Review: Maneaters #7

STORY

If you haven’t been following this particular series the set up is that in this particular comic there is a potential of girls who reach puberty, particularly with the onset of their period, to become man eating werepanthers. This series acknowledges a kinship with the horror film Cat People (the original one, not the Malcolm McDowel film) which dealt with issues of female power, motives and perspective. Sadly this comic doesn’t hold up to the example set by the film that inspired it.

I ‘ve only examined the first two issues before this review so I must once again draw some conclusions based solely on the reading of this issue. Unfortunately there is no information before you begin to catch you up on the previous issues. This could have easily been handled within the story itself but the comic is just full of splash pages and “ads”“ which contribute very little to the story and come across as some sort of filler to add to the page count of a very thin story. Its akin to watching a movie that was based on a 30 minute cartoon or a novella. It just comes across as very padded out. The constant interruption in narrative might worked in a film format but in comic form it stifle any momentum the story is building. Its a jarring comic to read and I can’t help the wasted pages had been put to better use to tell a sequential story.

Another grievous error is the treatment of the father in the story in particular and anything male general. The father is a police detective and yet comes across as weak, ineffectual and perhaps a but dim. Its really sad that this side of the story was not explored better, how does a father deal with the fact that his daughter might be a monster, how that would affect his relationship or his mental and emotional state. Instead the series is narrated by his daughter who has a bizarre fascination with tampons. She clearly idolizes her strong, competent and intelligent mother but has little regard for her father. In a chart devoted to explaining her mother in the list of things that mom loves dad is nowhere to be seen. The treatment of the father is emasculating and shockingly dismissive. He contributes nothing to the story and would honestly not be missed if he was never even present in this comic and frankly that’s no way to handle a supporting character in story.

ART

Starting with drawn and colored art, its mostly well executed. I wish I could get a better feel for what the penciller is capable of but most of the angles are pretty flat, combine that with the number of medium and closeups shots and I don’t know if this artist is any good with backgrounds. The figures are well done though and there is great consistency in the character models. The one action sequence makes no sense because the blocking of the figures makes the flow of events unworkable. Though Im not sure if the writer or artist is more at fault for this. The colors however are a real bright spite in a comic that has been rather disappointing. Rosenberg does an excellent job here and I really enjoyed her rendering!

While I get what the co-creator is trying for with their photoshopped ads/content the great majority of it is a waste of pages. There are literally only two pages out of the eight pages that she is responsible for that matter at all or add to the story in any relavent way. The rest are just useless.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This comic desperately wants to be an arthouse film or streaming service series but it just falls flat. Maneaters comes across as a vanity project without any depth to it, substance or even meaningful social commentary. This is the equivalent of a filibuster in comic book form. I afraid cannot recommend this one. 1.5 out of 5!

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

MANEATERS #7
Creator/Writer: Chelsea Cain
Co Creator/Cover/Ads/Art: Lia Miternique
Pencils: Kate Niemczyk
Colors: Rachelle Rosenberg