Monstress #9 Review

Writer: Marjorie Liu / Artist: Sana Takeda / Image Comics First things, first…this is perhaps my favorite cover for this comic so far. Kippa and Ren outchea looking like a mixtape cover that we didn’t know we needed. Or deserved. As more and more revelations come to light and more characters are introduced, I can’t help but read and just sit here stunned into silence. You thought your family was dysfunctional? With everything that’s come post Elections this year, you thought Thanksgiving and Christmas with the fam bam would be awkward? Try again. Try imaging Maika’s family. It’s clear that not just one of her relatives is also one of her pursuers but someone whom she once called friend is now allied to hunt her down. In the grand scheme of things this issue explores more of the relationship of our favorite Halfwolf and her mother, Moriko that is not so much in a good light. Not at all. The great pains that Maika is putting herself through to remember who she is: her mother’s daughter is alarming yet instrumental to this new side of who her mother was. Not just an intellectual. Or explorer. Or seeker of knowledge or a woman with a thirst for something groundbreaking that would lead to her betrayal and death…the more pages are turned, the more we see a woman hell bent on perhaps using her daughter as a tool. Maybe even a weapon and it’s a frightening experience to behold. I’ve been reading this comic all this time with a thought that while I didn’t think Moriko to be a sain…