It is May, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and DC Comics is celebrating it with DC: Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration #1! It features a regular cover by Jim Lee with a number of the Asian heroes. The variant cover is by Artgerm and shows Cassandra Cain facing someone with a knife! The back cover has the shadowy profile of the newest DC hero! More on him later! Take note that it is has a $9.99 cover price, but contains 96 pages! This is an anthology of eleven stories plus pin-up artwork of some very talented Asian writers and artists. The first story, “Sounds”, is written by Mariko Tamaki, she wrote the limited series, Future State: Dark Detective. The art is by Marcus To, who provided artwork for Nightwing. The featured character is Cassandra Cain, she is the daughter of Lady Shiva, one of the most deadliest assassins of the DCU. She took up the role of Batgirl, but then became Orphan.
Growing up, she was taught to kill by her father, but not to talk. Basically, this is the same concept for Damian Wayne, except the talking part. Cassandra tries to make sounds in front of a mirror on her apartment bed. She is contacted by Barbara Gordon back as Oracle, the information database of the DCU and formerly Batgirl. Cassandra flashes back to her past and then we get to moving to the rooftops of Gotham as Orphan. The best part is her faceless, black mask. Of course, her voice isn’t muffled like Spider-Man (realistically), but she doesn’t talk in battle. Orphan finds a man standing guard outside of a building and easily takes him down. Then, she moves to his colleagues in the basement. In a splash page, Orphan strikes the gunmen! At her computer console, Oracle informs her that Dr. Chin’s location was detected by his cellphone. Cassandra takes down the gunmen, she is smaller, but her moves are brutal!
Oracle speaks to Cassandra on her earpiece, but of course she doesn’t respond. She finds Dr. Chin handcuffed in a chair. I’m not certain what is Dr. Chin’s specific field. Orphan frees him and would like to say something to the young Dr. Chin. He on the other hand is very talky thinking she is Batgirl and tries to ask her out for banana boba. I really like the chemistry between these two and hope Dr. Chin shows up later in the comics. Cassandra returns to her apartment alone. She decides to wear her normal clothes to head to Boba Fantasy. Great character moments! Next, is “Dress Code” by Minh Lê and Trung Le Nguyen. The writer also has the young readers graphic novel, Green Lantern Legacy (2020). It introduced the young Tai Pham who finds his grandmother’s jade ring and finds that he is a Green Lantern! This is Nguyen’s first work for DC Comics and he previously had his graphic novel, The Magic Fish, printed in 2020.
This opens with Green Lantern Tai Pham bashed around by the monstrous Yellow Lantern, Arkillo, on some unknown planet. Arkillo tries to make a joke that Green Lantern is wearing a dress. He has a GL uniform that incorporates the traditional Vietnamese áo dài, a long tunic that goes to the knees. This causes him to flash back to a lunch with his grandmother and made the same joke by some kid with a yellow shirt and baseball cap. She tells him that she was mocked for her clothes, but it makes her feel “proud and powerful.” Yes! If traditions can’t be accepted, then the intolerant have to travel more. This is at the heart of AAPI Heritage Month. Green Lantern Tai Pham turns the tide against Arkillo! The ninth story, “Festival of Heroes”, brings in the themes of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. It is by Amy Chu and Marcio Takara. Chu has written the limited series, Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death (2016). Takara provided art for Future State: Justice League.
The story features Katana, Tatsu Yamashiro, with her colleagues, Cyborg and Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes) at the AAPI Heritage Festival in New York. The two heroes argue over Cyborg’s curried roti and Katana slices it in half with her sword. The festival director, Fay, shows Katana a cellphone video of the Knights of the Brotherhood. The man with a skull masks screams that they should all “go back where they came from”, harsh, in a comic. The heroes stand watch and while the festival has performances on stage, they see cosplayers as the various Asian heroes. The Brotherhood appears, confronted by the heroes, the leader sends out a fiery blast. During the fight, Katana recognizes the chaos stone, called a crystal in Batman/Superman #3 (2013) that is powering the villains. Katana is decisive and the crowd decides to takes on the villains. A fun story with some social commentary.
The last story is by Gene Luen Yang and Bernard Chang. Yang is the writer and artist of the graphic novel, American Born Chinese (2006) and also wrote the limited series, Superman Smashes The Klan. Chang worked on The Second Life of Doctor Mirage for Valiant Comics and Superman. Dr. Sivana is about to torture Shazam, the hero notes to Sivana that he has broken a gourd from the Yuan Dynasty, thhis may have unleashed a demon. Sivana unleashes his laser cannon and instead Shazam pops out a tiny ear piece that turns into a staff. This brings the Monkey Prince exploding out in a splash page! The Monkey King, Sun Wukong, is a classic Chinese character, a shapeshifter and trickster. There is countless movies made on him, I like The Forbidden Kingdom (2008). His staff is the Jingu Bang that deflects gunfire from Sivana’s henchpeople. The blasts accidentally sets off a bomb. Monkey Prince’s shifu, Piggy, arrives to help him and the hero takes on the demon! There is fun twists that gives the new character a DC spotlight. DC: Festival of Heroes offers some great superhero stories and art perfect for AAPI Heritage Month!
Five Banana Bobas out of Five!
#FestivalofHeroes, #MarikoTamaki, #MarcusTo, #Amy Chu, #MarcioTakara, #Monkey Prince, #GeneLuenYang, #Bernard Chang.
No comments:
Post a Comment