I

"Stay with the car," said Vivi. Peter shrugged. "I guess I've seen enough movies to know not to get mixed up in superhero stuff. But you be careful, okay?"

Vivi rolled her eyes. "I'm not a superhero."

*

Vivi is a pacifist. Though gifted with incredible powers, she uses them only to make art: beautiful, ostentatious, and sometimes outright silly. Her carefree attitude is challenged one day, however, when a threat hits a little too close to home.

A warmhearted, funny and imaginatively stunning story, "Vivi" upends superhero tropes -- warrior tropes in general, even -- showing that compassion and dialogue really can save the day.