I had high expectations but I was wowed by how completely this book completely captured my heart! I squeed a thousand times, and teared up a bunch while reading these stories. From origin stories to love stories, these short comics all knocked it out of the park for me with their representation of queer people kicking butt, being heroic, and generally thriving.

The first three of these stories were horror in my less favorite vein, where the main character of the story is not the/a good guy. I prefer a story where I'm rooting for the protagonist against something horrifying, rather than just witnessing them wreak havoc on innocent - or even guilty - people. I still quite enjoyed The Cape, a super dark and intense story. The Cape: 1969 was a letdown as a prequel for me. Thumbprint was interesting but didn't wholly come together into a coherent story. Finally, Kodiak was my favorite and surprised me with its tenderness in contrast to the rest of this collection.⁣

The real deal.

This book was unsurprisingly difficult to read, but worth it. My heart broke so much for Wang Di, and the real women on whom her character is based. The trauma she endures appears to me to be depicted faithfully in the novel, neither sanitized nor sensationalized, and the lasting impact of this time in her life courses through every page. Her relationship with her late husband, affectionately called The Old One, was a precious thing, and I loved and ached as she reminisced over their bond. Kevin is an equally compelling character; a victim of bullying, he has taken to recording his experiences to remember his life if he goes blind. His love for his family and curiosity propel him to investigate the secrets of his grandmother’s confession, and set the course of this novel in motion.

The interlocked stories of Kevin and Wang Di past and present captivated me, while giving me a deeper understanding of a previously overlooked piece of history. I highly recommend you pick up this novel, and be ready to be moved.

This collection made less of an impact for me than I expected, although I did flat out cry reading the first story. I’m not sure that these stories were objectively less exciting than those in the Oath anthology, but I think I’ve definitely been exposed to more (very well done) queer sff stories than queer superhero stories, so maybe that is why I was personally more excited by the superhero anthology. The stories were also decidedly less fluffy, and while the characters’ sexuality or gender was usually not the cause of their suffering they still often had a rough time of it in their sff setting. And there was a story with two-spirit characters that seemed to have taken inspiration from Indigenous traditions, but wasn’t own voices as far as I could tell, which felt like probably a miss to me. Overall a quick and predominantly enjoyable read, just didn’t live up to my high expectations to be completely swept away.

My favorites were Luminosity, a love story between two women, one an astronaut and the other with some kind of telekinetic powers used to power space flight; Duty and Honor, a story about a polyamorous relationship between three astronauts; and The Monster Queen, a textless story about a princess in a kingdom where monsters are hated and feared.

Y'all, this book charmed the pants off me! Katie is such a relatable protagonist for me, and I was endlessly amused by the banter between her and the narrator. These bumps up against the fourth wall really worked, and I'm saying that as someone who is not usually into that. The art is super cute and so is the whole story honestly. Reading this book put a smile on my face, and I'm so glad I picked it up.

So adorable. Also I cried.

I was excited to check out this complete arc by some of my favorite creators, which I hoped would be sufficiently self contained. Reading it, there were some moments where lack of deep knowledge of the universe felt flustering, and I also felt the plot lacked a little spark. The premise that an extradimensional parasite that can influence adults threatens humanity and only the young Avengers can stand in the way is kind of cliche, but by the end I was more sold. The characters really make this story, and it so many kinds of lovely to watch them grow. A diverse set of characters sexuality-wise, I especially enjoyed the bisexual rep in this story. Finally, of course, McKelvie’s art continues to captivate me. I could honestly look at so many of his drawings all day.

Strayed’s style is extremely empathetic and tender. I was surprised by the way she so often begins her replies by expressing her sorrow at the horrible things or hard times shared by those who write in. I don’t read advice columns very often, but her level of compassion and thoughtfulness surpassed my initial expectations. I also enjoyed how she often weaves in extremely personal stories which tie into how she reflects on answering the question. Strayed is always kind, but doesn’t hold back either. When she tells her readers they need to do better, it is in a way that reads as empowering and uplifting. Rather than “you need to do better because how you’re acting is bad,” she exhorts the letter writers to do better because they are good and capable of doing so. I love how she frames being the problem as a positive, because you’re the only person you have the power to actually change.

I didn’t love the experience of reading this collection straight through. As I started to feel bogged down in the repetition of the format, the spark of reading each letter lost some of its luster. I think this collection would be better enjoyed if read more slowly over a longer period of time, but that is not really how I like to read books.

Not sure if I'm just burnt out on comic anthologies, but unfortunately only a couple of these stories made any impact on me.

Conan’s no-nonsense, conflict-minded worldview clashes against the daily challenges of a modern artist, and the humor of the disconnect lands even for a reader who’s not tremendously familiar with Conan. Their awkward friendship and the relatable struggles of Kahn’s daily life make this comic easily entertaining.