Man-Eaters #12 // Review
The background for the revolution is disclosed in one final bit of scattered support narrative. Chelsea Cain’s Man-Eaters ends it’s run by wrapping-up a few mysteries in a final issue featuring clever graphic layout by Lia Miternique. It seems a bit strange to end the series on scattered supporting material that adds depth to the narrative that’s already appeared, but it’s a satisfying bit of ephemera for the series in the format of a Handbook For the Revolution give to the series’ heroine Maude by her mother. It’s a weirdly satisfying end to a pleasantly odd satire.
It had been revealed that Middle-schooler Maude was a big part of the revolution against the patriarchy, but how did she get let into it? What did she have to learn? Aspects of this are covered in the final issue of Man-Eaters, which features excerpts from a training manual for the revolution in addition to Various other bits of technical detail including a relatively comprehensive history of the doll transmitter devices that were so crucial to the revolution, foldable tabletop counters for war games between cats and Napoleonic soldiers, paper evidently written by Maude questioning basic principles of meteorology and much, much more.
A big part of what Cain had been establishing in Man-Eaters was a sense of community. The series is filled with a galaxy of little details and trivial elements which develop a stylish vocabulary for the revolution which expands concepts explored in the series. That expansion rests in the minds of readers in a way that helps to foster the potential for real revolution on this side of the page. It’s a very cleverly crafted narrative. It may not have always been completely brilliant, but Cain’s series forms a very solid alternate universe that casts a very clever light into the world we all inhabit.
The graphic power of Miternique’s visuals has one more chance to make an impact on this issue. The two pages of antique male soldiers contrasted against cats make a suitably comic impact. The naturally subtle creepiness of children’s dolls feels particularly disturbing when paired with technical schematics of the complex surveillance devices that they house in the world of Man-Eaters. The mixture of old, familiar graphic layouts of 20th-century instructional pamphlets, catalogs, and educational texts fuse in a vivid collage of items is a powerful visual. The fact that it’s a secret, little sacred bit of information that had been held in the possession of the central heroine of the series makes the issue-closing ancillary material all the more interesting.
Man-Eaters has been an immensely enjoyable series. The final issue in the series gives the world of the story more room to expand the concept of social revolution we’ll beyond the page. All that seems to be missing is a direct invitation for the reader to carry the revolution to the world outside the panels. The page of blank membership cards for The Ministry of Trouble seems as close to an invitation as Cain can get while maintaining plausible deniability. Cain’s done a clever job of making the revolution seem very, very cool. The potential for revolution and meaningful change in society rests in the hands of every reader.
