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The Shadow Hero | January 14, 2015

by Gene Luen Yang and illustrated by Sonny Liew (First Second/Macmillan, July 2014)

Coming of age in the 1940s, Hank Chu is a first-generation Chinese American teen who is perfectly content following in the footsteps of his father, a seemingly timid grocery store owner. That is until the day his mother has a serendipitous encounter with a bank robber and a superhero named The Anchor of Justice, and it completely rewrites her notion of the American Dream. She decides her son should be a hero too. Hank, on the other hand, does not take to the idea so readily—after all, he has no powers to speak of. But after tragedy strikes close to home, and with help of mythic proportions, Hank soon finds himself donning the mask (but not a shirt) of the Green Turtle to take on the organized crime of Chinatown.

 

Basing their work on an actual but oft-forgotten hero of the Golden Age of comics, Yang and Liew have created an inspired origin story for a character who they theorize could have been the first Asian American superhero. The author’s note and the first issue of the historic comic, which are included in the back matter, show where the pair got their inspirations from and how they elevated their story far beyond the source material. Brimming with humor, action, and a healthy dose of nostalgia, The Shadow Hero is a wholly original superhero story with heart. Here’s to hoping this is not the last we see of the Green Turtle.

 

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