Man-Eaters No. 6: Colored pencils, and the girls get organized
Man-Eaters continues its scathing satire of sexuality.
Any serious reader worth their salt knows how important satire can be. In free societies satire is used to bring to light important political issues, and truly good satire doesn’t just mock, it encourages debate and promotes conversations.Satire is generally about things that are not good, and the state of women’s rights, particularly as pertains to their sexuality, has been a bit wonky in America for a while now, which is why Man-Eaters is not only topically relevant, but bitingly precise in the message it relays, which is “back the hell up off of women’s bodies, men.”
Writer Chelsea Cain, artist Kate Niemczyk, colorist Rachelle Rosenberg, and letterer Joe Caramagna have crafted a seriously heady story about a society where women who get their periods can turn into big cats, and the efforts men make to curb that danger.
Image Comics
Man-Eaters touches on the old familial bond
Last issue, Maude and her friends witnessed but did not see their friend Sophie E. turn into a cat in the bathroom at their high school, which has the entire community on edge. The idea that women turn into bloodthirsty cats during their periods is both excellent fodder for a comic and the overarching consensus of most men, which makes for a clever examination of the concepts at work here.
This issue starts out with a letter from school letting all students and parents know that due to the menstrual event, all students possessing female sex organs will be undergoing a puberty check at the nurse’s office in order to be able to attend school. It’s not only very Orwellian, almost Huxley-ian, but it’s scarily close to what some states in the Union are considering. Maude and her dad are having some father-daughter time, where her dad attempts to put her at ease so that she will explain who the unicorn mask-wearing person in her room is.
Image Comics
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Simple clues lead to complex answers in Man-Eaters
We see some awkward times for Maude’s parents, as her father pushes her to explain about the Unicorn in the room, and Maude relives the past few weeks, telling him how she and all her friends heard footsteps on their roofs, and upon examination they all had colored pencils with the wrong names printed on them resting on their windowsills.
Through deductive reasoning, the girls figure out that the missing Sophie must be the one leaving the pencils, and after the puberty check at school the girls put their noggins together and discover the store that sells the mislabeled pencils. Her father knows the store as the site of a big cat killing, and we learn that the girls are learning taekwondo from the Unicorn, who is definitely the missing Sophie E.
It must be said that the Harry Potter “defense against the dark arts” vibe is strong with this scene, which makes it that much more enjoyable. Maude’s father ignores a phone call from his ex-wife, who probably has something incriminating to say about Maude.
Next. Ripley and Zula take the fight to Weyland-Yutani in Aliens: Resistance No. 2. dark
There’s not much to say about Man-Eaters that hasn’t already been said. It’s hip. It looks great. It’s buzzworthy. It’s a sign of the times. It’s doing a great job of zazzing men and their insecurities. Did I already mention how good it looks? If you’re not sure if it’s the kind of thing you’d enjoy, trust this review and go out and snag a copy of the trade paperback. Let us know what you thought in the comments section below.