa intriguing. On the other, I like her as simply an ordinary but amazingly caring and virtuous little girl whom Maika comes to love and care for just because of who she is. That part, I suppose, will not change, but I'm not sure how I feel about Kippa becoming more than that.

Also, what do you think it means that Yafaela's ghost has started appearing to Kippa? And is the ghost hostile? I was re-reading volume 4 the other day and realized, at the end of #24, there is a panel of Yafaela lying dead at the feet of Gull, the Inquisitrix/"possessed" woman that Maika set free. So, Yafaela really is dead (I was kind of hoping she survived and that whatever was appearing to Kippa was something different). It's ironic but fitting for the comic that Maika's act of mercy ends up resulting in a totally unconnected character (to her) getting murdered. It underlines the way in which different lives intersect.

The most recent issue, #29, was another kick in the gut. The double page spread of the different citizens of Ravenna getting ready to fight and then their different fates was really jarring.

Anyway, hopefully there is some appetite on the board to talk about this great series.

[TotalSnorefest]

Monstress is definitely popular here, we used to do weekly poll threads and Monstress would consistently be the most read series on the board. Along with Walking Dead, and any of the big Brubaker/Phillips series (Kill Or Be Killed, The Fade Out), but it'd routinely get more votes/talk than Saga for example.
In retrospect, maybe those weekly threads kinda siphoned discussion away from a central topic, so now it's harder to find.

Personally I can't contribute a whole lot, I never read past the first collection. Loved the art style with its Final Fantasy architecture, but at the time I found the story bleaker than I wanted. Should give it another go one day.

[ShaunN]

Hi! Thanks for the response and clarification. That gives me some hope that we may get a good conversation going.

It's strange - until you used the word, I never really thought ot Monstress as "bleak" but it is definitely an adjective that fits, particularly in the current story arc, the siege of Ravenna. But, yes, there is a deep element of darkness and despair that runs through the series, especially in respect to Maika herself and her heart-rending efforts to come to term with what she has become. This is offset by the mystery of what is happening, the gradual reveal of more and more details about the history of Zinn, the monster, and his relationship with the Shaman Empress, and its relationship with Maika.As I wrote, it looks like a lot more is going on with Kippa.

[ShaunN]

Well, it doesn't look like anyone else is biting here. Oh well. Before I give up, I'll throw out some ideas from the series that I find particularly intriguing and, perhaps, worthy of further discussion/speculation.

-There has been the suggestion that Zinn, the "monster", may be the father of some of the Shaman Empress' children, meaning that Maika may be one of his distant descendants. Does this seem plausible?
-It's been clear that, at some point, Zinn betrayed the Shaman Empress, allied himself with a woman named Marium (who is a figure evoked by the Cumea, I believe) and killed the SE. I don't think we have enough information yet to reasonably speculate on why he did this, though it is something that so shamed and hurt him that he has blocked it from his own memories. Any ideas?
-In one of Tam Tam's lectures, he talks about an Ancient who was some kind of entertainer or historian who spread the romantic story of an old god who came down and fell in love with a woman. Tam Tam says that this fantasy was very harmful and that the Ancient who told the story underestimated her own charisma in selling it to others. Obviously, it's a variation on the story of the SE and Zinn and it has some real basis in truth. Who was the Ancient? I kind of wonder if it was Vinh. She is, clearly, a famous Ancient -Ren recognized her immediately when she let her glamour drop.
-Who is Vinh? I admit that she is one of my favorite minor characters. Her confidence and the beautiful way that Sana draws her are very appealing. Kippa saw her as some kind of Celestial being. Is she older than the Ancient Arcanics, one of their precursors, who came from the stars? And what does she want with Maika? She says she wants something but also that she has no desire to harm Maika.
-The Doctor has another daughter, Maika's half-sister. She is also one of his top operatives and her code name is "the Beast." Any speculation on her?
-What's going on with Kippa? Who is the Ancient who blessed her and why? Is it someone we have already met or a completely different character we have not yet encountered? I assume the latter but the former is possible too.

I realize in writing all of this that the series probably has not yet given us enough information about any of these things to really fuel informed and plausible speculation - but I may have missed something (I have not gone over all of Tam Tam's lectures with a fine tooth comb, for example, and they definitely have clues as to what is coming) and a lack of information has never prevented people from speculating before!

[Chuffed]

I've been surprised and delighted as I loosely follow the floppies as they drop. I'm bad with lore and character development discussion but highfives all around to all the Monstress fans 8).

[ShaunN]

I've been surprised and delighted as I loosely follow the floppies as they drop. I'm bad with lore and character development discussion but highfives all around to all the Monstress fans 8).

Thanks for the response, at least!

I need to amend something I wrote earlier - Zinn was, apparently, having an affair with Marium. His relationship with the Shaman Empress is a bit unclear. He seems to believe he loved and admired her. Her comments to him in their shared memories seems to confirm this. But Marium suggests that the SE treated him like a tool and that she (Marium) was his only friend (and, apparently, his lover).