Monstress #46 // Review
Ren slashes a green slit into the darkness. He can see movement on the other side of the darkness. He’s scratching at the tear with his forepaws, but he’s powerless to get anyone’s attention. Then the apparition shows up and compliments him for his raw talent. He’s a doorway between worlds. He doesn’t want to be...but he doesn’t have a choice in Monstress #46. Writer Marjorie Liu continues an engrossing fantasy adventure with artist Sana Takeda. The travels on the planet Golga continue with power, poise, and some beautifully otherworldly visuals that captivate and animate the long-running series.
The other cats are requesting Ren’s help. He wants to save his friends. The cats don’t want to let him simply walk out of their presence, though. His power can help them. It’s not going to be easy convincing them to allow him to go to his friends’ aid. He HAS got an important bit of leverage in bargaining with them: the apparition that spoke to him told him one of his friends is the anchor. That seems to mean something to them, so he tells them as much. There’s a brief silence...and they ask him what he needs. It looks like all the cats are going to work together.
On a long enough timeline, all of history is a story of survival. Life manages to survive in the most unimaginably harsh places. Liu’s story of life on an impossibly alien prison planet is a brilliant illustration of this. The horror that is outlined in the dialogue may be a lot of talking heads stuff, but there is such a strong draw to the dark poetry of it that hits with such disturbing strength. There’s the coming feeling of some kind of strange prison break on the horizon, but Monstress #46 is clearly a story of one of the most horrifying prisons imaginable.
Takeda’s art continues to look genuinely alien in a way that feels like it’s genuinely touching another world. The drama feels a bit more present in this issue than it had in the issue that led into it. Ren’s personal journey is given kind of a long time to play out at the beginning of the issue, which allows Takeda more of an opportunity to explore the inner struggle of the little hero. It’s a powerful opening to another compellingly strong visual issue.
As powerful as the visuals continue to feel, it all begins to feel like one big, strange wallpaper as the prison break approaches. The planet Golga is impressive, but there isn’t enough variation from panel to panel. It all tends to blur together in a way that can drone a bit in the background visually. There isn’t anything visually dynamic going on beyond the vision of this other world...and so it feels like a long, slow slog through the prison. Not exactly dazzling, but it DOES present a very haunting and disturbing image that continues to burrow its way through another issue and the mind of the reader.
