Synopsis
Mad science is the punkest shit there is. Teenage sweethearts Nat & Sumesh spend their nights breaking into abandoned superlabs to steal the parts they need to build a time machine – and they’ve just found the most important part. But mysterious entities keep trying to stop them from turning it on. Now all they’ve gotta do is hang on long enough to figure out why. Magdalene Visaggio (Kim & Kim) and Eryk Donovan (Memetic) bring you a high-octane adventure full of robots, muscle cars, and queer-ass skater punks.
Notes on This Title
None.
Awards
None.
Reviews
“In the underground world of exxies, people strive to join major superscience teams. Nat and Sumesh, a teen duo struggling just to get the parts for their invention, get one step closer to completing their application project for the infamous Odyssey team in this first issue of Quantum Teens are Go, but at what cost?
“Visaggio’s world is amazing. While many elements ground it in the reality we know far too well, especially the mixed reaction to a transitioned transgender young woman, the fantastical is there within it’s robot punching, tachyon particle experimentation, and rogue bands of stealing inventors. I love the dialogue throughout the issue. Lines like “Break it up, you two! This isn’t a telenovela!” and “Who the hell is this poor man’s Matthew McConaughey” just make me smile. I also love the relationship between Sumesh and Nat. They have a great rapport and a magnetic chemistry.
“Donovan delivers in art. Each character has a subtle element that make them more distinct and unique. From Zero’s arm tattoo to Sumesh’s Star Wars t-shirt, there are these small details that make it feel like Donovan really gave each character attention. It’s not just the characters, either. Backgrounds have these special touches, like the old pictures of “Brandon” on the wall as Nat walks down from her room to the sprinkles of light from Los Angeles in the splash on the first page of the comic.” (Source: Comicosity)
“Mad science may, in fact, be very punk, but it’s also an incredibly dangerous hobby for two teens to navigate on top of missing families, transition, and normal high school homework.
“At the heart of the book are Nat and Sumesh, high school sweethearts with a shared passion making their relationship work in the face of overwhelming personal struggles – Sumesh and his missing family, Natalie and the reaction of others to her transition. The sci-fi narrative that surrounds them may not reach a fully satisfying conclusion, but their love story does all the same, and ultimately the focus on their relationship and the relatability of their struggles is what makes Quantum Teens work. It’s a story of family.” (Source: Newsarama)
“Quantum Teens Are Go isn’t a story about a trans character or even necessarily about transition, but that the reality of who folks thought we were before transition is often inescapable. There’s a moment where Nat walks down the staircase of her old house, and Donovan makes photos of a younger Nat prominent in the frame. Paired with her mother’s lamentations for the changes in Nat’s life, it captures that air of stifling disappointment that can plague a person whose family’s support is anything less than full-throated. It’s a tiny touch that captures a sharp fear that accompanies transition: on top of everything else, the medical and legal struggles, trans panic laws and open bigotry, there will always be people you once considered close prepared to weaponize their memories of you to keep themselves comfortable.” (Source: Paste Magazine)
Interviews
Bitch Media: “Magdalene Visaggio is shaking up the comic book world”
Comicosity: “Queer Visibility Interview: Visaggio and Donovan are Go with QUANTUM TEENS ARE GO”
Comics Alliance: “Punk is About Family: Magdalene Visaggio and Eryk Donovan Build a Better Future with ‘Quantum Teens Are Go’”
Sumesh is mixed race (when a photo of his parents is shown, only his father is brown-skinned) and it’s never made clear whether his father was of south-asian or middle-eastern descent.
The transphobia is thankfully limited to micro-aggressions from a mean girl at their school (who calls Natalie Sumesh’s boyfriend) and Natalie’s mother, while allowing the transition and hormones, being less than perfectly understanding and supportive. (She says she doesn’t like the person that Natalie is transitioning into… “Brandon wouldn’t sneak out all night to spend time with boys.”)
The comic itself is not particularly adult-oriented (lots of highschool drama scenes) and can be read by younger kids – there is no nudity and the violence is mostly directed against robots or otherwise non-bloody and non-lethal. BUT: If you want to gift this comic to a queer teen, you really, really should get the trade paperback. Because in the single issue version that I read, the publisher decided to include sneak previews for other comics in the back, and those are REALLY not appropriate for the kind of teenage audience that “Quantum Teens Are Go” seems to have been written for. (Issue 1 has a decadent orgy party scene like in “Eyes Wide Shut” with lots of female nudity and two women having sex; issue 2 has a scene from “The Dregs” which is apparently about homeless people using intravenous drugs; and issue 3 features a very gory murder scene – head shot with blood and brains splattered over the wall – as well as a woman snorting cocain…)