History ComicBook / Monstress

--> -- [[TheCynic Maika Halfwolf]]

->''"Yes. Miss Halfwolf scares me a lot. But that doesn’t make her a monster. Don’t be like the witches, Master Ren. They call us monsters because it makes it easier to hurt us. But monsters are people, too."''
-->-- [[TheIdealist Kippa]]

* IncrediblyLamePun: Cat sorcerers who can (temporarily) raise the dead are called Nekomancers.

* BadassBookworm: Several of the Cumaea scientists, notably Lady Atena and Lady Sophia.
* BadassFamily: The Half-Wolf family of Moriko, Maika, the Sword of the East and the Queen of the Wolves [[spoiler: plus the Shaman-Empress who'd be a half-sister to Moriko and the Sword of the East]].

* Mythopoeic: This comic has developed a world mythology starting with cats being possibly the first sapient race (some legends say there was an earlier extinct race) in the world and were created by the Goddess. Next came the Ancients, beings of light from another world before they took [[BeastMan animalistic humanoid form]]. From the seas, were the sirens and also emerging out of the waters was humanity. Millenniums of humans living under Ancient rule resulted in the birth of the Arcanics. Leading to the Shaman-Empress who opened a way to an exiled group of incredibly powerful entities known as the Monstra or Old Gods.

* BadassFamily: The Half-Wolf family of Moriko, Maika, the Sword of the East and the Queen of the Wolves.

* HumanityIsInfectious: For thousands of years, Ancients had been having sex with humans and there had never been any resulting children. However, all that contact with humanity had been reducing the differences between humans and Ancients until a baby boom of Arcanic hybrids happened. Also, being with humans so often may be leading to the Ancients becoming weaker. The Sword of the East tells the Queen of Wolves that the Ancients have been losing power for 1000 years and are almost mortal now. [[spoiler:Meeting a half-human Arcanic centuries ago is also a factor in Maika's Monstra being so different from other Old Gods.]]

* IKnowYourTrueName: [[spoiler:Maika's ultimate control over her Monster.]]

* SuperiorSuccessor: The Arcanic Lords are more powerful than their Ancient parents, though they lack the Ancients' immortality.

* {{Animesque}}: The art style is done by a Japanese artist so it would make sense for the series to resemble anime.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: At the siege of Ravenna, Maika takes command of the defending forces by killing any soldiers who disagree with her.

Joining Maika as she searches for answers about her dead mother and her secrets, as well as the ancient StarfishAlien god [[BodyHorror inside her body]], is an eclectic and often strange RagtagBandOfMisfits. There's Kippa, a young [[LittleBitBeastly fox girl]] who is still very much a child despite having definitely seen some horrors in her life; Master Ren, ThePhilosopher EccentricMentor cat with two tails, [[MysteriousBacker questionable motives]], and impossible knowledge; and a few extras who either help or hinder but [[KillEmAll are lucky to survive in either case]].

* ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind: In the third issue, Kippa draws attention away from the friendly human woman Emilia just before the Cumaea can kill her baby for harboring Arcanics. Master Ren draws attention away from Kippa, but the Cumaea surrounds them both. Kippa is backed up against a tree, surrounded by Cumaea {{mooks}}. She fights back but is no match for them. Then suddenly, one of the Cumaea's unicorn steeds comes running at them, bleeding, in pain, and frenzied, and it soon becomes clear that someone ''tore off its horn''. Cue the Cumaea EliteMook being [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome gored through the neck]] [[BigDamnHeroes by the horn Maika ripped from the unicorn's forehead and threw like a javelin]].

* DidYouJustRomanceCthulhu: [[spoiler:The Monstra inside Maika appears to have been once in a relationship with an Arcanic. It later turns out that the Arcanic was the Shaman-Empress and that the Halfwolf line descends from her.]]

Set in a fantasy world modelled after 1900s Asia with magical, [[SteamPunk steampunk]], and Ancient Egyptian elements, the time is during a truce between the Federation of Man (humans) and the Arcanic Empire ([[SlidingScaleofAnthropomorphism hybrid offspring]] of the beastlike Ancients and humans). But thanks to an order of human [[AmazonBrigade witch-nuns called the Cumaea]], who rule the Federation of Man with manipulation, propaganda, threats, torture, coercion, and a well-placed murder here and there, open conflict increasingly seems inevitable.

A SpinOff series bridging the gap between the fifth and sixth arc called ''Monstress: Talk-Stories'' was published late 2020.

* EnemyWithin: [[spoiler:Maika's Monstrum, Zinn. Apparently it's been inside the bodies of her ancestors from her father all the way back to the Shaman-Empress, but it was sleeping until now.]]

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Hammer and Needle, the two Inquisitrix who get the most focus.

* FantasticDrug: Dreamtar is a fantasy analog to opium and it causes feelings of euphoria and seeing visions. Unfortunately, Arcanics are easily hooked on it. Because it was the cats that introduced the plant that is the main ingredient for Dream Tar, many Arcanics hate cats, believing the cats had done so to purposely hook them on the drug.

* InTheBlood: [[spoiler:The Monstra reveals to Maika that the mask fragments didn't meld it into her, it's always been present in her bloodline. Additionally, the Monkey King talks about the Sword of the East (Maika's aunt) being god-touched.]]

* IslandofMystery: The Isle of Bones is a sinister example.