This historical saga by Gene Luen Yang imparts the history of the Boxer Rebellion from the people in the rebellion rather than the dusty old textbooks focusing on the Europeans views of things. Filled with tragedy, magical realism and some humor with expressive visuals that keep the story moving.

I started with Saints which is the shorter graphic novel at 144 pages featuring Four Girl who is the unwanted fourth daughter of the fourth and whose family make it clear that she’s unwanted and unlucky. Unable to do anything right in her family’s eyes especially in the view of the old patriarch, she decides to embrace her devil girl status and be a foreign devil. Initially, she means to do so in the typical devilish way, making crazed faces and hexing. But when her hex accidentally comes true, she is filled with remorse. She doesn’t leave devilry entirely but takes a new tack when the new patriarch turns out to be worse than her grandfather.

Instead she decides to follow the ways of the “foreign devil,” aka the Christian missionaries who have journeyed to China to “civilize the heathens.” It’s a bit of an exercise in humorous irony as she dives deep into the Christian religion (whose lessons completely bore her) because she is convinced that it will make her a bad person. She is also fueled by the magical visions she recieves of Joan of Arc and her journey. Though she doesn’t completely understand Joan’s mission and why she did what she did, she is inspired by the thought she, a mere girl can become as heroic as the Maid of Orleans and be able to do somehing for the Chinese christians instead of be the poor unwanted Four-Girl. And what is she trying to save her new convent from? The Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fist.

Which brings to Boxers. You see this duology has some crossovers as you can see how tightly woven these two causes are. Little Bao was always fascinated by operas, a shy child. But after the British soldiers beat his beloved father to a pulp, leaving him senseless and a mysterious stranger, Red Lantern Chu comes to the village to teach all the men keng fu and sword fighting, Bao decides to take up the fight to protect his people from the invaders.

Filled with magical realism, Bao learns strength and courage from the ancient gods who so idolized the operas. He learns how to control his chi and become inhibited with the ancient ones so to crush the British. He and his Brother-Disciples vow to protect the people of China as the Quing government is too cowed by the British embassy with their opium and their missionaries spreading their heathen religion.

Yang does not hold back on how extremism grabs ahold of Bao. Though he tries to stick by his morals, and one can see how much he struggles with the blood he shed and the nightmares of those he has lost. But he is urged on by the vision of the first Emperor of China demanding that he sacrifice whatever is necessary to save China, becoming increasingly fantatical as time goes on. All invaders must die even women and children, Chinese treasures must be sacrificed to get the upper hand, ignore the help of the women he likes because of her polluting yin. It’s tragic because you see how much Bao believes in his mission but at the cost of his safety, his happiness and ultimately his life. It’s also tragic because he is doing a good thing. Not necessarily with massacring but the British do treat them as second class heathens and eventually build part of their colonial conquests. He is trying to make things better for the common man but a small band cannot go against one of the largest empires in the world as we all know.

Like I said there’s several overlaps that add poignancy to the few times Four-Girl, later rechristined as Vibinia and Bao meet and to see the two sides of the same conflict, both who see the other as traitors and heathens in their country while they’re the one trying to save it. Plus it’s filled with lots of lush historical and cultural tidbits like the three gods who make the Peach Blossom Tree Oath which is a particular inspiration to Bao, old proverbs, the Khusa army (the Empress’ imperial army made up of Chinese Muslims and allies of the Hand), the formation of the Red Lanterns who act as the female sector of the Hand of Righteousness and Harmonious, the ridiculous rumors spread about the British and Chinese enemies, and the chi that allowed the Chinese to perform magical, superhuman feats and so much more.

Again the visuals are wonderful expressive with a bold color palette that will always keep the reader engaged and even chuckling as Yang includes humorous jokes and asides that make it feel all the more realistic. After all, even in the midst of danger and confrontation with colonialism, these are still real people with crushes, dreams and times for jokes, not legendary heroes twenty four seven. It adds to the relatability I think and made me more emotionally invested in their untimely fates.

Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy by Rey Terciero and Bre Indigo

This is a fun retelling of the classic Louise Alcott book of four sisters and their joys and sorrows. Now set in modern day New York!

We all know the plot but I enjoyed the changes that tweaked such as making the Alcotts a blended family of single dad with Meg and single mom with Jo who come together when the two girls are children, marry and then have Beth and Amy.

Now Robert isn’t in the Civil War but out in Afghanistan while Margaret works as an always harried nurse. Meg is the fashionista, Jo is still the writer, Beth is the homebody with guitar skills (yeah you thought it was going to be piano. I did too but they switched things up a bit) and Amy is the artist, specifically for video games. All real fun way to update the characters while in keeping with the core of their personalities.

And since I don’t think it would be spoilery since everyone knows the story, I will assure everyone that Beth does not die! She has leukmia but she gets remission so yay! Also Jo doesn’t end up with Laurie as usual because she is gay as many people have speculated for so many years. There’s probably more but those were the most pressing things that came to mind when it came to modern day Little Women adaptations concerning the biggest plotlines.

Oh right, there’s the whole Jo shaves her hair, in this case to make Beth feel better about her hair loss from chemotherapy which is made even more poignant when Amy and Meg do it as well, really highlighting their sisterly bond.

What’s nice about the modern day adaptation is the inclusion of such modern themes like racism as Amy’s bully continually taunts her as not being pretty because of her size and hair and calling her “Africa.” As well as queer themes of Jo struggling to be true to herself, berating herself with being scared of coming out in what is a lot more acceptable time with a loving family. It also adds dimension to her relationship with Aunt March which I’ll leave readers to find out for themselves.

It also has the very real themes of family bonds and emotional carthasis as the sisters hold each other up in the very difficult time when their father is sent to Germany after being caught in a blast and losing his leg. It’s a very real conflict of the girls struggling to deal with their fears that their father will get through this and that he’ll learn to deal with his new leg and trying to be strong for him.

It also deals with classism as well like Meg’s struggles to make money and break into the industry especially as black woman in a working class background compared to her country club friends. Another thing that I enjoyed was that her friend was very supportive and understanding compared to the dismissive way Meg is treated in the original. That Meg has a tight bond with someone outside her family adds to the running theme of Jo fearing that she’ll lose Meg and their close relationship.

The one thing that I felt was off was that it was trying too hard. Some of the speeches about acceptance and tolerance felt like PSAs you’d find in an afterschool special. Which I understand. In a graphic novel that has a set amount of space with several different storylines to juggle, one doesn’t have the time to wrangle things with internal monologues or be subtle. Especially as this is for kids who might be encountering these themes or Little Woman for the first time so they want to get their intentions right out the gate. But for me it was too there. Not woven in organically. But that might just be because it’s not for my age level.

So a worthy retelling of this literary classic for kids to learn about the original in a way that is relatable and moving for them to understand.