When you think of superheroes, there’s a good chance that when you name one, he or she will be Caucasian. Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, and Black Widow might be the first ones to pop into the minds of a mainstream audience. However, there are a number of diverse heroes in the world of comic books too. Black Panther, Blue Beetle, Storm, Shang-Chi, Spawn, Miss America Chavez, Static, and the Green Lantern are just a few examples of some primetime players in tights representing many different cultures. We even got a brand new Asian American hero from Marvel Comics last week with the premiere of ‘Ms. Marvel’ #1. But before Kamala Khan, the very first Asian American superhero was the Green Turtle.
Back in the mid-1940s during the Golden Age of comics, the Green Turtle appeared in the pages of ‘Blazing Comics’ before disappearing into obscurity. However, before the name was all but forgotten, the hero was credited with being the first Asian American superhero to appear in American comic books. And after a very long absence from our local comic shops, he’ll be making a comeback thanks to cartoonists Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew, who will be reviving the character in their brand new project from First Second Books called ‘The Shadow Hero: The Green Turtle Chronicles’.
The Green Turtle is now in the public domain, so will be reinvented in a more comedic light for a high-profile revival in the form of six monthly digital comics beginning later this month, which will also be collected into a graphic novel in July. The publisher describes the new version of the hero as “a young, Asian-American immigrant named Hank whose mother is really, really excited about the possibility of having a superhero for a son with at times disastrous results”.
The Green Turtle: Then & Now‘The Shadow Hero: The Green Turtle Chronicles’ will be released monthly via Amazon, Apple, and Barnes & Noble’s digital bookstores starting next week. The final digital issue will coincide with collected edition release on July 15, 2014. But if you can’t wait until the February 18th premiere of the series, a special preview is already available at Tor.com.
What do you think about the return of the Green Turtle in ‘The Shadow Hero: The Green Turtle Chronicles’? Are you excited to see the first Asian American superhero grace the pages of a comic book once again so that a whole new generation can learn about him for the first time? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
