InSEXts Year One

by Marguerite Bennett (Writer) Ariela Kristantina (Illustrator)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Please note this comic is recommended to mature readers for violence/gore and sexual content.

This was an interesting comic series. I will completely admit to picking this up on a whim. The art drew me to it and it sounded interesting. I was definitely not disappointed. The story does rely heavily on a strong feminist plot and that really works for it. It’s has a unique science fiction twist that sort of takes a 19th-century monster aspect and twists it slightly.

I enjoyed the characters a lot. The good guys were all likable and the bad guys were not in the ways they were intended. My only real complaint I have with the series is how abruptly the plot starts without any real explanation, and this plot is something that really needed a bit more backstory.

All My Thoughts

May contain spoilers.

This was a nice unknown gem of a read for me. I had never heard of it and just happened to glimpse it while browsing one day. Full disclosure, I actually read this as two separate volumes, but they have since been collected into a single volume. While there are two separate story arcs, they should be read collectively to get the full effect of the relationship drama that unfolds.

Mariah and Lady Bertram are the main characters. Mariah is Lady Bertram’s maid and lover. We don’t get any back story on how this relationship developed or to be fair, no real information if this is the start of the relationship. It just sort of starts. This isn’t an issue I think because realistically it doesn’t really matter. It is here in the introduction of the characters and story that I do find my only problem with the comic.

For some reason, Mariah has a way to have a child with Lady Bertram by transferring a pod of some nature to her orally during intercourse, which Lady Bertram then transfers to her terrible husband to incubate which kills him in the end. How Mariah is able to do this is NEVER explained. There was a basic “I found a way” dialog from Mariah and that’s that. It is also never explained how Mariah has a sort of supernatural tracking ability that is heightened during sex. I really wish there was more information about this, but you are just expected to go with it. Similarly, Lady Bertram and Mariah are not entirely human. They are some sort of insect creatures. Lady Bertram specifically gets more attention on this topic. Her transformations into this insect creature become more and more grotesque as the story goes. This is something out of her control and causes some alarm. Again, none of this is given any back start. They just ARE these supernatural beings.

Excusing the lack of explanation, the rest of the story was good. I love that these “monstrous” women are actually the heroes of the story. They fight against injustices done to women and innocent people. Their purpose in life has a bit of a Robin Hood quality, helping those who cannot help themselves. The story really separates into two major arcs, one which revolves around London, the next in France. Both of these arcs follow a similar concept. Not everything is as it seems, as we see with Lady Bertram’s sister-in-law in the first arc, and with actually a lot of the characters in the second arc. A lot of the story also does focus around women in general and the unfortunate circumstances of life for them, such as not being allowed to truly be recognized in the art world.

The stories were good and something I enjoyed, though I admit it does take a bit of just accepting things as is and moving on. The art is also fantastic in my opinion and just as much of a draw to the comics as the writing.

As stated above too, this was a 13 issue series collected into two volumes that is then collected completely in the single volume linked. Thus far I have seen no information if this series will continue again, though this collection ends in a satisfactory way that can be concluded here.

Overall

This was a fun comic, though a bit gory, which is something I had no issues with personally. Worth a read for monstrously vengeful sapphic content