She has described the comic as 'a huge epic fantasy.' As such, the story required world-building. She had taken a hiatus from writing before returning to the industry with Image Comics. Liu has said that she struggled with depression before writing Monstress. The two started working together a year later, and the first issue was published in November 2015 the trade paperback first volume in July 2016, the second in July 2017, the third in September 2018, and the fourth in September 2019.

Liu first introduced the story to Takeda in 2013. The story unfolds as Maika navigates through the power games of the factions of humans and arcanics while learning truths about the 'Ancients' and her family that change her perspective. The demon, who takes over her body and mind, is a source of great power, but challenging for Maika to understand and control. Maika's left arm has been severed and a 'monster', Zinn, occasionally emerges from its stub. Maika is an Arcanic who looks human, and who is set on learning about and avenging her dead mother. The background to the story is a war between the Arcanics, magical creatures who sometimes can pass for human, and the human Federation, lead by the Cumaea, an order of sorceresses who consume Arcanics to fuel their power. The series is set in a matriarchal world inspired by early 20th-century Asia, and tells the story of Maika Halfwolf, a teenage girl who shares a mysterious psychic link with a powerful monster.

The series has earned many awards, including five Eisner Awards, four Hugo Awards, and the Harvey Awards Book of the Year in 2018. Tolkien' for its high fantasy concepts and heavy world-building. The comic was described as 'ambitious as George R. Monstress is an ongoing epic fantasy comics series written by Marjorie Liu and drawn by Sana Takeda, published since November 2015 by the American publisher Image Comics.

Monstress, Vol. 4 by Marjorie M. Liu