Steam is a quick, cute read about Ruby, a genetically engineered girl created to solve problems. She’s escaped the lab!—She’s on the loose!—She’s playing cupid in a coffee shop! Determined to make people happy, she learns about humans and strives to use her scientific mind and improbable aiming skills to improve their lives. If she encounters a few bumps along the way, well, her methods may be flawed but her heart is pure.
This is a quirky read that balances silly and serious moments. A lot of the humor comes from eclectic customers, like the sleepless mom of countless kids to the regular who leaps onto a table shouting that, “Pants are a CIA plot! They got the mind controls! Triple espresso, please!” This is a type of humor that doesn’t always land for me, but in this case, it both modulates the tone and leads to a tongue-in-cheek refuge. For example, the last time a lab experiment like Ruby escaped, it led to a King Kong-scale tardigrade attack—size makes it serious, but it’s silly. It’s a tardigrade! These sorts of moments allow the comic to remain lighthearted and its stakes purely emotional, even as readers recognize Ruby’s ability to cause mayhem.
But it’s not just about Ruby! There’s also Mira, the snark-infused grumpy to Ruby’s sunshine, a scowling coworker with a new major every panel. (Did I mention it’s an off-campus coffee shop?) Ruby and Mira are opposites, with Ruby being ignorant of social customs but pure of heart, and Mira the socially competent grouch nursing a crush on a patron. This was handled with absolute grace, too. With Ruby’s support, Mira tries talking with the patron, realizes they’re not that compatible, and goes on to befriend her. Of course, she and the other girl can’t fall in love when Mira and Ruby are clearly meant for each other.
The comic is very queernormative. Mira only expresses interest in other girls; Ruby briefly dates a boy, then finds herself falling for Mira. It was nice. They didn’t need to explain or justify: they just felt how they felt.
In the end, the book focused on the strengths of each individual. I won’t give significant spoilers, but I was struck by the sheer sweetness of it—ironic in a book about something as bitter as coffee! Ultimately, rather than asking anyone to change, even to put on some darn pants, they find a solution that embraces characters’ quirks and eccentricities.
Finally, I’d like to acknowledge autism parallels. I don’t know if either creator of the comic is on the spectrum, but Ruby’s experiences strongly resemble common autistic experiences. There’s a lot of humor around figurative vs. literal language. At one point, another science experiment human like Ruby comments about confusion over common greetings like, “How are you?” or “What’s new?”, in which the asker does not wish to hear more than a brief, glib reply. Ruby fails to grasp the nuance and background of many remarks, which leads to misunderstandings, such as believing people should simply be made happy without understanding the value of negative emotions. An interesting touch was that Ruby on the lam does exactly what she was made to do: looks for problems to solve. The big bad scientists weren’t malicious, they were simply indifferent to her personhood. It ties in well with Ruby’s otherness as a parallel for autism: she’s appreciated for what she can do as long as she doesn’t act on any desire for agency.
I don’t know if the comic was meant to be a parallel for autism. That said, it has a lot to say on literalism and outsider status, which resonated with me as an autistic reader.
