Amazon's Monstress adaptation has tremendous potential, if handled right

To succeed, Amazon’s take on Monstress needs to nail what makes the series so unique

Last week, Variety reported that Amazon MGM Studios is developing an animated show based on Monstress, the Eisner Award-winning Image Comics series from writer Marjorie Liu and artist Sana Takeda. Steven Maeda is taking the reins as a writer and executive producer, roles he also assumed for Netflix’s One Piece live-action adaptation.

Liu and Takeda’s Monstress debuted in 2015 and has been going strong since. It follows Maika Halfwolf, a teenager whose body harbors a monstrous hidden entity. Maika knows little about the creature, or what links her to it. Together with the former slave child Kippa the fox-girl and the “nekomancer” cat Ren, Maika journeys to find answers. They navigate a burgeoning conflict between humans and magical creatures like Maika, known as arcanics.

Amazon has had a strong track record in developing comics for the small screen, and Monstress has the potential to be the best one yet. Though Paper Girls struggled to find an audience — a shame, as it was, by all accounts, a great show — The Boys is entering its fifth (and final) season, and has produced successful spinoffs, with more on the way. Invincible has also landed with audiences and critics, and a fifth season was announced before the current fourth season even began airing.

Though people have enjoyed Invincible, fans have levied one major complaint against it for years: the lackluster quality of its animation. Outside of its fight scenes, Invincible can feel stiff and like it isn’t fully taking advantage of the medium. For Monstress to succeed, its adapters can’t rely on a limited budget and tight scheduling. They’ll have to place more emphasis on nailing the animation and art than on securing big-time actors for roles. So much of what makes Monstress unique is its intricate, richly detailed manga-influenced art. You’d be hard-pressed to find anything like it on Western bookshelves.

A successful Monstress adaptation needs to retain the detail and complexity of Takeda’s art. She doesn’t cut corners in bringing its steampunk world to life. Every environment, background, and issue covers burst with detail, like the Ancient Egypt-esque mind palace Maika and Zinn converse in, or the Isle of Bones they venture to in the book’s second story arc. This is a world where the gigantic, intricately designed ghosts of dead gods can be seen floating in the night’s sky, and the animated series would do well to not skimp on that kind of visual richness.

There’s also a fluidity to Monstress’ action sequences that the TV series would need to respect. Whenever the monstrous Zinn explodes out of Maika to slash and stab her foes with his numerous tentacles, blood and debris burst from the panels and into the gutters of the comics page, giving the action a visceral kineticism that would translate well to animation. Those action scenes aren’t just a feast for the eyes either; each battle deepens the relationship between Maika and Zinn as well as the conflicts between them and their enemies.

In terms of story, Amazon’s previous comic adaptations are a bit more straightforward than Monstress. The comics’ dense, expansive world-building is a strength of the series, but also a challenge the animated version will have to overcome. (Nearly every issue ends with an excerpt from a lecture on the history of the world and its cultures.) The first issue of Monstress alone introduces multiple heroes, several antagonists, a past war, Maika’s dead mom, and a McGuffin that Maika seeks out in successive story arcs. It also introduces Maika’s uncontrollable urge to ravenously devour other people, fueled by the monster inside her.

Though I adore Monstress, I can’t deny its voluminous lore can get in the way of remembering just what the heck is going on from arc to arc. I basically sit down to reread the series from the beginning each time I want to check out a new volume, because all the characters, motivations, and plotlines can be a lot to keep up with. Every arc adds more and more to Maika’s background, fleshing her out as a protagonist, while also asking the readers to retain a lot of information about who this young woman is. Ideally, a Monstress show would avoid any sort of extended hiatus between seasons, like the two-and-a-half-year break between Invincible’s first and second seasons.

If the Monstress adaptation can stay true to Takeda’s art and not lose viewers in the lore, it could be one of the best shows Amazon has ever adapted. But you don’t have to take my word on how mesmerizing the Monstress comic is, or how excellent its adaptation could be. You can read its oversized 72-page first issue for free at Image’s website, and check out its monstrous world for yourself.