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4.25 AVERAGE
4.25 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The art is the best part, the story tends to be a bit meandering. Though, the artwork alone is fantastic. It should be flipped trhough at least, just to marvel at some of the illustrations of cherry blossoms, beautiful costumes, and very well designed characters.
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
• Everything I loved about the first volume, but the lore is getting deeper and it is excellent
• Some great new characters were introduced
• Yay for pirates and humanoid sharks
• Some great new characters were introduced
• Yay for pirates and humanoid sharks
now that i actually know whats going and stuff the story is so cool and the art is so pretty
The Blood is a well executed continuation of the story of Monstress. The pacing slows down from the action-packed hook of the first volume, taking the reader on a journey of discovery along with the main character. The mysteries slowly begin to unfold, keeping the reader continually engaged while still maintaining the suspense. The art continues to be stunningly exquisite in its detail and precision.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Two volumes in and I am hooked. And now we wait for volume 3!
We are all, at times, the hunted.This second volume did much to straighten out and ultimately simplify the tangled skein that the first volume has woven, and for me, that much improved this work for the better. Others may disagree, but after several recent years of mainstream media doing their best to destroy various audiovisual creations in the effort to "subvert" their audience's expectations, I'll take any theories of true tested archetypes over the latest "surprising", yet ultimately demographically informed, tragic death any day. So, while there's nothing new about practical bigotry, lustful power, and the tale of creation entwined with that of the old gods, it's nice that this work looks to be figuring itself out after much time spent on admittedly beautiful, yet often bewilderingly erratic worldbuilding. I began to remember that feeling after looking too long at the world map provided at the end of this volume, a map that doesn't even include the chunk of land (?) upon which the backbone (ha) of this section of story is built. I'm usually not one for the one and done episodic collection that characterizes various series à la Twilight Zone and co., but in this volume's case, the microcosmical focal point that still managed to interweave itself with the wider context of history and legend did much to help me center myself in the tale, even though my usual lack of grasp on names was a continual plague on my understanding. This is not a series I have managed so far to acquire without an inordinate amount of monetary cost when compared to the rest of my library, but after this, I'm prepared once again to pay a higher than average cost for the next volume.
Have I mentioned yet how sexy the art is? It's worth reiterating, especially after a year when my visual experiences were even more involuntarily monotone than they tend to be as a result of my penchant for reclusiveness. True, the style made the meaning hard to parse at times, and while I know next to nothing about the business of binding comic books, there has to be a better way that doesn't literally truncate both the images and the text through too close cut a pagination. And, par on course, one's appreciation for the work did in no small way hinge on one having a strong stomach, as dire wars where the winner enacts the concentration camps and genocide on their enemies who once inflicted the same upon them is a common theme of this particular world's history, not to mention the vivisection, necromancy, and evisceration that shows up in the plot every once in a while. The fact that all this doesn't dissolve into yet another gore porn fest that shows that are obsessed with being considered "serious" love to take the form of attests to the strength of the story holding everything together, and as I said earlier, the tale did much to come into its own from the rather pretty yet often fumbling morass of its beginnings. I know nothing about how this compares to other comics of this age or past ones, but the fact that I go through some amount of effort to step outside my usual reading comfort zone (and my usual expenditures on literary material) for this series and, as of now, this series alone, that should be some sort of recommendation in and of itself, no?
I originally wasn't going to get this in this year, but considering how rarely I commit to series and how ill fit this work will be in my reading schedule until much later in 2021, I'm glad I got to it when I did. There's a lot of trash both new and rehashed these days, and oftentimes the rehashing leads directly to the trashifying of material that should have been allowed to rest in its original glory, so to have something like this in these times of ours is something to be appreciated. The overt rep in both women and queerness (they/them pronouns especially ahoy in this volume) don't hurt, and I'm always going to have a soft spot for worlds equipped with some breed of historical and/or alternate timeline with regards to technology, seeing as how the timeline of my own continues to be all but destroyed by capitalist greed. To more fully illustrate, on this day of gifts in certain parts of the world, I didn't receive anything more electronically complicated than a miniature flashlight and a digital gift card, and that is the way I would have it. Beyond that, to step into Maika's world may mean confronting utmost brutality in various forms, but there was also a certain kernel of tenderness, even hope, embodied in certain flashbacks and subsequent reevaluations, though whether the loving reconciliations of yore will ultimately have any real bearing on the relationships of the future remains to be seen. For now, I acknowledge the delicious cliffhanger of this volume's final pages, and look forward to when I can acquire the next entry in the series.
Young ones, take heed: nothing is sacred. Not even the divine. But remember, too: goddesses keep their promises, and their memories are eternal.