LaGuardia is another comic that I've been meaning to read for awhile and I finally got my butt in gear since my local library branch is closing down for renovations. Nnedi Okorafor is one of those authors I watch from afar with wide-eyed wonder, and LaGuardia only confirmed that wonder. Gotdamn.

According to Okorafor's afterward, the idea for LaGuardia has been brewing in her mind since 2009, and the premise has only grown more relevant. After aliens make first contact in Lagos, humans react as humans do. Some are overjoyed and welcoming, adapting to the new technologies and reaching out to their new neighbors. Others are expanding their racist/nationalist ideologies to include extraterrestrials. Dr. Future Nwafor Chuwuebuka works at a clinic to treat floral species, and her husband Citizen is an activist for a separate "pure" Biafra nation. When a sapient plant named Letme Live begs a pregnant Future to save them from soldiers in the flora wars, she flies off to New York, days before an alien travel ban goes into effect and without telling Citizen. Immigration and border politics gain a whole new literal reality here.

LaGuardia is science fiction at its best. Okorafor takes the abstract vagaries of politics and grounds it back into an entertaining, nuanced tangible. With the heavy amount of world-building, I thought I would be scrambling, but quiet, feeling moments abound in all the moving and shaking. The story asks who are our people and makes us question what defines humanity, and does it all with great artistic flair.

There are so many good things going on in this story that there's no way I can describe them all. The plot, the characters, the art, the issues: I fell in love with comics all over again. Treat yourself to LaGuardia.