I’m still trying to stay on top of my comic reviews, so I’m doubling up again this week, read on for reviews of Monstress #20 and Middlewest #4.
Monstress #20
The art this issue is amazing as always, several of the panels in the marriage-of-convenience at the very beginning just blew me away. It’s true that after three graphic novels the art has gotten a little less detailed, some of the faces in the smaller panels are a little more stylized, and the backgrounds are looser. But the art is still well and above the average comic book, by a very wide margin. And the Asian/Steampunk details in the clothing, art, and weapons are just mesmerizing.
Last issue Kippa the fox-girl was kidnapped, but managed to break away briefly (watching most of the kidnappers get slaughtered by creatures in the forest) and Maika and Corvin continue to track her down.
Beyond that, I’m a little fuzzy on the story, I definitely have to go back and reread some issues. The differences between the human factions, the Arcanics, the Dawn Court, and the Dusk Court are a little lost on me right now, and I’m never completely sure where Master Ren’s loyalties lie (though, come to think of it, nobody else really knows either.)
For now, the “we have to rescue the fox – I’ll help you even though I don’t want to – fine then who needs you – why do you even care about the fox – shut up I don’t either” back and forth between Maika and Corvin is fun to watch, and there’s definitely enough monster attacks to keep things interesting.
Middlewest #4
I’ve slowly realized something about this book: I don’t like any of the characters.
At first I thought it was intentional. Abel is a teen with an absent mother and a father who abused him before turning into some kind of monster that forced Abel on the run into a dangerous, weird world. In short: he’s bitter and unhappy, and as a teenager he’s emotional and a smartass anyway, so of course he wouldn’t be pleasant to be around, none of that is his fault.
And yet? I really, really don’t like him.
He’s annoying. He’s whiny. He’s ungrateful. He’s a grump and an idiot and I just want him to shut. UP.
But it’s more than that. I’m starting to think it’s the way Jorge Corona draws faces. There’s this perpetual ugly expression on his face, his face is set in a sneer or scowl even when he’s not really sneering or scowling. And his friend the fox is the same; he doesn’t look cunning to me so much as menacing, and I never see him as Abel’s friend, I just wonder why they stick around each other, because going from the expressions on their faces it looks like they truly hate each other, all the time.
I didn’t realize this was a stylistic decision until we met a new character this issue, and by all rights I should’ve liked her: she’s a tinkerer and a fixer, she makes robots, she’s a no-nonsense, tough as nails girl who’s not going to let some entitled teenager cause trouble on her turf.
And I didn’t like her either. She looks mean, and annoying, and joyless. And I don’t think she is those things, I also don’t think she’s ugly. She just looks like someone I’m meant to dislike, and I don’t think that was intentional.
I feel bad for saying all that, because so much of the art is wonderful. Who can resist a weird carnival in a weird world, with robots! And Jean-Francois Beaulieu’s color palette is amazing, everything has this warm glow, bright lamps shining in a long twilight. It’s beautiful.
But the faces, argh, I really don’t like them, particularly the mouths. It’s just me, I’m sure of it, it’s just a style that doesn’t work for me, because I wouldn’t call any of it bad, it’s all very well done, Corona is a seriously talented artist. But it’s a little hard to keep reading this comic when what I’m waiting for is something satisfyingly awful to happen to Abel that wakes him up and makes him something better than a giant pill. Which totally isn’t fair: I think he’s had plenty of awful things happen to him, and he didn’t deserve any of them. And yet…