Written by: Nnedi Okorafor
Art by: Leonardo Romero, Jordie Bellaire, and VC’s Joe Sabino
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: December 19, 2018

I love Shuri. Yea, most of my love comes from the Black Panther movie, but if there is a thing called love at first sight, it happened while I was sitting in that theater that afternoon. Since then, I have been searching out anything that features the brash, intelligent and just plain awesome younger sister of T-Challa so when this book was announced, I was pumped. After not enjoying the first issue as much as I had hoped, I was so happy to read and really enjoy the second. Shuri in Space and in Groot! Yea just read that again. So, does this third issue tip the scaled fully to the “digging it” side of things? Let’s find out…

The issue opens where we left off… “I am Shuri” Groot is driving Rocket crazy and Okorafor and Romero give us a cool and stylized way to show that Shuri is in the driver’s seat. Throughout the issue, the interactions between Shuri/Groot and Rocket are the best things going… I just wish the overall story was a bit stronger itself.

It seems that a Space-Lubber has latched onto their ship and it’s feeding off of Aretha Franklin. To clarify, the Space-Lubber is a giant bug and Aretha Franklin is the Queen of Soul that unfortunately passed away recently. To clarify more, the bug loves her music and is sapping it and the ship’s energy for a bit of sustenance.

The issue is dedicated to Aretha and I personally am a huge fan, but that doesn’t blind me to the fact that not much is going on here. The biggest problem with that is by the end, Shuri ends up back on Earth with no answers about what happened to her brother which makes these last two issues not mean a whole lot.

Sure, I did love the team-up of Rocket and Shuri as they bond to “defeat” the bug and there are hints at storylines continuing on, but as a single issue, there is not much to see here. Even the cliffhanger showing the Space-Lubber supercharged and still at large didn’t get me excited in the least. I still love Shuri, but just not this issue and sadly, I’ve only liked one out of three issues of this series so far.

As for the art, Leonardo Romero has won me over a bit. I have liked the look of this book more with each issue and I don’t think it has as much to do with Romero as it does with myself. It’s taken me a bit, but I am settled in and I think that the style fits the story and the characters more than I originally thought.

Final Thoughts:

I am still interested in this series, but after the last issue, I was ready to love it. This issue spins it’s wheels a bit and while I would love to see more Shuri/Groot and Rocket together, I wish the overall story here was stronger. Shout out to Aretha Franklin lovers everywhere, but if this book is going to garner any respect, Nnedi Okorafor needs to get things moving forward quickly.

6.5/10