Monstress Deluxe Edition 2 Review

The second deluxe edition of Monstress continues one of the most successful stories of recent years in an incredible format, visually stunning.

The deluxe editions that Norma Editorial has been wowing its readers with for a number of years are often comics that shine especially for their graphics. It is not out of place to have a place for Monsters among the amazing comics like The Killer Room or Dark Science, the second and long-awaited one is now available…

The great adventure of Maika Mediolobo

It’s been more than five years since Monstress was published, and the impact it had on the ninth art is still not forgotten. Although it is true that this influence has diminished over time, it does not seem surprising that the shower of awards (including Eisner, British Fantasy or Hugo) fell at the beginning of the series. Today we do not deserve it in any way.

This kind of steampunk manga with a young adult orientation draws a lot of multicultural influences (perhaps due to the different cultural heritage of the two authors, one Japanese and one Chinese-American), which includes everything from mythological references to Lovecraftian nods. It features a teenage girl named Maika Medilobo as the main character. Maika lives in a magical world engulfed in a great war, and because of the immense power within her, she may be the answer to the end in one way or another.

Increasing legend

With eighteen chapters behind us, in this volume we now find ourselves in the post-war phase (the authors use it here to talk about a subject as unfortunate as the refugees) with the threat of a new conflict between the Federation and the Arcanes. He keeps the political situation tense at all times, elevating this theme as a major one in the first bars of the volume.

This happens until the situation escalates to the inevitable battle, at which point artist Sana Takeda changes the style a bit, making the work feel like the reader is in the middle. War

And in the midst of this environment, Myka is getting closer to the answers she’s been looking for since the beginning. And where screenwriter Marjorie Liu earns a living, she flashbacks episode after episode of our character’s story to find out what’s key to her development and what the future holds for her.

The villainous (or not) Lord Doctor figure sits as one of the cornerstones of this volume’s launch, as rich as it is repulsive character, but it won’t be the only secondary he gets. The right to shine a light on your mercy. The arcane fox Kippa, who has her own growing body, has already been seen as a key figure in the future of the series since the beginning, and she shines a lot here. The characters wander through a perfectly composed plot in a very fluid and truly charming way, the latter being the merit of a very impressive graphic department.

The only negative points are that the plot can be too dense in some parts, which makes it a bit difficult at times and the reader does not enjoy an efficient reading at all. Although it is true that in Monstress the weight falls more on the characters and the environment than on the action, the graphics in certain vignettes.

One can sometimes (occasionally) point out that the visual narrative is not as clear as it should be, which is partly due to the effort to present each page with an impressive bombshell, but the truth is that it is difficult to point out flaws. The hard work the authors put in to make it flawless cannot be praised enough.

Monster Edition

At the end of this volume, a sense of urgency is burning before the publication of the third part of the future. The reader who follows the series at print speed in this deluxe edition will find a sharp ending that reflects all the virtues of the work and concludes with a truly disturbing cliffhanger.

Regarding the edition, it has to be said that this wonderful second full-length of Monstress by Norma Editorial is truly amazing and has a dust jacket with a page size of 20.5 x 31.3 cm. The volume contains 536 color pages and is translated from four to six copies of the series, which was previously published in paper. It has a recommended retail price of €59.95 and goes on sale in May 2024.