La Borinqueña #2 Tackles Puerto Rican Hurricane Recovery

Somos Arte, the studio behind the critically-acclaimed and bestselling benefit anthology Ricanstruction: Reminiscing and Rebuilding Puerto Rico, which teams up La Borinqueña with iconic DC superheroes like Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, Aquaman, The Flash, Harley Quinn, and many others, returns with the second installment of their critically-acclaimed graphic novel series La Borinqueña.

Written by Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, this second issue of La Borinqueña is released one week after the announcement made by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the New England Journal of Medicine of the 4,645 excess deaths related to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico which is 70 times more than the U.S. official death count of 64.

You can get the comic from Miranda-Rodriguez at conventions, or via the comic's official website.

Originally conceived as a graphic novel series centered around raising awareness to the humanitarian crisis affecting the 3 million Puerto Ricans with American citizenship on the island, La Borinqueña has become an icon for hope and empowerment to the people of Puerto Rico.

La Borinquena #2 Gallery

The series release date of June 10, 2018 is also the 70th anniversary of La Ley de la Mordaza (The Gag Law of Puerto Rico), which outlawed the display and ownership of the Puerto Rican flag until 1952 when the original light blue color of the flag was changed to navy blue and became officially adopted as the flag of the US territory to this day.

This very same law would have also made La Borinqueña illegal to produce, distribute, and own in Puerto Rico, according to Miranda-Rodriguez, whose release date announcement says "The significance of this historical date gives resonance to the project today now more than ever."

You can check out the official synopsis for the issue below, and preview pages in the attached gallery.

LA BORINQUEÑA #2

MARISOL RIOS DE LA LUZ is back in Puerto Rico sometime after the Hurricane that hit the island in the first issue (La Borinqueña #1 was released December 2016, 9 months before Hurricane Maria). She is continuing the research for her senior thesis while coming to terms with not only her new powers but her perception as a hero by the people of Puerto Rico. In the midst of the islands recovery, Marisol meets young people across Puerto Rico that are either involved in direct protest of the displacement of families and wildlife to a group of science students from the University of Puerto Rico who are torn between marching or continuing their studies in the face of the austerity measures that are jeopardizing not only their education but their livelihood. During this her alter ego La Borinqueña time travels to witness an important event that will affect not only her, but the fate of Puerto Rico.
Written and created by Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, Illustrated by Will Rosado and Manuel Preitano, Colored by Christopher Sotomayor and Robert Snyder. Cover artwork by George Pérez and Juan Fernández, variant cover by Nicole Virella.