Fighting The Travel Ban With LaGuardia #2

[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
Future and her grandmother manage to plant Letme Live in the soil outside the apartment building, and Letme Live survives. Time passes, and a travel ban for nations with higher alien populations begins brewing. A protest is planned outside of LaGuardia airport, and Jackie and her alien friends plan on attending. Meanwhile, Future’s grandmother has gotten in contact with three young men from Sudan who’ve been held at the airport, as Sudan is on the travel ban list. Future’s grandmother is an immigration lawyer, and she will not let this stand. Future joins her grandmother to help.

LaGuardia is a sci-fi satire of the widespread xenophobia and general fear of immigration that has caught fire in recent years in both the United States, the United Kingdom, across Europe, and other countries. It’s not subtle in this mission, and its use of aliens from other worlds is only a step removed from aliens from Mexico, Syria, etc.
Its conflict revolves around this central conceit, with Future, her grandmother, Jackie, and their alien friends are actively fighting against the political manifestations of human fear of other species.
While the metaphor is very thinly veiled, it goes hand in hand with the anger channelled into witticisms and more specific satire throughout the comic. The tension is constantly boiling in the background while the characters chat and make jokes to offset that doom and gloom. The tension spills into the foreground of course, culminating in this issue’s climax at LaGuardia airport with the unfortunate Sudanese immigrants only seeking to receive education in America.

Tana Ford’s artwork brings it all together in a thriving and packed environment that suits that tension as well as the urban environment of New York. Each panel is filled to the brim with detailing, whether it’s the brick exterior of buildings, Jackie’s tastefully adorned apartment, or the protestors outside LaGuardia. James Delvin’s color work absolutely pops off the page with its bright and contrasting colors that keep your gaze trained on each panel.
LaGuardia #2 is a brilliant and timely satire of the xenophobic fears that have always plagued humanity but is making a harsh and bloody resurgence in our present. Nnedi Okorafor uses her comic to show just how common our concerns are and how we can and should come together to combat it. It’s a meaningful and compelling read and is easily worth a recommendation. Check it out.
LaGuardia #2 comes to us from writer Nnedi Okorafor, artist  Tana Ford, color artist James Delvin, letterer Sal Cipriano, and cover art by Ford and Delvin.