Queen Kodiak
After her mom dies, teen protagonist Joey is forced to move to Kodiak, Alaska to live with her dad; quite different from where she lived in Seattle!
Her dad hasn’t been present in her life until NOW, and even though everyone tells her he’s a nice stand-up guy, that previously didn’t include her, apparently. The only friend she’s made is a 3000-pound grizzly living in the woods near her house. While Kodiak people talk about a mythical “spirit bear”, no one has seen it except her. Did I mention that her dad is a state trooper? Did I mention that Joey can see auras? When Joey goes missing in a snowstorm while taking her dad’s boat out, (without his permission) the bear comes to her rescue. (The bear also rescues her twice!) State troopers and volunteers with rifles start a search, and well, you can imagine how this turns out. BUT WAIT! MORE drama is in store – Eons-old Mama Grizzly knows her cub has been killed, and BOY IS SHE PISSED!
I’m on the fence about this title. The pacing of this story is awkward. It seems like a LOT of sturm-und-drang in a very short time. Joey is already dealing with her mom’s death and a move and has to witness the brutal killing (TWICE!) of the only friend she’s made. Any ONE of these things would be profoundly disturbing to any teen, and the bloody killing scenes by the hunters AND THEN AGAIN by the troopers and searchers could be triggering to some teens. They were to me, and I’ve had Hunters Education classes! Car crashes, plane crashes, evacuations of people, explosions everywhere and the destruction of downtown Seattle follow. After Mama’s rampage, the story hustles on to a hurried-up and (what I felt was) unlikely, too-easy ending. Joey and her father finally work together to lead Mama and her dead cub back to the wilderness. I like a good kaiju story as much as anyone, but it’s too much plot for only 168 pages. Authority figures and adults (with some exceptions) are one-dimensionally portrayed as testosteroney enthusiastic killers. The plot lurches from one unlikely situation to another. Finally, there are plot threads that are never explained, like the huge bones found during a construction site excavation, and the hunters who kill a grizzly without facing consequences. (It’s illegal to do that in AK without a bear tag, which is won in a organized lottery, and only used legally during a certain period of time.)
The art is well developed, but I feel like the women are more realistically and positively drawn. The men are drawn with sharp angles and scatological grimaces. Joey’s dad is drawn in a two-dimensional way that blocks us from imagining the “guy everyone loves.” All the animals are drawn in a wonderfully realistic and mystical fashion.
We certainly need more comics and graphic novels that depict native Alaskan peoples, stories and culture, but I think this comic tries to do too much. Is it a Godzilla/Kaiju action story? Is it a story about a teen processing her grief? Is it about life challenges and changes? One barely has time to catch one’s breath and think about it.
The comic is marked for “Young Adult” age range, and I would shelve it there. Despite my quibbles, teens may like it purely for the action. I would call it an optional purchase.
Queen Kodiak
By Christopher Greenslate
Art by Riccardo Faccini
Mad Cave Studios, 2026
ISBN: 9781545821015
NFNT Age Recommendation: Older Teen (16-18)
