Middle school is never easy. New pressures, puberty, demons lurking under the basement of the school, algebra. Jorge Aguirre and Andrés Vera Martínez’s delightful Monster Locker explores the potential horrors of middle school, elevated by the threat of world domination by an angry Aztec Goddess.
The story follows Pablo Ortiz who, on top of struggling to overcome the humiliating sleepover incident that led to a devastating fall from popularity, is assigned a locker that can act as a portal for long dormant evil spirits. Short, LARP loving, and now shunned by the popular kids, Pablo has been cursed with the worst of middle school labels: he’s “weird.” Obie the Evil, the primary resident of the basement locker Pablo is forced to take by blackmailer and former best friend Dylan, needs the middle schooler to agree to help him summon Coatlicue the Aztec Goddess in the Serpent Skirt and her evil army. Oh, and his beloved Abeula, who has a hit or miss connection to reality, may or may not have been a former monster hunter in Mexico who has inadvertently cursed her whole family. It’s a lot for the first day at a new school.
Pablo would much rather stay under the radar and work his way back into the edges of popularity, but Obie has other plans. He follows Pablo and his father to a tuxedo fitting for his sister’s quinceanera and learns a weakness he can use to trick Pablo into summoning Coatlicue the Earth Goddess. The school is immediately beset with monsters and only Pablo and a small collection of underdog “weirdos” can try to defeat them. But good and evil don’t stay in their usual lanes in this graphic novel, and defeat and victory came around in unexpected ways.
There is so much to like in this book. Pablo’s big Tejano family is immediately established as both loving and a lot to deal with while also defying standard tropes. The story is a fun adventure that manages to allow for monsters with good motivations and bravery being more than just fighting. The cast is diverse and engaging from Pablo’s hulking, Selena tattooed, IT working dad to his unintentional sidekicks, the delightfully off-kilter Takashi Rosenberg and incredibly angry, red afroed Maggie Murphy. Some of the side characters are not given quite as much room to shine, like nerd-coded Francisco Gomez whose knowledge of pre-Columbian history is very helpful throughout the plot. But that doesn’t detract from the overall story and can be fixed with future volumes.
While Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology have traditionally dominated fantasy graphics and comics, so few have delved into Aztec mythology and not in the way that this one does. Monster Locker leaps into Meso-American culture, history, and religion in such a fun and beautiful way. Characters jump between English and Spanish smoothly enough that no one needs to explain what’s being said to the reader. Similarly, Martínez’s art is a combination of traditional comic book coloring and movement with Aztec iconography. The art flows so smoothly and dynamically that this combination is completely seamless. One moment fantastic creatures dance across the panels to menace tweens, painting the characters like superheroes, and the next Martínez fills an exposition moment with illustrations that mimic Aztec reliefs. It’s striking and helps drive the story forward in moments that could potentially slow it down. Even more than that, it’s exciting, unexpected, and completely engaging.
There is a gentleness to Aguirre’s storytelling that is heartwarming and funny in equal measures and a lovely contrast to Martínez’s vibrant, bold art. Every part of this graphic feels big while being centered on the very real story of a kid that just wants to fit in. This is a prime example of the importance of OwnVoices stories in that it is so distinct and individual while at its core being universal and it is definitely worth the read.
Monster Locker
By Jorge Aguirre
Art by Andrés Vera Martínez
Macmillan First Second, 2024
ISBN: 9781250749741
Publisher Age Rating: 10-14
NFNT Age Recommendation: Tween (10-13)
Creator Representation: Colombian-American,
