The Theme of cultural and national identity
In The Shadow Hero (2014) comic, artist Sonny Liew and Gene Luen Yang, collaborate to tell the story of Hank Chu, a Chinese-American superhero. The comic portrays various crucial themes, including national and cultural identity. Superheroes are mostly American since they were invented in America and are most popular in the country (Liew & Luen Yang, 2014). They also tend to be immigrants, including Batman and Superman. The Shadow Hero is set in the 1930s and portrays the immigrant experience through the genre of superheroes. Hank Chu is the protagonist of the comic and is born of two immigrants. The authors strive to revive the story of The Green Turtle (1944), written by Chu Hing. Hing wished to portray a Chinese superhero, but according to some rumors, he believed that a Chinese character would not attract huge sales (Campbell, 2014). He came up with the Green Turtle superhero who protected China against Japanese forces in the Second World War, but whose face was always hidden. His face was hidden by characters or objects, and it is believed that the publisher colored the character’s skin bright pink to portray his whiteness. The Green Turtle was supposed to be the first Asian-American hero, but the publisher believed that hiding the identity of the character was crucial to make revenue due to the racial prejudice against Asians at the time. The Shadow Hero seeks to revive the story of the Green Turtle through the character of Hank Chu, who is explicitly Chinese American, which makes the comic to be the first truly Asian American superhero comic. The Green Turtle was not popular and faded before the secret identity, and the secret origin of the characters was revealed. The Green Turtle lacks an origin story, which The Shadow Hero strives to provide by revealing the true identity and origin of The Green Turtle. Hank Chu works at his family’s grocery store in Chinatown, where he is contended with pursuing the business, but his mother has better plans for him; she wants him to become a superhero after her encounter with the Anchor of Justice superhero (Audio transcript).
Hanks’s mother is presented as the stereotypical Chinese tiger mom who wants more for her son. She believes that Hank is destined for greatness, which cannot be achieved by working at the modest family grocery. She commits her life to train Hank to become a superhero, including making his costume. The comic helps give the characters a national and cultural identity that The Green Turtle was hesitant to portray. In The Shadow Hero, the authors utilized a superhero narrative to illustrate how people become immigrants. It is about how different life experiences motivate individuals to become immigrants and how they strive to live with different cultural and national identities as a result of immigration.
Character development: Hank’s mother
Hank’s mother starts as the traditional Chinese tiger mom who is strict and demands more from her son. She believes that Hank is capable of more than just working in a grocery and strives to convince him to become a superhero. In the beginning, she glorifies Miss Stardust and informs Hank of her superpowers, including the ability to lift cars and shoot clouds. She tells Hank that he ought to develop more superpowers, makes mocking remarks against Hank; ‘‘no wonder she is more popular than you’’ (Liew & Luen Yang, 2014). Additionally, she tells him that people are becoming tired of Hank’s single power and demands that he develops more abilities. By mocking her son, Hank’s mother hopes to challenge him to become a superhero who fights injustices such as theft. She belittles him for not having many superpowers like stardust and wants Hank to be ‘more like miss stardust’ by gaining more superpowers (Liew & Luen Yang, 2014). She is a demanding character, a tiger mom, who won’t settle for less as far as her son is concerned. Even the authors acknowledged that they wanted to make Hank’s mother portray the stereotypical tiger mom at the start (Audio transcript).
As the story develops, Hank’s mother becomes more empathetic and compassionate towards him and his abilities. When Hank tries to fight the giant bug monsters, he is stranded as he cannot reach them due to his inability to fly. The city residents mock him because of his limitation and encourage him to just join them to watch as stardust fights the bugs. However, Hank’s mother comes to his defense and tells him that, although he may only have a single superpower while fighting crime, she knows that he is not the kind of person to give up, and that makes him a hero (Liew & Luen Yang, 2014). She is aware of her son’s limit and encourages him to use what he has to fight crime. Hank’s mother starts as a tiger mother and develops to a more compassionate, caring, and understanding mother.
References
Liew, S., & Luen Yang, G. (2014). They Came Here Not to Save Us, But to Live Among Us [Ebook]. Retrieved 18 July 2020, from.
Yang, G., & Liew, S. (2014). The Shadow Hero.
Campbell, B. (2014). A dashing return of the first Asian American superhero. The World from PRX. Retrieved 18 July 2020, from https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-06-30/dashing-return-first-asian-american-superhero.