[2] As an exchange professor at the Peking University in China in 1977, Reyes focused on the preparation of modules regarding Philippine literature and popular culture.
According to Reyes, Darna was the modern-day superheroine rooted and molded in Philippine folklore and tradition, while ZsaZsa Zaturnnah was "unarguably a postmodern text that could have emerged only in the twenty-first century, a period of awesome advances in science and technology, and/or frightening borderless wars."
Reyes's use of the phrase postmodern hero or postmodern text to describe ZsaZsa Zaturnnah the superheroine and graphic novel was further explained by Emilou Lindsay Mata Mendoza and Irene Villarin Gonzaga in their Visual Literacy and Popular Culture in the Philippine Literature Classroom: Teaching Filipino Literature through the Graphic Novel, as a comparison between Darna, the female superhero, and ZsaZsa Zaturnnah, the effeminate superhero.
Because ZsaZsa Zaturnnah is, in reality, a homosexual male or "gay man" named Ada (from Adrian) who works as a beautician (i.e. cosmetologist, hair stylist, and nail stylist), but is able to transform himself into "a voluptuous, red-haired Darna-like [real] woman who possesses super powers" whenever he swallows a magical stone and shouts the word "Zaturnnah".
[6] The awards Reyes obtained include recognitions for her From Darna to Zsazsa Zaturnnah: Desire and Fantasy and Other Way and A Dark Tinge to the World: Selected Essays 1987-2005.
[5] In 2009, Reyes was conferred the rank of Professor Emeritus (together with two other Loyola Schools faculty members of the Ateneo de Manila University, namely Jose A. Marasigan and Mari-Jo P. Ruiz) for her exceptional service and distinguished academic record.