Shuri #3 Review

Writer: Nnedi Okorafor/ Artist: Leonardo Romero / Marvel I Am Who? I AM GROOT, MY GUY! Oh man, I’ve been waiting for this. Shuri was astral projected into Groot’s body in search for her brother, I find it interesting that she has to “technically” take on another identity. This arc is beginning to feel more and more like a spiritual awakening. From the first issue, Shuri coming to terms that she will not take up the mantle as The Black Panther again to not be compared to her brother. The second issue a battle between the spiritual side and the logic side. Consistently bickering with the ancestors as they try to show her the privileges of being in tune with her roots. Now, essentially she is embodying both something related to her roots (no pun intended) and her goals.

Instead of taking up the mantle of the Black Panther, she is part of the Baobab (relating to the wooden texture of Groot). Shuri needs to learn how to use her mind in spite of this identity merge. The Shuri series is teaching me that understanding spirituality is being open to new roots in change. Okorafor makes me a believer in the merger of STEM and Spiritualism. Okorafor’s continuous use of metaphors to push forward the lesson of unlearning habits not only teaches what it means to be flexible within the paradigms of your own knowledge; but also how we become limited by not analyzing how spirituality and logic can co-exist and are not mutually exclusive. Wooden Discrepancies The interesting part about the…