still chugging along through misc Hugo reading

Black Panther: Long Live The King, written by Nnedi Okorafor and Aaron Covington, art by André Lima Araújo, Mario Del Pennino and Tana Ford, up for the Graphic Hugo. Continuing my whole "do I actually like comics?" thing, I wasn't super into this. Never felt like there was much in the way of emotional stakes for T'Challa. I don't exactly mean to say that I only care about superheroes when they're suffering, but I definitely care more when they're doing the Buffy thing where the supernatural threats are like concretization of something personal for the hero. Ms. Marvel does a great job with that. Or at least when there's some kind of real dilemma or challenge. Like, okay, this idea of the mute zones, is T'Challa really doing the right thing in mostly ignoring them? Should he be doing more to discourage their isolation? That flashback with his childhood friend, about having to be careful all the time, shouldn't that play out somehow in the subsequent plot? I don't know, give us times when being a superhero is at odds with being king, give us times when the right choice for the kingdom means having to ask something really hard of his people, give us some sense of something going on internally with this guy! I thought the best story in here was the one about the Venom Black Panther, who did have emotional stakes, and a lot of story there in a one-issue space.

Beneath the Sugar Sky, Seanan McGuire, up for Best Novella. I was pleasantly surprised by really enjoying this, a first for this series! I liked the POV character, I liked the cast and their banter in general, I liked the plot. I think it helped that it *had* a real plot, instead of just being backstory like the last one, and it's a niftier plot than the first one. Some really good moments. I'm not sure this would make much sense without "Every Heart A Doorway", but you could definitely skip "Down Among the Sticks and Bones".