I Am Alfonso Jones (2017)

*Premise spoilers.*

This YA graphic novel is pretty cool. It’s most definitely an “issue book,” and it gets into heavy material, but it does so in a very thoughtful, creative way, at once grounded and artful. Excellent work by author Tony Medina and artists John Jennings and Stacey Robinson.

Alfonso Jones is a smart, talented teen who has a lot to be excited about in his life. He’s doing well in school, he’s looking forward to performing in a hip-hop adaptation of Hamlet, and his newly exonerated dad is being released from prison soon. But an ordinary day at the mall turns tragic when a cop mistakes the hanger in Alfonso’s hand for a gun. The promise of his life suddenly cut short, Alfonso finds himself on a ghost train surrounded by ancestors while his loved ones try to pick up the pieces without him.

In white America, police shootings have become An Issue, something that’s often debated in the abstract rather than felt with immediacy. That’s why it’s important that this book spends so much time letting us get to know Alfonso before his deadly police encounter. It never lets him become a mere statistic, headline, or protest chant, even as the media firestorm in the aftermath tries to fashion him into all these things. We always see him as a teenage boy first, someone with likes and dreams, part-time jobs and crushes, someone with a history, someone who should’ve had a future.

Given the backdrop of the Hamlet production at school, using the ghost train to explore Alfonso’s afterlife is an interesting choice. On the train, he meets the spirits of numerous Black people just like him, real people who were murdered by police. As Alfonso struggles to come to terms with what’s happened to him, the ancestors are there to offer him support and understanding.

Meanwhile, we also follow the lives of Alfonso’s friends and family, watch them react to the news stories and protest outside the DA’s office. We see them adrift, struggling to find the shape of a life without Alfonso in it. As the court of public opinion tries to paint Alfonso in a certain way, they fight through their grief to protect his memory.

It’s a poignant book that combines gritty realism with the spiritual and everyday slang with the poetic. It brings the full force of its heartbreak forward, both for Alfonso’s bereft community and for Alfonso himself, stuck on a train between one life and the next. A powerful story that never loses sight of the honesty of its characters within its larger message.

Warnings

Violence (including police violence,) language, and strong thematic elements.

I Am Not Starfire (2021)

I’ve always been more into Marvel than DC—even as a kid, I watched the Batman animated series but I loved watching Spider-Man—so I’m not really familiar with Starfire beyond the character’s name and knowing that she’s been a part of Teen Titans/Titans/etc. That team. As such, it might be weird to read a graphic novel told from the perspective of her prickly teenage daughter, but despite my limited context, I enjoyed this story.

It's tough when your mom is a glamorous alien superhero that everyone loves. It’s even harder when she’s everything you’re not. Artsy, unathletic Mandy is sick of the groupies at school asking her dreamy-eyed questions about Starfire, and she’s sick of feeling like she has to measure up to this thing she isn’t. The trouble is, she’s still not entirely sure who she is. But between a major life decision, a major crush, and a major superhero crisis, Mandy had better start figuring things out.

Obviously, first and foremost here is Mandy and her relationship with Starfire. I like that Mandy is goth, fat, and queer, making her feel like a bundle of contradictions next to her vibrant, statuesque, high-femme mom, even before you start taking the superpowers into account. In some ways, Mandy feels invisible in her mom’s shadow, but in others, she’s hyper-visible purely because of her connection to Starfire. At school, nearly all anyone cares about is the fact that she’s Starfire’s daughter: needling her with questions about powers she doesn’t have and wondering what her famous superhero mom is “really like.” Her only refuge from the constant superheroness of it all is her best friend Lincoln.

But amid all the comic book stuff, it’s also a fairly grounded story about a guarded but insecure girl who can’t connect with her mom. Part of that is on Starfire, with the way she always gets swept up in superhero stuff and the expectations she unwittingly places on her daughter that makes Mandy feel less than. It also comes from the chip on Mandy’s shoulder and her instinct to retreat rather than try when it comes to telling her mom how she feels. And finally, they’re simply on different pages culturally, with the Tamaranean Starfire not understanding the things that are important to her Earth-raised daughter and vice versa.

This relationship is at the core of the story, but there’s plenty more to explore here as well. We also get young love, the scariness of being a teen on the verge of adulthood and not having yourself Figured Out yet, the celebrity of superheroes, the worry that no one really likes you for you, and an intense trial by fire. Mariko Tamaki’s graphic novel is a fine coming-of-age story set in the DC universe, and the narrative is excellently augmented by Yoshi Yoshitani’s expressive artwork.

Warnings

Comic book violence, mild sexual references, and thematic elements.

Nubia: Real One (2021)

I don’t know much about Wonder Woman lore—in fact, outside of the movies, I know very little about Diana and Themiscyra. I really didn’t know anything about Nubia beyond the mere fact that she exists. But I love this graphic novel, which reimagines her story in a rich, updated way.

For as long as Nubia can remember, she’s had to hide who she is. She doesn’t know where her powers come from, but her moms have drilled into her, time and time again, that she can’t let anyone know what she can do. While she sees superheroes like Wonder Woman on the news saving the day, her moms know that the police will see a Black girl with powers as a threat, not a hero. But the older Nubia gets, the harder it is to stand aside while people suffer.

Written by L.L. McKinney, who does the A Black So Black series, this is just a fantastic graphic novel. So-called “woke” storytelling often gets a bad rap because some writers tend to focus on the message to the detriment of the narrative, but Real One explores complex issues like police violence, incels, and social justice through a progressive lens in a way that’s both dramatically compelling and accessible for teen readers. Rather than preach, it shows Nubia and her friends trying to navigate these subjects the best they can, in a world that leaves them little room for margin of error.

As a powered teen, I like that Nubia is caught between her deep desire to help others and her very understandable fear of the consequences if she does. Her moms have uprooted the family in the past over incidents that threaten her secret, and as a teen girl who’s found her squad and is nursing a serious crush, she doesn’t want to do anything to jeopardize the life she has. And furthermore, she knows that her moms aren’t wrong: being a hero would be dangerous for her in ways that it isn’t for many other (white) heroes. As her mom Amera explains, “We all know doing the right thing while looking the wrong way is enough.”

I also like that her moms, Amera and Danielle, know about Nubia’s powers from the jump and are very actively involved in trying to raise a powered kid in a safe and responsible way. They don’t always agree about how best to protect her while not making her feel like her powers are the problem, and they don’t always get it right. But they never stop trying to do right by her. After seeing countless stories about teen heroes sneaking around behind their guardians’ backs, it’s nice to see one where the parents play a larger role. It doesn’t make the relationship any easier, but the story takes it in a different, more interesting direction.

And for all the heaviness, there’s also just a nice story about a teenage girl figuring herself out. Having frenzied hash-out sessions in the best-friend group text. Vehemently protesting any suggestions about her own crush even as she wonders when her friends will realize they’re in love with each other. Talking summer plans, concocting stratagems to sneak out to parties, etc. It’s a good blend of drama, action, romance, and fun, which all come together to make for an excellent read.

Warnings

Strong thematic elements, violence (including police violence and attempted sexual assault,) language, and drinking.