by Taylor Anderson
This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!
At this point, the Lumberjanes have encountered just about any type of weird monster/creature that you can dream up. They’ve faced giant stone statues, huge ravens, ghosts, and dinosaurs just to name a few. When all is said and done, there’s not really a whole lot of things the Janes haven’t faced. As the 45 issue of the series shows, this is beginning to take a tole on the Janes, and, in some ways, perhaps the creative team as well.
Having just defeated time bubbles, stone sentries, and a mysterious voice, the Janes seem a little out of it. They aren’t running off to another adventure or really stirring up trouble of any kind — behavior which is very odd for this group of girls. This worries Jen, as she discloses to Rosie.
So Jen bursts into the Janes cabin and makes up a story about finding a Jackalope which seems to engage the girls’ interest and gets them out adventuring again. While this works as an effective method launching the next adventure/arc in the series, it feels a little too much like a deus ex machina. I’m told that the Janes seem off by Jen, but there’s little evidence in the issue to suggest this is actually the case. Sure, Molly seems a little thrown by being manipulated by the Voice, but other than that everything seems fine. Jen’s worry for the girls seems more like an excuse to launch the next story arc than something grounded in reason.
The malaise that the girls are supposed to be feeling perhaps signals the way Kat Leyh, Shannon Watters, and Ayme Sotuyo actually feel. After so many adventures, it might be they who are feeling lost and a little worn out from creating so many stories. This is shown not only in Jen’s constructed worries for the Janes, but also in the way the girls just happen to meet a stranger in the woods who just happens to be taming monsters. It all feels a little well worn and uninspired, but I can’t really blame the creators for this after so many issues.
The conversation doesn’t stop there. What do you wanna talk about from this issue?
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