Literally Graphic reviewed Shuri, Vol. 2 by Nnedi Okorafor (Shuri, #2)
Review of 'Shuri - TBD' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
As far as the art goes, I have to say I really enjoyed it. Not hyper realistic, there's a tasteful fade to black with Shuri's costume so you generally aren't seeing how all her "bits" fit into some sort of slick vacuum sealed shell thing that shows every wrinkle. The way that detail was used felt very focused and helped pull the eye along. The frames were really dynamic and there's lots of action for people who like that sort of thing.
As far as gender goes, while things appear to remain within the strict binary, the shear number of apparently cis women was really nice. They are each pretty different both mentally and physically, and there's a concentrated focus on group cooperation. I would say this is a stereotype for women, but that's only for people who feel schools are anti-men. Generally in comics I feel like women can't …
As far as the art goes, I have to say I really enjoyed it. Not hyper realistic, there's a tasteful fade to black with Shuri's costume so you generally aren't seeing how all her "bits" fit into some sort of slick vacuum sealed shell thing that shows every wrinkle. The way that detail was used felt very focused and helped pull the eye along. The frames were really dynamic and there's lots of action for people who like that sort of thing.
As far as gender goes, while things appear to remain within the strict binary, the shear number of apparently cis women was really nice. They are each pretty different both mentally and physically, and there's a concentrated focus on group cooperation. I would say this is a stereotype for women, but that's only for people who feel schools are anti-men. Generally in comics I feel like women can't be friends is more the stereotype. Either way, this is still a pretty narrow representation of gender (let alone sexuality) diversity. And Black Panther is still at the center of everything. But, yeah it's still better then what has been the status quo.
Race is another highlight of this series when it comes to intersectionality. Okorafor's stated aim of bringing more African countries into the discussion was, by my limited understanding, pretty successful. And again, highlighting different ways of cooperation that are distinctly none "western" was nice. Shuri's relationship to Wakanda's ancestors and learning from them was also pretty coolio. Our social construct of nationality is certainly not the same as our social construct of race, but Okorafor is very successful as showing Wakanda as more aligned with none whiteness. This story would not have worked with 99.9% of the rest of the Marvelverse.
Class is not a thing touched upon by this series.
As far as ability and disability there is a short discussion about Shuri designing a vehicle, taking into consideration another character's claustrophobia. Does that count? It's certainly pretty unique to a super hero comic in my experience. Related, but not the same thing, there did seem to be an effort for body diversity in the comic which was also very nice.
I'm not terribly familiar with Shuri pre-movie, but apparently this series is also noted as an effort to bridge the character from pre-movie reality to more aligned with what everyone loved in the movie. So that's a thing. I am planning on slowly but surely working through Black Panther from Priest forward so I guess eventually I may have a better understanding of this.