The Neurospicy Bean

  Alright so this review is going to be in two different sections because there are a couple of different things that need to be addressed. First I’m going to discuss my thoughts on the book itself, what I liked, and what I didn’t. Then I want to discuss the author, as well as share some thoughts my girlfriend shared about her. It’s important to emphasize that these are not disparate things, and as you read through this review it will become clear that they’re closely connected. It’s just easier for me to organize my thoughts when it’s divided up this way.  So first, the book itself is about the titular Lady Tan Yunxian and based loosely on the real historical figure. It follows her throughout her entire life, from childhood to old age, with the bulk of the book focusing on her time as a wife in the compound home of a wealthy family. Now, I always hated being told to “write about the seed, not the watermelon” in school, but in this case, I think someone needed to tell that to...

I am so angry and I am so tired. I’m tired of walking into spaces I expect to be the most accepting of my existence, only to have it denied with a casual “she” from the most prominent drag queen in the city. Tired of watching my classmates jump to correct the professor when she misgenders a classmate, only to hear myself misgendered and wait for the correction – and wait – and wait – until the discussion has moved on and I have to admit to myself, “you’re just not trans enough for them.” I am tired of being misgendered by a gaming friend and thinking “well, maybe he’s just not good at they/them pronouns,” and then hearing him a second later smoothly referencing a non-binary character, the pronouns rolling off his tongue so fluidly and so in contrast to my own stuttering attempt at correction. I am tired of being praised for wearing men’s shorts, as though this is some huge step in my transition, when it is nothing more than a facet of how I choose to present myself. I am especially...

       So once in a while there will be a detail at the beginning of a book that sort of sets me against it and I can just never get over it, and that happened here. Basically the entire premise of the book is that the main character, Jade, has to go stay with her dad in Vietnam in the French colonial house he’s renovating so that he’ll pay for her tuition at UPenn. She explains that she’s lied to her mom that tuition is fully covered when in fact it’s actually still around $30,000 for her freshman year, but she doesn’t want her mom to have to take out loans, and that she has no money for her own tuition because it all went to school application fees.      So, I happen to have some quasi-personal experience with this, because my girlfriend actually goes to UPenn and most of her tuition is covered by financial aid. I actually directly asked her how much financial aid a student coming from a family with three children raised by a single mother who works ...

       First off, the color palette of this one is absolutely gorgeous. It conveys a really distinctive energy that allows for darkness without things getting too muddy. Some of the panels are really sharp and vibrant, while others are almost dreamlike. Overall just really nice to look at.      As far as story goes, it’s exploring some really interesting dynamics – how should the power to return the dead be used? And how does the privilege experienced by different mutants fit into that? The privilege dynamic was actually the part I found most interesting. One of the several plots in this collection is a storyline about the conflict between some young mutants with Krakoan society. Some young mutants with more visible traits don’t embrace them the way that they’re sometimes expected to in Krakoa, and adults are unreceptive to their requests for help changing their appearance. There are some explicit conversations about how embracing one’s power is much e...

  This is another one I have honestly no feelings about. I found it chaotic and confusing to actually read, and the color palette made the images a bit difficult to follow. There was also very little characterization at all; all the story really did was follow the big cumulative battle against Knull. Admittedly, that’s probably partially because the prior comics did a lot of the character legwork, and I was just missing out on that. But regardless, I still sort of felt like the emotional core of this one was missing, and it was sort of a slog to get through. I found what I read of King in Black: Wiccan and Hulkling much more compelling.

       This book was so irritating on so many levels. I’m genuinely shocked that this was released (in its collected form) in 2021. First of all, there was nothing terribly compelling about the story in the first place. Second, I didn’t like the art at all. Someone please explain to me why Asgardian women are tall, skinny, and hypersexualized while the men have lumpy cubes with faces for heads? I didn’t find it at all appealing to look at, and while that could certainly be forgiven or even appreciated if it interacted with the story appropriately, but it didn’t. It was just there. But by far my biggest problem with the book is the way it dealt with Loki having a female form (note: I’m going to refer to Loki with he/him pronouns in this review due to him expressing continued identification with maleness, something I’ll discuss in a moment). I can’t really explain my problems with this without getting into spoilers, so: you’ve been warned, spoilers ahead.    ...

  I love the Runaways characters, and I particularly love how they’re conceptualized in this revamp. This volume does an awesome job covering how the characters are handling their respective traumas and emotions, how their lives have changed, and how they’re trying to cope. It brings the characters together in a way that feels natural and lays groundwork for future stories, not sacrificing characterization for flashy plot moments. That being said, it does mean that not a ton happens in this volume, but I’m looking forward to seeing more of the characters and the story as it progresses. Overall just a fun story that’s a bit different from a lot of the Marvel comics out there.