Gene Luen Yang’s The Shadow Hero is about the first Asian-American superhero “The Green Turtle” and his origins. The Green Turtle was a character originally created by Chu F. Hing in the 1940’s, but unfortunately had few fans when the comic was released. Yang brings him back in full force while humanizing him with added social commentary in the context of the time period. The Shadow Hero challenges conventions of classic comic books by introducing a more political context and also by
The book is generally described as a graphic novel, but it is meant to invoke the experience of reading a comic book. It could be either one. Specifically, since it is based on a comic from the 1940’s, it has a classic feel, without modern technology and flashy action graphics. It uses a lot of the same conventions as comic books such as the use of onomatopoeia to illustrate an action (“Blam!” “Pow!”)
However, it also breaks away from these conventions by reading more like a graphic novel: there is heavy focus on telling the story as an biography or memoir. Hank narrates a lot on family, their origins, and less on action and adventure in the plot. Comic books, especially older ones, revolve around fights between heroes and villains and resolving, or working towards resolving a conflict. Characters aren’t always written as well fleshed out people with unique personalities and histories, but in Yang’s book they are. This is what makes the book more like a graphic novel than a comic book to me. In addition, the book discusses socio-political issues of racism and xenophobia against Asians in America, and power and government in China. Although comic books have evolved to be much more sophisticated and intellectual than they used to be, it is still noteworthy to discuss Yang’s explicit messages that would be missing from many other comic books.
