New Super-Man Volume 1: Made in Chinaby Gene Luen Yang and Victor Bogdanovic
I already know I like Gene Yang. His Chinese-American coming-of-age story, American Born Chinese, won an Eisner award when it first came out (among others), and for probably the first time, I got to see someone who looked like myself, in comic books. He understands the Asian-American experience, and as someone who grew up on a diet of Marvel superheroes, I was impressed at how the comic book as a medium could tell a personal story, a story that also happened to be mine.
Suffice to say, New Super-Man doesn't quite deal with the identity of a Chinese-American San Franciscan who wants to fit in. It's a traditional super-hero story that answers a lot of "What-If's". In other words. . .
- What if Flash Thompson was bit by the spider, instead of Peter Parker?
- What if Superman was a teenager?
- What if China had its own Justice League?
Immediately Kenan differentiates himself from his predecessor. The Ministry's Dr. Omen forces a "compliance" visor on him, and he jokes about its effectiveness at disguising him:
And he immediately outs himself as Kong Kenan: This is an important difference. To him, why wouldn't he out himself, and get the notoriety, fame, and likes from the world? To be noticed, in a way that his father never noticed him?
This is all in Kenan's relationship with the world: his relationship with his dad, the Ministry, the Bat-Man and Wonder-Woman of China, and with his departed mother. Zoom out and you'll see a story of Chinese politicking too. Seeing the notoriety that the West has gained with their super-heroes, China sees the need to sanction their own Western-style do-gooders.
Yang and Bogdanovic upend the comic book conventions of superhero stories and create a comic-book hero for themselves. It achieves the holy grail in my mind of comics: touching on points of nostalgia, comforting you in its familiarity, while moving forward in since-unexplored areas. It's actually reminiscent to me of Superior Spider-Man, believe it or not -- Bogdanovic's pencils have the energy of Ryan Stegman's, and the polish of Greg Capullo, while the colors are bright as in Superior.
Shoutout to my local comic book store -- I wasn't following DC Rebirth at the time (or now, even), and without them I would have never known about this comic! Thanks First Aid Comics, on Taylor St.!
BONUS PANELS:
This is all you need to know about Kenan. He'll occasionally do the right thing, but he's not a selfless person!
Meet Folding Paper Man! He's just like Flatman, except he has sweet FOLD! and UNFOLD! sound effects!
Jessica Jones: Alias Volume 2by Brian Bendis and Michael Gaydos (covers by David Mack)
This paperback collects issues 11-15 from the original series, which includes two stories. 11-14 is about Jessica's visit to Upstate New York to find a missing girl, and issue 15 is about her first date with Scott Lang, the (third) Ant-Man. There's an afterword from Bendis, as well as the photos of a multimedia sketchbook that the cover artist created for certain sections of the comic book interiors.
Mutants is the name of the game here, because at the small town that Jessica visited, everybody despised them. This was at the height of mutant fever, coming off the heels of the superb X-Men film from Fox in 2000. So slowly, issue-by-issue, Jessica sees that high schoolers will spread rumors about people they think are mutants, and that the pastor at the local church spreads sermons on the abomination of mutancy. It's not a mutant-friendly place here.
Jessica finds the missing girl in a way that's both surprising and obvious. So this one is really Bendis's story on prejudice and bigotry, and the kinds of lives that it can create for people. Sprinkled throughout the story are sketchbooks from the missing girl (actually David Mack's sketchbook collaboration with his girlfriend!) and it's the need to give a voice to the voiceless -- in this case, the teenage girl who wanted to create, and mutants, who are part of a system that rarely defends them.
The 15th issue settles Jessica back in Manhattan, to her part-time job as a bodyguard for Matt Murdock (who is most assuredly NOT Daredevil), and her first date with Scott Lang.
BONUS PANELS:
Issue 14 introduces the missing girl in a coffeeshop, talking about Daredevil. She explains why she loves him, and in a way, she serves as the speaker for Bendis, who thrives in the moral ambiguity of crime comics, which, as we've said before, has showed up in volume 1 before as well.
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