Fall 2021 (November);
Hugo Nominee - Graphic Novel

What do I even say about this book, that I haven't said every time before? I love this world and this story so much. Sana Takeda's art remains some of the very best in all of comics. I need to know everything about these reveals that are happening. I wept for another death/not-death that happened. I am heart-and-soul attached to our 'Little Wolf' and I would destroy a universe for Kippa. I teared up over the well-meaning choice to save people which turned into a(n expected) straight-up blood bath.

I look forward every single year to reading the newest volume of this in the Hugo Nominess.

Just keeps getting better and better! ( )

Like volume four, I found this more interesting than I remember the series typically being. The dense continuity of this series does make it tough to follow the big story (I read volume one back in 2017, so that's four years ago), but this volume has an individual story that works on its own, about a city under siege. Like with volume four, I found the stuff about Kippa, the adorable fox kid, trying to navigate a cruel and dark world the most interesting; I continue to be bored any time we delve into the backstory of the main character. People must like this because it keeps making the Hugo ballot, but it does not really take me. I wonder how long it will go on for. But a volume of this quality provide a nice day's diversion if nothing else, and there is a good joke about nuns.

Not an awful lot happens here except people moving on in their lives and finding out about where all the chess places are places for later. You also find a little more about when Marika lost her arm..........
It's an interesting series and I'm curious how things will end. ( )

I was worried with Volume 4 that the novelty of Monstress had worn off for me, but Volume 5 proved that wrong. There's still a bit of a side-quest feel, but we're on track with a goal now, all the major playing pieces *seem* to be on the board (though one hasn't had a full reveal yet), and characters are evolving in new and interesting directions.

Spoilers ahoy for all that has come before.

We start back in Pontus after the last volume's side trip. The city is evacuating and Maiko is trying to decide on her next move. When they learn that the old arcanic fortress town of Ravenna is going to be attacked by the human Federation army, Kippa insists on going to help her fellow fox arcanics, Corvus wants to go to save his sister, and Maiko decides to go along *only* because Ravenna is on the way to the final piece of the cursed mask that she needs to destroy to prevent the terrible Old Ones (sorry if I've forgotten their actual name) from invading and destroying the world. *Obviously* Maiko isn't going with Kippa to make sure she's safe and help protect her fellow arcanics...it's just a whim that she ends up helping organize the city's nonexistent defenses. It helps to have an old god on--er, in--your side to help scare civilians into line. Meanwhile, the Dusk/Dawn Court alliance is already at odds: the Warlord wants to help Ravenna to redeem her reputation while the Baroness wants to take their so far secret airship fleet to a more strategic target. Zinn is active at Maiko's goading but otherwise wallowing in half-forgotten memories of a betrayal that he can't believe himself capable of. Not much Ren in this volume, but man, what we do get...that's one complicated cat.

I love this complexity so, so much.

Oh, and that title, "Warchild"? We've got a few. In the most literal sense, throughout the volume we get flashbacks to what, exactly, happened at Constantine when Maiko was young. Unsurprisingly (at this point), Maiko and Tuya are in the middle of it. But Kippa is also a little warchild, herself, desperately wanting adults to take her seriously and to help as many of her fellow foxes as she can, but still a child...and she makes a terrible mistake that changes her as surely as her developing arcanic gift (and perhaps more) is changing her.

Now that we're finally getting settled in this world we're getting to focus on character development. Kippa and Corvin are forced to make difficult decisions, Maika draws lines on where she takes matters (including those in her head) into her own hands and where someone else has to lead. Even Needle and Hammer, the dreaded agents of the head witch (I'm forgetting the title, ugh), get some individuality and personality. We also get some great new characters in the form of genetically modified witches and an absolutely fabulous Federation colonel who, it turns out, is a figure from Maika's past. She's the kind of person who, when told that a significant portion of her troops are in danger, grumbles about incompetence and gets someone to light her a new cigar before salvaging the situation.

It might seem odd to mention character development when a good half of this volume is dedicated to a major, action-packed battle between humans and arcanics, but Lu makes it happen. If you like fast-paced war stories, you've got it in spades.

My two obligatory nit-picks:

First, Kippa's horrible mistake seems to happen and pass by a bit too quickly for transformative that experience must be for her. But this is probably because the battle is in progress--there isn't time to stop and feel the full guilt that she'll probably face in future issues.

Second, in addition to being a 17-year-old super-soldier thanks to training from her mother that ended when she was 11, Maika is apparently a tactical genius thanks to ten months in military school, also before she was 11. I get that this is her character, but it's a bit much to believe that all this training stuck with her for six years. It was refreshing to hear her tell Corvin that she's a soldier, not a leader--so there is actually something that she can't do.

I had been dreading the end of available Monstress collections, but apparently one just published in September! So now I have to go get on the waiting list for it at NYPL and QL. ( )