Monstress, Volume 8: Inferno

Monstress #8

by Marjorie M. Liu (Writer), Sana Takeda (Illustrator)

In volume eight of the multiple Eisner, Harvey, Hugo, and British Fantasy Award-winning series, the truth about the death of Maika’s mother has been revealed, and Maika has come undone.

As her allies scramble to save her soul, they find themselves in the unlikeliest of places—the beautiful and brutal prison planet where the Monstra have long been locked away. This visit to the site of Zinn’s worst nightmares might just hold the key to Maika’s survival—and to the long-buried origins of the Known World.

In the series that NPR called, “remarkable,” join Maika as she realizes the only way forward is to return to the past.

Collects MONSTRESS #42-48

Genres: Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Adult

208 pages, Paperback

First published November 21, 2023

About the author

New York Times bestselling and award-winning writer Marjorie Liu is best known for her fiction and comic books. She teaches comic book writing at MIT, and she leads a class on Popular Fiction at the Voices of Our Nation (VONA) workshop.

Ms. Liu is a highly celebrated comic book writer. Her extensive work with Marvel includes the bestselling Dark Wolverine series, NYX: No Way Home, X-23, and Black Widow: The Name of the Rose. She received national media attention for Astonishing X-Men, which featured the gay wedding of X-Man Northstar and was subsequently nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for outstanding media images of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Ms. Liu also wrote the story for the animated film, Avengers Confidential: Black Widow and Punisher, which was produced by Marvel, Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan) Inc., and Madhouse Inc.

Her newest work is MONSTRESS, an original, creator-owned comic book series with Japanese artist (and X-23 collaborator) Sana Takeda. Published by Image in Fall 2015, MONSTRESS is set in an alternate, matriarchal 1920’s Asia and follows a girl’s struggle to survive the trauma of war. With a cast of girls and monsters and set against a richly imagined aesthetic of art deco-inflected steam punk, MONSTRESS #1 debuted to critical praise. The Hollywood Reporter remarked that the longer than typical first issue was “world-building on a scale rare in mainstream comics.”

Ms. Liu is also the author of more than 19 novels, most notably the urban fantasy series, Hunter Kiss, and the paranormal romance series, Dirk & Steele. Her novels have also been bestsellers on USA Today, which described Liu “as imaginative as she is prolific.” Her critically praised fiction has twice received the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, for THE MORTAL BONE (Hunter Kiss #6), and TIGER EYE (Dirk & Steele #1). TIGER EYE was the basis for a bestselling paranormal romance video game called Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box.

Liu has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, MTV, and been profiled in the Wall Street Journal.com, Hollywood Reporter, and USA Today. She is a frequent lecturer and guest speaker, appearing on panels at San Diego Comic Con, the Tokyo Literary Festival, the New York Times Public Lecture series, Geeks Out; and the Asian American Writers Workshop. Her work has been published internationally, including Germany, France, Japan, Poland, and the United Kingdom.

Ms. Liu was born in Philadelphia, and has lived in numerous cities in the Midwest and Beijing. Prior to writing full-time, she was a lawyer. She currently resides in Boston.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 3 out of 5]

(B+) 78% | Good
Notes: A real mess, just ups my stress, complex and overcooked, but while unclear and super-weird, its ending really hooks.

*Progress updates: Preamble ◦ Issues #42-43 ◦ Issues #44-45 ◦ Issues #46-48

[Marilag · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of these days this series is finally going to end and I will eventually be able to reread it all and figure out what the heck kind of fresh hell I walked into. It's only been months since I'd read the previous volume so some of the story is still in my head but then Volume 8 decided NOPE. Let's throw everything out the window and put you inside an absolute mind palace of tangential crazy.

There were so revelations that did make me go WHAT, and most of that was in the final chapter. The absolute last panel was bonkers and also singlehandedly made me want the next volume now. Literally now. Also, Kippa is the best.

[Mara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars - This was a frustrating but intriguing entry in the series. I think by the end, we get some major & exciting movement in the overall plot... perhaps finally moving towards a resolution? This is probably my least favorite so far in the series, but I am still HOOKED so will continue on :D

[untitled lullaby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still have no idea what’s going on and even less so this volume but I still enjoy it and especially the cats. Can’t wait to be out of the loop on the next one!

[Dev · Rating 3 out of 5]

i'll be honest i haven't had any idea what's going on in this series for ages i'm here purely for vibes now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Elizabeth (Plant Based Bride) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still love this series <3


Representation: many characters of colour & queer characters, MC is Asian, a lesbian, and an amputee

Trigger/Content Warnings: suicidal ideation, self-harm, cannibalism, violence, blood & gore, body horror, kidnapping, medical experimentation, starvation, murder


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[Sarah (menace mode) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me nodding along reading this: yes yes I definitely know what’s happening here and I’m not confused at all yes yesssssssssk

[Sud666 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 8th Volume of Monstress has some very interesting information about this world and Maika.

Maika and Zinn are able to travel to the prison planet/dimension where they hold the old gods. During this event we are given a great deal of information about Maika's mother and learn more of Zinn's history. I shall not spoil it.

As usual, Liu's world is a unique and interesting one. The characters are deep and have many facets. The artwork is stellar, though here I do have one small quibble. This issue, due to the combat between the defiled/Zinn and the environment, the artwork can be hard to understand. The combat is often a jumble. I am not saying that I don't like this art. I do. I am just saying that this issue's combat scenes are a bit of a mess.

Need to grab vol 9. A great series that I hope to collect in a HC omnibus someday.

[Armando · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since this is the most recent volume of Monstress I will try to summarize my final thoughts on the series.

The worldbuilding is intense. There is a deep history here that doesn't just deal with humankind sort of history, but the history of celestial beings and cosmic horror style gods, as well as a rich history of different race lineages that border on the fantastical and imaginary, while also having an entire lineage of talking cats to go along with it. There are multiple themes of reincarnation, and gods not really being gods, but just more powerful than ordinary creatures, while at the same time exploring the classical mythology of real gods (real to our world and history). This latest volume dives even deeper with the passage of time and shows space travel and parallel timelines, as well as diving into an entirely different plane of existence. There is so, so much terminology that is used to categorize the people, the world, and the history of both. To sum it up, it is overwhelming. The imaginative races are great, but when you're trying to keep track of a certain type of people or nation, whenever something imaginative shows up, its hard to categorize that (Not sure if that's the best way to explain it). Essentially, the more imaginative creations are really neat to see, and its great to see both a writer and artist embrace that weirder side, but when you're still struggling to come up with a concrete idea of what is really happening. So even after eight volumes, I have managed to scrum up a basic understanding of this world, I would also say that I really don't know anything about it. The concepts, particularly that of the old gods and the cosmic horrors related with them, is interesting as hell, but it can often just feel very messy

And the characters are very messy as well. Their motivations and aspirations are very complex, and very varied. There is also a large load of political intrigue, betrayal, allies plotting against friend and foe, and just a whole network of who's playing who going on. Again, with the world building, it gets messy. And particularly because there is so much going on, that even when a conflict is resolved, it hardly feels to change anything. And when it does change anything, I'm unsure of what has been changed. Also having multiple characters suffer from different forms of amnesia, basically losing important core memories and struggling to regain them, there is a lot to keep track of.

But through all the nebulous worldbuilding and messy character motivations, there is still the heart of the story with the main characters. I am still hooked on seeing where they will end up, there is so much pain and suffering that they have gone through that I want to see them get their happy ending. So while I struggle to still make sense of the world, I will still continue to read to see them through the end of their journey.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monstress is a richly designed, excellently drawn, wonderfully written epic fantasy story that happens to be presented in the graphic novel form. The characters grow and change and develop, and we continually learn more about their world, politics, and societies, along with their personal growth and background. The series must be read in order to be fully appreciated, I believe, but it's worth it. All of the questions are eventually answered, but new ones are always introduced. It's a really rich tapestry, both visually and otherwise. It continues to be my favorite comics series.

[Silvana · Rating 1 out of 5]

'Confused' seems to be the consensus word in the reviews. I did not know what was going on, only glimpses of it, so many worldbuilding and characters getting dumped on me, and the artwork made it even more confusing since the pictures look like they are mushed into each other so I could not figure out what I was seeing. A graphic novel should be more explanatory when words fail. This is my least favorite entry in the series and I don't know whether I should continue. How many more books are there??

[Benji Glaab · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel kind of bad rating this 3 Stars. If this was the art alone this book is an absolute masterpiece. Takeda must have sunk hundreds of hours of detail into this one with all the action and mayhem the book just sings a thing of beauty. The story unfortunately was plain confusing and kind of an overall mess. Anyways I managed to piece things together by the end and I wasn't completely bored. The reveal at the end with a time jump is intriguing. I have to say it feels like I've been reading this series for about 5 years now and a binge read will likely be more enjoyable since I'm always so foggy on the details when getting back to it.

[Laika · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the last volume of Monstress that’s currently published and (since vol. 9 is coming out in November) the second-last I’m going to read this year. Which could be either a good or a bad thing, I suppose. This is the first volume I can say I genuinely didn’t enjoy, not even grading on a curve fro the highs of the rest of the series but in general. Not awful, but not good either – by far the most ‘comic-bookey’ plot arc so far, and I really don’t mean that as a compliment.

Through a variety of contrivances involving Maika’s friends journeying to the centre of her mind to try and wake her up from her coma and finding a massive and seemingly living statue of Adara Farclaw – the previously semi-mythical ancient hero-sage of the cats – our main cast (plus the ghost of Maika’s childhood self created by the sheer intensity of her own self-loathing) find themselves on the prison world where Zinn trapped all his kin to keep them from devouring the world we’re more familiar with back in pre-history. They’ve adapted surprisingly well, adopting humanoid forms and farming for the food they need. Immortal but sterile, their history since has been dominated by an endless race war between the first generation Fallen Houses (Zinn’s peers) and the second-generation and much reduced in grandeur (but increased in numbers) Defiled. Zinn, Maika, and the fragment of the Shaman-Empresses’ mask they brought with them are a chance to upset the balance of power, or perhaps even escape – and both sides are willing to do anything it takes for that chance.

Though all that plot aside, the actual point of the volume is to a) provide great reams of lore on the Monstra in general and Zinn’s past and present relationship with the rest of their species in particular and b) give Maika a chance to work on her self-esteem issues and guilt over accidentally killing and eating her mom as a child by providing a tulpa of 10-year-old her to scream at, protect, and reconcile with. Also a bunch of stuff about cats.

I can see the version of this story that works for me, at least in broad strokes. But yeah, the one that actually exists really didn’t. The largest part of that is just allocation of narrative resources, I think? As the book goes on, it has become steadily less interested in the themes and aesthetics I find more compelling to focus on it’s deep lore mythohistory and melodrama among the elder gods, to the point of just leaving the actual setting with its fascinating politics and societies entirely for basically the last two volumes. It begins to make me question why I’m still reading. Maika as a character is profoundly interesting, but having her just clearly announce her issues to a literal embodiment of them is not, to me, particularly compelling reading.

On an aesthetic level, the strange and alien prison planet let me deeply unimpressed. It was all so..familiar. Even the two warring nations of eldritch god-monster have ended up basically human-sized and human-shaped, farming and eating and using tools and building structures in instantly recognizable ways. There’s an excuse offered, but I’m still left wondering why even bother if it’s going to be so unspectacular.

I also found myself disappointing in how...monotonous, I suppose? The aesthetics of technology are growing to be. The guns, tools and armour of these cat worldwalkers who’ve been living underground on this prison world for centuries look almost identical to what technology of the Shaman Empress and the toys the Blood Court uses and- Even if you can torture and justify it all to make sense, it just gets boring and samey eventually, you know? Makes the world feel small.

Which is related to my thematic issues with the volume, in a way. The story is clearly much more interested in the grand, superhuman drama of the monstra, the exploration of multiple worlds and lost continents, space age high technology, more species and relics and myths and just – it all piles up so much that the result just ends up feeling more generic and boring than the more focused and detailed world of the first few volumes was. This is made far worse (for me, anyway) by the fact that Zinn seems to have been personally involved with literally every major historical personage that was mentioned at any point.

The most concise way to put it is that at the start of the story Maika et al really felt like people inhabiting a world, and now it’s at Star Wars levels of the world feeling like a canvas for a specific set of people’s melodrama. Nothing wrong with that, in the slightest – I just prefer the other, and feel a bit cheated by the shift.

On a different thematic level I kept waiting for some real, like, narrative pushback or reversal about how the Defiled are treated as these disgusting morally abhorrent abominations for the fundamental crime of being genetically impure and ‘spiritually mutilated’ and...never really got it?

Anyway, pacing wise the arc is much too short to be a complete, satisfying version of the story it wants to tell, and much, much too long to be a part of the longer story it is a detour from. The story never becomes offensively bad, but I am honestly reading as much out of inertia as anything by now.

[julia ☆ [owls reads] · Rating 4 out of 5]

VERY confused about some of the things that went on, but still here for it! Kippa continues to be the sweetest and also the best. The final pages caught me very off guard, and I can't wait for the next volume!

[Samidha; समिधा · Rating 2 out of 5]

This comic series started out as one of my favorites and has increasingly become more and more deranged. It’s lost the plot (literally), and so have I. The next volume will be the final one for me and if that doesn’t wrap up this series, then I guess it’s goodbye to Maika and her crew.

[Tori (InToriLex) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great volume for those who loved this world and its characters. Everytime I think I have the full picture, each volume expands on what we've been told in a new and interesting ways. The cats, multi-world, psychological elements and humor will keep me reading and enjoying everything that has come.

[Rachel (Kalanadi) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Kalena ୨୧ · Rating 4 out of 5]

⋆.˚✮ 4.25 stars ✮˚.⋆

↬ trigger warnings: blood and gore, war themes, death of loved ones, cannibalism, medical experimentation, child abuse mentioned, gun violence, dead bodies.

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Well that was a lot to process. A lot of answers were given but as usual in the finish lots of questions. The art was as always exceptional but with this issue, more than the others I had trouble following what was happening. This instalment follows a whole other path and while it was fascinating it was also a little overwhelming. Still Kippa and Ren hugging made me tear up. I still love these characters, although Maika was pretty awful. I think I understand why, being that she and her young self are separated and that young self is the self with compassion and softness, but it didn’t endear her to me even with that insight. But when I wasn’t being overwhelmed and confused my mind was truly blown. I’m sure it will improve with a reread. I think the next time I read the series (and I know as long as they’re releasing books, I gotta reread because the world building is too complex to retain) I’m going to take proper notes.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The complexity ramps up again, and though I am still largely enjoying it, it's getting a little exhausting constantly flipping back and forth and re-reading sections of previous volumes. In these chapters, most of the action takes place in the dimension?/planet? where the old gods are imprisoned - a world with different players with complicated backstories, conflicts, etc. Yet another tangled web of history and politics layered on top of the original serves both to intensify the experience and aggravate overall confusion.

In the previous volumes, the concept of the fractured self manifests through past v present, dream v reality, and inter-generational possession. The last volume even raised the issue of cloning, a more literal reckoning of the different versions of the same individual. But this volume introduces metaphysical versions of past and present in the same story thread, and alternate dimension versions of characters acting and behaving independently.

I'd previously mentioned that the complexity of the world and the plot are what make it so addictive, but splitting characters into multiple versions interacting with one another is starting to test my limits. It's an intricate universe that might have been better off split into different series because loose threads start to accumulate, which decreases engagement and can eventually lead to dissatisfaction.

[Eric Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still love the worldbuilding but I felt really confused for a good portion of the book. That’s probably on me for not reading the other volumes again before this one but I’ve never done that previously and never felt so overwhelmingly lost. Also the art when a lot of old gods are involved becomes pretty undefined and definitely adds to the confusion.

[John Lustrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many others who wrote reviews, I too was pretty confused in this one. There are enough flashes of brilliance that keep me moving forward (plus all the equity the story has built so far). Kippa continues to be the real hero of the story!

[Lau · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Sólo faltó Cthulhu en este volumen. Viendo la monstruosidad de dibujos (si, broma intencional) que hizo Sana Takeda esta vez, entiendo que tuvieran que tomarse un descanso para tener tiempo de hacer todo.

Si tuviera que describirlo en una palabra, sería Lore.
Fue completamente diferente a todos los anteriores, y dio unas cuantas explicaciones interesantes y necesarias.
Me congratulo de haber vuelto a empezar desde cero hace un tiempo, porque realmente es una de esas historias complejas que necesitan tener la información bastante fresca.

Hacia la mitad me dio un poco la sensación de que ya estaban haciendo tiempo, porque hasta roza lo repetitivo. Espero que en el próximo ya veamos todo lo que se dejó de lado temporalmente.
Y más Kippa por favor, me encanta el carácter que está desarrollando. Good for you, little fox.

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m as confused as ever but cannot wait for the next volume! kippa still my favorite!

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volume #1 Awakening - ★★★★☆
Volume #2 The Blood - ★★★★☆
Volume #3 Haven - ★★★☆☆
Volume #4 The Chosen - ★★★☆☆
Volume #5 Warchild - ★★★★☆
Volume #6 The Vow - ★★★★★
Volume #7 Devourer - ★★★☆☆

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Issue #42: 4 stars
Issue #43: 4 stars
Issue #44: Read 06/04/23 3.5 stars
Issue #45: Read 11/07/23 5 stars
Issue #46: Read 11/07/23 5 stars
Issue #47: Read 11/07/23 4 stars
Issue #48: Read 11/07/23 4 stars

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the art style and the world is so intriguing, but more often than not I just end up getting lost.

[Alice Tremblay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Confused is an understatement. The art was STUNNING in this one though.

"But everyone needs a hug, master Ren. And a hug doesn’t have to be with your arms. It can be with your words, too."

"I really wish, with all my heart, that I could capture everything that led to where we are now. It wasn’t all bad, you know. We couldn’t have survived, otherwise. Those are the moments I wish people would remember—that it was how much we cared about each other that got us here. And not just the killing."

[TheVampireBookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this might be my favourite volume yet. Surprise surprise, the plot actually made sense, the characters behaved in a way that wasn’t confusing, nobody looked alike, the old god realm explained a few plotlines and it all seemed very coherent. I hope this keeps up.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much has been revealed. This was an information bomb of a book.