Chinese Superman Kenan Kong

[GeneChing]

And not just because of BVS (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1290). ;)


DC to Premiere Chinese 'New Superman' Written by Gene Luen Yang (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/dc-premiere-chinese-new-superman-written-gene-luen-yang-n547246)
by DAVID LUMB

DC Comics announced a new addition to the Superman lineup at WonderCon last weekend. "New Superman," an upcoming comic series by writer Gene Luen Yang and artist Victor Bogdanovic, will feature a first for the Superman mythology: A new character from Shanghai, Kenji Kong, will inherit the powers of Superman.

"Everybody in the world recognizes Superman," Yang told NBC News. "The reason he transcends cultures is that he embodies these ideals that are international, that are cross-cultural. We wanted to tell a story that was about the Superman ideal but tell it in a different culture. Regardless of where you grow up, you know what he stands for."


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CefW4ekWwAI1unI.jpg
DC Comics ✔ ‎@DCComics
NEW SUPER-MAN is here with @geneluenyang writing! Check it out 7/13! #DCRebirth
10:11 AM - 26 Mar 2016 · Los Angeles, CA, United States
440 Retweets 568 likes

DC Comics has yet to release details about how the 17-year-old Kong will acquire his Superman-like abilities and impact the DC universe, but the company has told fans that inheriting the powers — and the mantle — will be a struggle.

"Getting those powers, it changes his body obviously, but it also changes his heart," Yand said. "When he starts off, he's kind of a jerk. Once he gets this piece of Superman in him, it will change who he is."

Yang's previous works, including "American Born Chinese" and his recent "The Shadow Hero," have dealt with stereotyping of Asian Americans and the resulting identity struggle many Asian Americans face. Yang explored the duality of Superman when he was tapped by DC last year to write 10 issues of the main Superman title. For Yang, the child of Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants, writing "Superman" was an opportunity to dig into the immigrant experience, which he'd also done for the comic anthology "Secret Identities."

"One of the guys who was involved with 'Secret Identities,' Jeff Yang, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, he used to talk about how Superman is an Asian American: He has black hair, he wears glasses, he has two different names — an American name, Clark Kent, and a foreign name, Kal-El, with a hyphen in it," Yang said. "His parents are non-English-speaking and sent him to America to have a better life."

http://media4.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_01/1365101/gene-yang3_7a1d8aa566a2ed160bd75335d4ea8a65.nbcnews-ux-600-480.jpg
Gene Luen Yang is also the 5th National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. Albert Law

Yang said he didn't come up with the base idea of the character that would become Kenji Kong. DC co-publisher Jim Lee and chief creative officer Geoff Johns came up with the idea of an Asian Superman and gave him to Yang to develop into a full character. For Yang, that meant doing some homework to develop an authentic Chinese character.

"Kenji Kong — I created that name with my mom," Yang said. "I wanted to find a name that works in Chinese and is immediately pronounceable to an American reader. With Kenji Kong, we stuck with the hard-K sound like Clark Kent. I would definitely be more comfortable writing a Chinese-American character, as I myself am Chinese-American. Writing a Chinese character is, for me, a lot like writing 'The Other,' another culture. So it requires a lot more homework and talking to people who actually live that experience."


"[JEFF YANG] USED TO TALK ABOUT HOW SUPERMAN IS AN ASIAN AMERICAN: HE HAS BLACK HAIR, HE WEARS GLASSES, HE HAS TWO DIFFERENT NAMES — AN AMERICAN NAME, CLARK KENT, AND A FOREIGN NAME, KAL-EL, WITH A HYPHEN IN IT. HIS PARENTS ARE NON-ENGLISH-SPEAKING AND SENT HIM TO AMERICA TO HAVE A BETTER LIFE."

Kong joins a growing stable of superheroes of color, though many of them have been unable to grow beyond their mantles, according to cultural critic Keith Chow, founder of the cultural criticism site The Nerds of Color and editor-creator of the two "Secret Identities" collections.

Marvel's current Hulk is Korean American Amadeus Cho; African American Sam Wilson is one of two Captain Americas; Miles Morales is an Afro-Latino Spider-Man; and the teenage Pakistani American Kamala Khan is the current Ms. Marvel. But only the latter two have become very strongly associated with their superhero mantles, Chow said.

"Now when you say Ms. Marvel, you're associating it with Kamala Khan and not necessarily [the first Ms. Marvel] Carol Danvers," Chow told NBC News. "For a segment of the population, their Spider-Man is Miles Morales. That's a character that's not going away to the dustbin of history. That's my hope for Kenji Kong, that he's not just a character that shows up for a couple issues and disappears. Having a talent like Gene gives me hope that that's the case."

Yang acknowledges that concern, but believes there's good and bad with giving a person of color the mantle of an established hero, a balance that gives immediate recognizability to a new character of color. As a reader, he doesn't discount the importance of having original Asian and Asian-American characters.

http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_01/1365096/160106_seth_meyers_marvel_0e67dd4058ae8de8326c0145 37dc929f.nbcnews-ux-600-480.jpg
The cover of Ms. Marvel #1 featuring Kamala Khan. Khan is the first Muslim-American superhero to be featured in their own dedicated comic book series.

Whether Kenji Kong sticks around the DC Universe is uncertain: To some extent, it's in the hands of the fans.

"We'll see," Yang said. "I'm hoping he finds a place in the DC universe, I'm hoping he finds a place in the hearts of DC comics fans."

[GeneChing]

KENJI KONG
DC Comics’ new Superman is a Chinese teen with a Japanese name (http://qz.com/651601/dc-comics-has-given-its-new-chinese-superman-a-japanese-name/)

https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/rtr4ysth.jpg
The all-American hero goes east. (Reuters/Mike Segar)

WRITTEN BY Josh Horwitz OBSESSION
China's Transition March 31, 2016

DC Comics recently announced a new Superman comic book series with a twist—the titular hero hails from China. Instead of mild-mannered journalist Clark Kent, the upcoming Superman will be a 17-year-old teenager who lives in Shanghai.

https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/american_born_chinese_preview_by_gene_yang_-_issuu.jpg
Gene Yang’s American Born Chinese(Geneyang.com)

New Superman will be penned by Gene Luen Yang, an Asian-American cartoonist whose previous work centers around ethnic identity in the US. His comic book American Born Chinese merges the traditional Chinese tale of The Monkey King with the story of an Chinese boy growing up in the United States.
“Everybody in the world recognizes Superman,” Yang told NBC News. “The reason he transcends cultures is that he embodies these ideals that are international, that are cross-cultural. We wanted to tell a story that was about the Superman ideal but tell it in a different culture. Regardless of where you grow up, you know what he stands for.”


DC Comics (https://twitter.com/DCComics/status/713775333049110528/photo/1) Verified account
‏@DCComics
NEW SUPER-MAN is here with @geneluenyang writing! Check it out 7/13! #DCRebirth

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CefW4ekWwAI1unI.jpg

RETWEETS 485 LIKES 610
10:11 AM - 26 Mar 2016
Los Angeles, CA
Gene Luen Yang

As well-intentioned as the revamp may be, DC has already set itself up for ridicule. The Chinese Superman is named Kenji Kong—a name that sounds unmistakably Japanese, not Chinese. Yang said that Kong’s creators settled on the name because native English-speaking readers wouldn’t struggle with it.

“I wanted to find a name that works in Chinese and is immediately pronounceable to an American reader. With Kenji Kong, we stuck with the hard-K sound like Clark Kent,” Yang told NBC.
But the internet’s multi-cultural watchdogs can be very unforgiving and DC’s announcement of the character was met with some scrutiny on Twitter and Chinese social media.


美奈子 ‏@YuanSerenaP Mar 27
@DCComics @geneluenyang I love this. But why is a guy from Shanghai named Kenji? It's a Japanese name.
0 retweets 1 like
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Gene Luen Yang (https://twitter.com/geneluenyang/status/714892546023948289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) @geneluenyang
@YuanSerenaP @DCComics Thanks! We're excited about it. Kenji can be a Chinese name too: 孔恳记 (Simplified) 孔懇記 (Traditional)
RETWEET 1 LIKE 1
12:10 PM - 29 Mar 2016

“Does he understand China? He’s not afraid of criticism?” one commenter wrote (link in Chinese) on Sina Weibo, referring to Yang.
The new Chinese Superman is part of an ongoing trend in the comic book industry to make superheros more multi-cultural. A new version of the Incredible Hulk, for example, features a Korean-American as the titular hero.
It’s not clear if DC’s Chinese Superman is intended to appeal to actual people in China. Most comic books in China mimic Japanese manga, not the US’s cape wearing muscle men, but the genre is a smash at the Chinese box office. Seven of the top twenty highest-grossing foreign films in China have featured superheroes (link in Chinese).
These films illustrate how difficult it can be to create entertainment that appeals to two audiences with different languages and cultures can be difficult. Awkward segments tailor-made for Chinese audiences often fall flat. The version of Iron Man 3 distributed in China, for example, includes scenes where Tony Stark drinks a Chinese milk drink, and goes to China for surgery. The alterations were widely ridiculed in China.

In Mandarin, the name would be Kong Kenji. Still sounds Japanese, but that's the Chinese translation.

[GeneChing]

GENE LUEN YANG REVEALS "NEW SUPER-MAN'S" NAME (http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/gene-luen-yang-reveals-new-super-mans-name)
Posted: 2 hours ago

http://www.comicbookresources.com/imgsrv/imglib/300/0/1/New-Super-Man001-cover-colors-final-blog-571143666a5190-64005868-f15cf.jpg
"New Super-Man" by Viktor Bogdanovic

Move over, Clark Kent -- there's a new Superman in town!

This summer, "Superman" scribe Gene Luen Yang and artist Viktor Bogdanovic will join forces to bring "New Super-Man" to DC Comics. Writing for DC Entertainment, Yang discussed his involved process for developing "New Super-Man's" secret identity and the meaning behind the Chinese character's name.

In his essay, Yang described his initial discomfort with the project, explaining, "My mom’s family left Mainland China when she was just an infant. She spent most of her childhood in Hong Kong and Taiwan. My dad was born and raised in Taiwan. My family hasn’t lived in China for at least a generation. I've only visited China twice, so my understanding of Chinese culture is through echoes."

"I would be writing about Chinese life as an outsider, but some American readers would assume that I was an insider simply because of my last name," he continued. "It seemed like a situation fraught with peril."

Regardless, he decided to take his own advice: "to read and write outside of their comfort zones." In naming the character, he established a set of parameters in order to develop an appropriate identity:


One of my first tasks as the New Super-Man writer was to give our lead guy a secret identity, a Chinese civilian name.
I thought for a while and came up with these constraints:

1. The name would need to be a plausible Chinese name.

2. The name’s meaning should relate to the character’s journey in some way.

3. The English version of the Chinese name should be derived using Pinyin. There are different ways of Romanizing Chinese. A lot of what we see in American Chinatowns uses a system called Wade-Giles (or is “Wade-Giles-ish”). Pinyin is now the standard in Mainland China, so that’s what I want to use in the book.

4. The English version should have the initials K. K. I want to use this as a mnemonic device to help readers connect the new character to Clark Kent. I can’t use C. K. because there is no hard c in Pinyin. The Pinyin c is pronounced “ts,” like in “cats.”

5. The English version should be immediately pronounceable by American readers who haven’t studied Pinyin. This means I have to avoid certain letters like x (pronounced kind of like “sh” in Pinyin) and q (pronounced kind of like “ch”).

6. The Pinyin version cannot sound Japanese.

Constraint #6 was added later in Yang's process, as the name he initially came with bordered too closely to a popular Japanese name. "What would I think if I were a casual comics reader and I encountered an Asian super hero named Kenji Kong as a supporting character in a couple panels of a DC comic, without any context for the name?" he asked himself. "I'd probably assume some non-Asian writer had confused Asian cultures. I was only thinking about how I’d make this character and his name work in the particular story I was going to write... I had to change the name."

As such, he went back to the drawing board, which led him to the character's official secret identity:


孔克南 Kenan Kong
南 Nan means “south.” Appropriate for a kid from Shanghai, since folks from Beijing like to call folks from Shanghai “Southerners.”

克 Ke means “to overcome.” What could be more Super-Man than “to overcome”?

Kenan isn’t quite as easy to pronounce (in Chinese, it’s closer to “Ken Ann” than “Key Nan”), but it’s pronounceable enough. And it definitely satisfies constraint #6.

For more on Yang's "New Super-Man," check out his full blog post on DCComics.com.

"New Super-Man" #1 goes on sale July 13.

This might need its own indie thread here someday...

[GeneChing]

I poached the posts above off our Superman thread.


New Super-Man’ Is Introducing New Bat-Man New Wonder-Woman In August (http://comicsalliance.com/new-super-man-is-introducing-new-bat-man-new-wonder-woman-in-august/)
by Chris Sims May 13, 2016 5:00 PM

http://comicsalliance.com/files/2016/05/New02.jpg
New Super-Man #2, DC Comics

The upcoming New Super-Man title has been one of the most interesting pieces of DC’s Rebirth event ever since it was announced, and as we move closer to its debut this summer, it just keeps getting more intriguing. I mean, we already knew that we’d be following the adventures of Kenan Kong, a young man from Shanghai who gains the powers of Superman, but now, it seems that he’s not the only New character we’re going to be meeting.
As revealed today at CBR, the second issue of New Super-Man will find Kong face-to-face with two more hyphenated heroes with familiar names: New Bat-Man and New Wonder-Woman.
Here’s the solicitation info:
NEW SUPER-MAN #2
Written by GENE LUEN YANG • Art by VIKTOR BOGDANOVIC and RICHARD FRIEND • Cover by VIKTOR BOGDANOVIC • Variant cover by BERNARD CHANG
“Made in China” part two! The New Super-Man must face off against the Justice League of China? When Kenan Kong was imbued with the powers of Superman, he didn’t waste any time using them! Now it’s up to the New Bat-Man and New Wonder-Woman of his home country to bring our hero back down to earth—just in time to stop the attack of the deadly Sunbeam!
On sale AUGUST 10 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
This is, of course, not the first time that we’ve seen a few international alternate versions of DC’s major characters – there was, after all, a series just a few years ago that was entirely devoted to the Batmen of various countries — but getting an all-new trinity of Chinese heroes under the banner “Justice League of China” is certainly an intriguing development. As for whether this will have anything to do with the “Rise of the Batmen” story going on in Detective Comics at the same time, that remains to be seen, but considering that CBR ran the solicitations for those books together, it might be a pretty safe assumption to make.

[GeneChing]

I poached the posts above off our Superman thread (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?32112-Superman).


New Super-Man’ Is Introducing New Bat-Man New Wonder-Woman In August (http://comicsalliance.com/new-super-man-is-introducing-new-bat-man-new-wonder-woman-in-august/)
by Chris Sims May 13, 2016 5:00 PM

http://comicsalliance.com/files/2016/05/New02.jpg
New Super-Man #2, DC Comics

The upcoming New Super-Man title has been one of the most interesting pieces of DC’s Rebirth event ever since it was announced, and as we move closer to its debut this summer, it just keeps getting more intriguing. I mean, we already knew that we’d be following the adventures of Kenan Kong, a young man from Shanghai who gains the powers of Superman, but now, it seems that he’s not the only New character we’re going to be meeting.
As revealed today at CBR, the second issue of New Super-Man will find Kong face-to-face with two more hyphenated heroes with familiar names: New Bat-Man and New Wonder-Woman.
Here’s the solicitation info:
NEW SUPER-MAN #2
Written by GENE LUEN YANG • Art by VIKTOR BOGDANOVIC and RICHARD FRIEND • Cover by VIKTOR BOGDANOVIC • Variant cover by BERNARD CHANG
“Made in China” part two! The New Super-Man must face off against the Justice League of China? When Kenan Kong was imbued with the powers of Superman, he didn’t waste any time using them! Now it’s up to the New Bat-Man and New Wonder-Woman of his home country to bring our hero back down to earth—just in time to stop the attack of the deadly Sunbeam!
On sale AUGUST 10 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
This is, of course, not the first time that we’ve seen a few international alternate versions of DC’s major characters – there was, after all, a series just a few years ago that was entirely devoted to the Batmen of various countries — but getting an all-new trinity of Chinese heroes under the banner “Justice League of China” is certainly an intriguing development. As for whether this will have anything to do with the “Rise of the Batmen” story going on in Detective Comics at the same time, that remains to be seen, but considering that CBR ran the solicitations for those books together, it might be a pretty safe assumption to make.

[-N-]

And not just because of BVS (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1290). ;)


Kenji Kong — I created that name with my mom," Yang said. "I wanted to find a name that works in Chinese and is immediately pronounceable to an American reader.

WTF ?!!??

I don't even give him and his mom a B+ for that.

No wonder I couldn't stand his ABC comic book.

He probably doesn't even know B+ equals Chinese F.

And later his excuse is his mom grew up in Hong Kong, and his dad is from Taiwan?

I'm ABC and even when I was 7 years old, my dad had me listen to a music recording called "The Rape of Nanking".

[-N-]

Both my Chinese and my American name came from the Jing Mo motto.

9794

That's how to pick a name.

Thanks to my grandfather.

[mickey]

Kenan?

I am contacting the Wayans family and the ENTIRE Black Community! It is SO ON!!

Kenan name meaning: "The Enduring One" (Irish origin) or "The White Haired One"(Old German)

:D



mickey

[GeneChing]

I hope someone here reviews this here.


Diversity Drives The Story In The Latest Incarnation Of Superman (http://www.npr.org/2016/07/13/485723740/diversity-drives-the-story-in-the-latest-incarnation-of-superman)
July 13, 2016 4:55 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
NPR STAFF

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2016/07/12/nsm_cv1_ds_wide-7cf0dae9eb30907af983e131069fe3a8d4fb4f51-s800-c85.jpg
Kong Kenan, who's Chinese, takes up the mantle of Superman in New Super-Man #1, written by Gene Yang.
DC Entertainment

If you've stepped foot in a comic book store in the past few years, you'll have noticed a distinct shift. Superheroes, once almost entirely white men, have become more diverse.

There's been a biracial Spider-Man, a Muslim Ms. Marvel, and just last week, Marvel announced that the new Iron Man will be a teenage African-American girl.

Joining this lineup today is Kong Kenan, a Chinese boy who, as part of a reboot of the DC comics universe, is one of four characters taking up Superman's mantle.

"Kong Kenan inherits some of Clark Kent's powers," says Gene Yang. He's one of the writers on DC's New Super-Man. "These powers will change him; they'll change him both physically and morally."

Interview Highlights

On working different cultural references into the world of Superman

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2016/07/12/nsm_1-2_custom-6fd406a5b3c21d1a9cc77fb7dff02071fbbc4667-s400-c85.jpg
Yang describes Kenan Kong as "kind of a jerk," whose powers change him morally and physically.
DC Entertainment

Superheroes in general and Superman in particular is so American — you know, Superman's supposed to fight for truth, justice, and the American way, We wanted to take these values and stick them into a different cultural context. So we want to show how some of these things that define the original Superman might be particular to American culture and some things might be universal.

On why it's taken so long for superheroes to diversify

I think there's this tension that sits right in the middle of the superhero genre. It's a tension between nostalgia and the future. Superheroes from the beginning have been about the future — you know, Superman, the first superhero, is known as the Man of Tomorrow — but at the same time, so much of the appeal of superheroes is nostalgia. You know, I feel it. I grew up reading superhero comics, so I definitely feel an attachment to these characters I grew up with. And they're largely white, heterosexual males.

On whether those white superheroes resonated with him as a child

Yes, absolutely. I think about it now as an adult, and I wonder if one of the reasons I was drawn to superheroes is because of this double life that a lot of them lead, like Clark Kent is also Superman, and he actually is negotiating between two different cultures, he's negotiating between American culture and Kryptonian culture. And I think in a lot of ways that kind of mirrored the reality I was living in. So even though they didn't necessarily look like me, I felt there was something about that duality they were living that reflected my reality.

On getting backlash for making Superman Chinese

We've gotten a little bit online — but I definitely think we've gotten a lot more support than we have backlash. Some folks are a little bit cynical about the current push towards diversity. And I could see that if you were doing diversity for the sake of diversity. But if you're using diversity for the sake of story, I think that's a really valid, craft-driven reason. These are not after-school specials, you know what I mean? They're just authentic reflections of a three-dimensional character.

[mickey]

Greetings,

The name Kenan is close to how the Japanese and some other Asian nations pronounce Kuan Yin. I write that I may work because according to legend, Kuan Yin was originally masculine. Given that her energies have been on the increase in recent years, I do understand that the choice of name may have been something far beyond a conscious or an unconscious one.


mickey

[GeneChing]

JULY 13, 2016 5:53pm PT by George Johnston
Writer of Chinese Superman on Why His Hero Starts Off as a "Bully" and Eastern Influences of His New Comic (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/chinese-superman-new-super-man-910767)
Truth, justice and the Chinese way? Gene Yang opens up about his new hero.

http://cdn2.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/NFE_portrait/2016/07/new_superman_cover.jpg
'New Super-Man' No. 1 Courtesy of DC Comics

Truth, justice and the Chinese way? Gene Yang opens up about his new hero.
After cutting his teeth on titles like Avatar: The Last Air Bender and Superman, Gene Yang is breaking ground with his new comic. Yang’s latest project, New Super-Man, hits stands today and is an all-new, all-different take on the iconic hero.

After the death of Clark Kent, a brash young man from China named Kenan Kong inherits part of Superman's powers, becoming the new Man of Steel — and he's got a lot to learn.

Yang's Chinese Super-Man comes at a time of increased diversity in the comics world, with Tony Stark to be replaced by an African-American woman as Iron Man, and Miles Morales, the half-black, half-Latino Spider-Man who deputed in 2011, ranking as among Marvel's most popular new characters.

The writer of this New Super-Man spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about his hero and where he's flying off to after issue No. 1.

How did you pitch New Super-Man to DC Comic?

I did not pitch this idea, they pitched me. From my understanding it was [DC Co-Publisher] Jim Lee and [Chief Creative Officer] Geoff Johns. Each had some sort of a hand in the idea and they actually pitched it me in late December, early January. My first reaction was, no I did not want to do that, but I flew down to the Burbank offices, I had a couple meetings, one with Jim Lee and another one with Geoff Johns, and that’s kind of how I got on board.

How did artist Viktor Bodanovic come on board?

The editors who are on the book and I had discussions about what the visual tone would be and they are the ones who found Viktor. Viktor had been doing some work DC, mostly on the Bat-side of things. He’s such a good artist, he’s incredible story teller, very nuanced in the way he lays things out. I wanted the visual tone of the book to be bright, to be colorful and to be hopeful and I think he has really captured it all. I wanted there to be a balance between the dramatic and humorous as well and I think he’s done all of that.

When we’re first introduce to Kenan, he’s kind of a bully…

Yeah … he’s kind of a bully. There are a couple of thoughts behind that, the big one was this: If you read early comics from the '30s and '40s, Superman starts of as kind of a jerk. He’s really brash, he’s really condescending, especially to the people he saves. He kind of thinks he’s always right.

I think [Superman creators Joe] Siegel and [Jerry] Shuster almost set him up like a bully of bullies. He would make fun of people who couldn’t figure out his secret identity and there’s even this one scene where he took this slum lord and he left him on this dessert island to starve to death. As the decades went on, he became this moral standard we all think of today. So we wanted Kenan Kong's character arc to be a reference to that, but there is also an interesting overlap too. Are familiar with the Monkey King character?

Can you explain who he is?

He’s this Chinese legendary figure. His story was first written down in a Chinese novel called Journey To The West. He has a very similar character arc. He’s really brash, he starts off really arrogant, he thinks he’s better than everybody else, kind of selfish. Then the story’s all about learning humility, and learning to put others before himself.

There’s this story arc, and you can look at a lot of Western stories, the character always starts off as the opposite of Western cultural ideals. If you look at Luke and if you look at Frodo and even Harry Potter, they’re kind of riddled with self-doubt and the story is all about how they find their confidence and how they find their inner strength.

If you look at a lot of Eastern stories, like Journey To The West or I am reading this story Slam Dunk right now, which is this really popular manga. The main character starts off as the opposite of the hopeful ideal; so they’re super brash and full of themselves and the story is about the cultural ideal of humility and wisdom.

Would you say Manga was an influence on you work?

It has been. I think Eastern stories in general. I was not a big Manga guy when I was growing up, but when I was in my early 20s, I started developing a early appreciation of it. So it’s definitely an influence on me. My favorite artist is Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy. They call him the god of Manga in Japan, so that is definitely in my mind; the Eastern story structure expressed through Manga.

Will Clark Kent be a shadow that hangs over the series?

In true DC Universe fashion, really complicated things have happen to Clark Kent recently. He was killed, he develop a new super power called the solar flare and died. Some of his powers went into Lois Lane and some went into Kenan Kong and then this other Superman from a different reality came and kind of replace him.

His presence is definitely there. One of the questions we played with early on, why even do this story in the DC Universe? We just could create a Chinese superhero and have him in a standalone series. What’s the benefit of doing this in the DC Universe?

One of the benefits is there is this whole superhero mythology that already exists. So Superman in particular, he’s suppose to fight for truth, justice and the American way. How do those values translate into text in a modern Chinese culture. That is what I am interested in playing with. So I don’t really think of Clark Kent as a shadow. I think of him as a story element I can play with.

What can you tease out for upcoming storylines for readers?

We’re going to slowly reveal a group of Chinese supervillains who acutely pattern themselves after a group of well know American DC comics heroes.

New Super-Man No. 1 is on sale now.

There's discussion of the Kenan name above (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69516-Chinese-Superman-Kenan-Kong&p=1293732#post1293732), mickey. Makes me think of this guy:
https://media.giphy.com/media/5p2wQFyu8GsFO/giphy.gif

[mickey]

Greetings,

While there has been discussion about the Kenan name, there was no Kuan Yin association. I was not trying to suggest an effeminate cartoon character. Quite the contrary, i was viewing at the character as a very strong one.

And please, I do not look like that guy and I never had Jerri Curls. And I do not make faces like that. That facial expression requires extensive mirror practice and several bottles of Vodka mixed with Ting. To simply put it, it is fake.

mickey

[-N-]

When we’re first introduce to Kenan, he’s kind of a bully…

Yeah … he’s kind of a bully. There are a couple of thoughts behind that, the big one was this: If you read early comics from the '30s and '40s, Superman starts of as kind of a jerk. He’s really brash, he’s really condescending, especially to the people he saves. He kind of thinks he’s always right.

I think [Superman creators Joe] Siegel and [Jerry] Shuster almost set him up like a bully of bullies. He would make fun of people who couldn’t figure out his secret identity and there’s even this one scene where he took this slum lord and he left him on this dessert island to starve to death. As the decades went on, he became this moral standard we all think of today. So we wanted Kenan Kong's character arc to be a reference to that, but there is also an interesting overlap too. Are familiar with the Monkey King character?

Can you explain who he is?

He’s this Chinese legendary figure. His story was first written down in a Chinese novel called Journey To The West. He has a very similar character arc. He’s really brash, he starts off really arrogant, he thinks he’s better than everybody else, kind of selfish. Then the story’s all about learning humility, and learning to put others before himself.

There’s this story arc, and you can look at a lot of Western stories, the character always starts off as the opposite of Western cultural ideals. If you look at Luke and if you look at Frodo and even Harry Potter, they’re kind of riddled with self-doubt and the story is all about how they find their confidence and how they find their inner strength.

If you look at a lot of Eastern stories, like Journey To The West or I am reading this story Slam Dunk right now, which is this really popular manga. The main character starts off as the opposite of the hopeful ideal; so they’re super brash and full of themselves and the story is about the cultural ideal of humility and wisdom.


Monkey King is kind of a stretch. He was rebellious and a trickster, but he wasn't a bully or a jerk.

Bully/jerk is so far off from Chinese cultural values.

What's up with Yang trying to reinvent Chinese culture?

First, the Japanese name. And now this??

Go ahead and make your character a jerk, but don't rationalize it by making sh!t up. Others that don't know any better might get misled.

[mickey]

Monkey King is kind of a stretch. He was rebellious and a trickster, but he wasn't a bully or a jerk.

Bully/jerk is so far off from Chinese cultural values.

What's up with Yang trying to reinvent Chinese culture?

First, the Japanese name. And now this??

Go ahead and make your character a jerk, but don't rationalize it by making sh!t up. Others that don't know any better might get misled.

Greetings -N-,

Gene is now looking for a gif of a Chinese man sporting a Jerri Curl, making bogus facial expressions.

mickey

[GeneChing]

https://media.giphy.com/media/aS9ziSibKYH4Y/giphy.gif
https://media.giphy.com/media/z94iVkZBL7b68/giphy.gif

:p

I'm hoping someone near me (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/member.php?7641-Design-Sifu) picks this up and let's me borrow it. To be honest, I'm not that interested in Kenan. The Superman character never worked for me that well from the start. I'm more interested in WW (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?67096-Wonder-Woman). ;)


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DC’s Rebirth Adds New Justice League of China (http://screenrant.com/chinese-superman-justice-league-dc-rebirth/)
By Andrew Dyce 18 hours ago

[WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for “New Super-Man” #1]

–

As the poster boy for the publisher (and medium) as a whole, it only seems right that any company-wide initiatives or relaunches at DC Comics should revolve around the Superman himself. Although The Flash has had control over the last few universe-altering events, the heart of the DC Rebirth is quickly showing itself to be more about Superman than even the massive twist that spawned the initiative – or, more accurately, those characters who bear the coveted ‘Super’ in their hero monikers.

While the “Rebirth” era kicked off with the death of the New 52 Superman (which may not have been exactly as it seemed), it wasn’t long before the world’s need for a planetary guardian meant a new Superman was forced to emerge… and then another one. Finally, the pages of “New Super-Man” #1 by Gene Luen Yang and Viktor Bogdanovic have unveiled the titular hero as well, a Chinese teenager who finds himself in possession of the Man of Steel’s powers. And if you thought a young boy in China becoming his nation’s Super-Man was the whole story, you’ve only scratched the surface – an entire Justice League “made in China” is on the way.

KENAN KONG

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Yang had hinted that when Kenan Kong made his pre-powers debut, he wouldn’t be the kind of person you would expect to rise to such heroic heights – and the first issue didn’t disappoint. Make no mistake: Kenan Kong is a bully, introduced as he’s chasing down a schoolmate for his lunch. It’s not random, but motivated by something that will certainly become an important subplot as the comic goes on… but more on that later.

Just moments after one of his bullying sessions begins, a supervillain well known to the citizens of Shanghai arrives on the scene – Blue Condor – to terrorize the wealthy of the society before disappearing. It’s a villain readers will never have heard of, and that’s no coincidence: the implication is that America’s superheroes may be fighting global menaces, but when it comes to criminals with jetpacks terrorizing inhabitants of Chinese cities sporadically… well, it’s a problem that the people will likely have to tackle themselves. And tackle it, Kenan does.

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Sure, throwing a soda can at a supervillain’s head isn’t the heroic debut that most DC icons hope for, but it does the trick. Blue Condor flees the scene, Kenan gets the cash out of his former target’s pockets, and a news story focusing on this young Shanghai boy who stood up to a supervillain to protect a friend. The elation is short-lived, however, when Kenan’s father reminds his son that he is no hero – and anyone who knows about his bullying would see the truth of the scene – and that publicity and TV profiles aren’t going to bring about real change.

Despite his ****y attitude and denial over the reasons for his bullying, Kenan’s brash performance on the evening news brings him to the attention of a mysterious Dr. Omen, an employee of China’s ‘Ministry of Self-Reliance.’ And has she got an offer for Kenan: in short, taking that moment of heroism and building a full-fledged superhero out of it. Understandably, Kenan – like most teenagers growing up with stories of Superman and the Justice League – accepts.

Of course, the mysterious Ministry is the same shadowy government organization that Kenan’s father is attempting to expose with his writers’ group (with the public not actually believing it even exists). But whatever badness the Ministry and Dr. Omen are up to, the prospect of becoming a superhero is too much to resist, and Kenan undergoes the procedure. Thankfully, he survives, but in the process, is treated to a unique vision: a slightly-modified memory of his mother’s death. A passenger on board a China Southeast Airlines flight (a company run by the bullied boy’s father), Kenan’s mother got a front row view of the Man of Steel himself, appearing out of thin air to rescue the plane from a sudden disaster.

http://static.srcdn.com/slir/w1000-h500-q90-c1000:500/wp-content/uploads/DC-Rebirth-New-Superman-Kenan-Kong.jpg

But knowing that Kenan’s mother is nowhere to be found, and that the boy harbors a grudge towards the airline CEO’s son, it seems that Superman’s attempt at saving the day went terribly, terribly wrong. But before those answers can be given (with Kenan imagining himself in Superman’s suit on that day), the containment chamber erupts, and – in the words of Kenan himself – China’s New Super-Man is born, able to fly, project laser beams from his eyes, and who knows what else.

It’s possible that the same self-assured, arrogant teen attitude that has made Kenan Kong an unlikely candidate for a hero is also what kept an experimental procedure from killing him, but it’s immediately a problem for Dr. Omen and her team. Kenan isn’t the kind of person to take orders from an adult, and now that he’s able to fly and destroy buildings with a glance, he’s prepared to take his own Supersuit (with a black, yellow and red styling) out into the world.

But before he can, Dr. Omen calls on the Ministry of Self-Reliance’s other two superheroes-in-the-making, delivering one heck of a tease for the issue’s final panel:

THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF CHINA

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That’s right, just moments after China’s own Super-Man is born, he’s brought face to face with the country’s own take on Batman and Wonder Woman. It won’t be a one-shot appearance, either, since the issue teases the next chapter of the story as “The Justice League of China,” promising a bit more insight into the two heroes – Peng Deilan, and Wang Baixi (sharing the same initials as Diana Prince and Bruce Wayne). Yang teased prior to release that “New Super-Man” would examine what the traditional ‘Superman’ concepts of Truth, Justice, and the American Way would mean for the hero if born in a different country. And in just the first issue, it looks like a similar reflection will be made between versions of the Dark Knight and Amazonian Princess hailing from the East and West.

It was a strong enough first issue, complete with a number of narrative hooks and mysteries to likely keep newcomers reading, but with the appearance of this new Bat-Man and Wonder-Woman (with Bogdanovic adding hints of Frank Miller in the design) it’s almost guaranteed. The idea of nationally-sponsored or created Chinese superheroes has been explored plenty of times through DC’s history, but the Trinity itself based out of Shanghai? This we’ve got to see.

I think Sun Wukong was a bully and a jerk, especially given how this Year of the Monkey (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/info/horoscope/index.php) is going. :(

[GeneChing]

Gene Yang Said ‘No’ When DC Comics First Asked Him to Write a Chinese Superman (http://io9.gizmodo.com/gene-yang-said-no-when-dc-comics-first-asked-him-to-w-1784715800?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+io9%2Ffull+%28io9%29)
Evan Narcisse Today 3:00pm

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The award-winning cartoonist and writer had one answer when DC Comics brought up the idea of a Far Eastern version of Superman: “There’s no way I want to do that.”

In creations like American Born Chinese, Boxers & Saints, and Level Up, Gene Luen Yang’s written and drawn very insightful comics work about Chinese culture and Asian-American identity. (He’s also taught computer coding and has a new young-adult graphic novel called Secret Coders, which serves as an intro to coding for young readers.) Despite the tendency to explore identity in his craft, Yang wasn’t sure about doing the same in a character connected to the Man of Steel’s mythos. In the interview below, conducted at Comic-Con, Yang talks about how he came around to approaching the idea of a Chinese version of Superman and how writing helps figure out his own sense of self.

io9: I read New Super-Man #1 and loved it. It seemed like you were riffing on the knock-off idea, like those bootleg action figures that are supposed to be Superman. Was that intentional?

Gene Luen Yang: [laughs] Yeah, yeah. They’re, like, purple and they sell them in packs so it’ll be Ninja Turtles and Thor and Superman! But, yes, it is intentional. We’re going to be hitting that even harder. In two issues, we’re going to be doubling down on that.

You’ve been writing Superman for a while now, going back to the main book. Was the creation of Kenan Kong always a goal you were working on?

Yang: No. It wasn’t my idea to create a Chinese Superman. It was actually Jim Lee’s idea. When they first pitched it to me, I was like “No, I do not want to touch that. There’s no way I want to do that.” Because Superman is like Truth, Justice, and the American Way, right? And with modern China, with the nuances of modern Chinese politics and modern Chinese culture, it felt like there was a bunch of landmines.

So what made you decide to go ahead and tap-dance through the landmines?

Yang: I flew down to Burbank and had a meeting with Jim Lee and another meeting with Geoff Johns and the character started forming in my head. He started talking to me and I felt like, “I’ve got to do this.”

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Was Kenan a jerk from the beginning?

Yang: He was a jerk from the beginning. One of the inspirations was the jerk Clark Kent. If you read early Clark Kent, that dude was a jerk. He was full of himself; he liked telling people what they were doing wrong. Eventually he progresses to what we know today. We want this New Super-Man to go through that same character arc.

Looking back on the stuff you wrote with the actual Clark Kent, what were the high points for you? Anything that you were proud that you were able to do?

Yang: I was really happy that they let me bring him to Oakland!

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The wrestling stuff was great!

Yang: Oh, thank you! There’s actually a real underground wrestling ring in Oakland. And it’s so Oakland, y’know? It’s violent and brash and artistic. And putting him in a wrestling ring was my bid to try and bring back in the red underwear. I wanted to put him in a situation where I could bring back the red underwear and it would make sense but that didn’t happen.

I’m sure old-school fans will at least appreciate the intent there. Pulling back to your work as a whole, it seems like the core continuing theme is this clash between Chinese culture and the West. You explore what happens when they impact each other on a personal level and a societal level. Why do you keep on revisiting that in your work?

Yang: I think it’s such a core part of who I am. I think anybody who grows up in a minority community, you learn to code-switch. You learn to act one way with your family and you act another way [in other situations]. You learn to manage expectations from multiple angles. When you’re a kid, it’s just subconscious. You just kind of do it because that’s how you survive.

But there’s all these weird consequences of that. It impacts the way you see yourself; it impacts your self-confidence. It impacts what you think is possible in your life, y’know? I think becoming conscious of that was a huge part of me being able to find my place in the world. And I think I’m still trying to figure that out. A lot of waiting is self-therapy. I write about stuff to figure it out.

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I have a kid and being a parent makes me think about that kind of thing in a different way. She’s bi-racial, and we want her to know that she comes from different histories that are rich and have their own treasures, which you won’t necessarily learn living here in this modern society. I’m glad that your work is out here in that way.

Yang: Jeff Yang talks about how culture is like water in a bucket and when you try to pass it on to your kids, you always lose a little bit of that water. And there’s a mourning that happens when those spills happen.

You have to reconfigure things to preserve what you can.

Yang: Yeah, you just gotta try to do the best you can.

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Back to comics: you’re setting up a Justice League of China in New Super-Man. People are already asking if DC’s other Chinese super-team The Great Ten is going to show up. And has anybody in China reacted to New Super-Man yet?

Yang: To answer that last question first, I have had some reaction from people in mainland China. I mean, it’s Twitter so who knows? [laughs] But it seems like they’re in mainland China and it does seem like there’s a cautious optimism about this character. Which is how I feel, too. I feel cautiously optimistic. In terms of The Great Ten, they’re definitely going to have a presence in the book. They have to, right?

So has anyone here read this yet?

[GeneChing]

http://cbr.imgix.net/2016/09/new-super-man-header.jpg?auto=format&lossless=1&q=40&w=973&h=512&fit=crop
DC Comics’ New Super-Man is a Jerk, but Gene Yang is Trying to Fix That (http://www.cbr.com/dc-comics-new-super-man-is-a-jerk-but-gene-yang-is-trying-to-fix-that/)
SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for “New Super-Man” #3, available now.

Kenan Kong – the headlining superhero of DC Comics‘ “New Super-Man” – is completely self-absorbed, power hungry and basically a jerk. What’s not to love?

Well, lots, to be honest. But writer Gene Luen Yang tells CBR that Kenan’s super-heroic journey will be one of self-discovery and enlightenment, as well as an exploration of the old and the new – the yin and the yang – of Chinese culture. That may seem a bit superheavy for a mainstream superhero comic, but Yang, who won an Eisner Award in 2007 for his epic graphic novel “American Born Chinese,” is a modern master of delivering action and drama with an emphasis on personal growth and identity.

Yang also shared in-depth analysis of how Kenan’s humble beginnings as a superhero echo the path of Clark Kent as he was portrayed by Jerry Siegel Joe Shuster in the 1930s and 1940s and why the hyphen in his alter ego’s name, ‘New Super-Man,’ was so important to him, DC Entertainment President & Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns and DC Entertainment Co-Publisher Jim Lee.

With new fantastic foes, illustrated by Viktor Bogdanovic, appearing in every issue, Yang also discussed the role of the Grant Morrison’s Great Ten in “New Super-Man” as well as the Freedom Fighters of China, themselves analogs of Will Eisner’s classic DC Comics creations.

CBR: Is Kenan Kong really more important that Yao Ming?

[Laughs] In his own mind, he is. I would say that the broader world knows that he is not, but in his own mind, he definitely is.

Don’t tell my wife this, but my oldest son is named Clark because, in my mind, Clark Kent basically personifies all that is right with humanity. The same can’t be said for Kenan. Why did you make him, to use Bat-Man and Wonder-Woman of China’s words, a ‘dummy’ that thinks he’s more important than Yao Ming?

http://cbr.imgix.net/2016/09/new-super-man-humbled.jpg?auto=format&lossless=1&q=40&w=700&h=385&fit=crop

The book is about how a young man gets Superman’s powers and how that transforms him physically and also morally. The moral paragon that is Clark Kent is sort of the destination of Kenan Kong. What we are going to be seeing, as the book progresses, is that he eventually gets there.

I have two different inspirations for the selfishness of Kenan Kong. One of them is actually Clark Kent. If you read early, early issues of “Superman” from the late 1930s/early 1940s when he first comes on the scene, he’s kind of a jerk. He’s kind of a ****. [Laughs] He thinks of himself as better than other people. He really likes to beat people up and then sermonize at them. There is one issue where he takes a slumlord and leaves him on a desert island to starve to death. And that’s it. That’s the end. He never goes back for him. That’s what Kenan Kong is like at the beginning.

The second inspiration is a very, very influential Chinese novel called “Journey to the West,” which was written in the 1500s. The main character is the Monkey King. I don’t know if you have heard of him, but in China, he is a big deal. In the beginning of “Journey to the West,” he is also a jerk. He only thinks about himself. He thinks about power. He thinks about getting glory for himself and the whole book is about how he attains spiritual enlightenment, how he becomes a selfless person. As an Asian American, I like seeing resonance between Western and Eastern stories, and there is resonance when you look at the stories with Clark Kent from the 1940s and the Monkey King. That’s kind of what I wanted to reflect in “New Super-Man.”

What do you think a Chinese Superman means to people in China, and Asian Americans? Is “New Super-Man” even available in China?

I don’t know if the book is officially available in China but I have had some Twitter feedback from some people who I think are in China, but you never know with Twitter. [Laughs] It could be some German dude pretending he’s from China.

But honestly, pretty much all of the feedback that I have received has been pretty positive, from both Asian Americans and Chinese readers. I haven’t had a ton from Chinese readers, but from Asian Americans, a lot of them seem to really like the book.

I have a nerdy, grammatical punctuation question for you. Why is ‘Super-Man’ hyphenated in “New Super-Man”?

[Laughs] This is what I gather, because I actually didn’t come up with the hyphen — Geoff Johns liked it. Again, when Superman first came on the scene, the hyphen was there., and Batman had the hyphen, too, and then eventually, the hyphens disappeared. I do like the hyphens, and Geoff wanted to bring them back. Jim Lee wanted an Asian hero within the Superman family, and those two things came together.

I think the hyphen has a very interesting place with Chinese American history. There are actually two major ways of Romanizing Chinese names, and the one that used to be popular is called Wade–Giles. Whenever you took a Chinese word or a Chinese phrase and you brought it into English, you would just have hyphens all over the place. For a real long time, hyphens were just associated with Chinese words written in English.

Now, the more popular way to do it is called pinyin, and that got rid of the hyphen. It’s almost like they were ashamed of the hyphen. I think it’s kind of interesting to have hyphens in book about a Chinese superhero just because, like you said — this is super nerdy — but because of the strange and colorful history of hyphens within English Romanization. I think it’s kind of fun to have it in there.

So I guess Mingming is an example of pinyin. Man, this has turned into grammar lesson! [Laughs].

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Yes. That’s actually the name of someone that I knew when I was growing up, and I like it. But yes, in Wade–Giles, it would be capital M ‘Ming’ and then hyphen and then ‘ming.’ And in pinyin, it would be capital M ‘Ming’ and then lower case m ‘ming,’ all one word.

Mingming and her superior, Dr. Omen, work for the Ministry of Self Reliance. While it’s obviously a fictionalized agency, how grounded in reality is it?

The inspiration for the Ministry of Self Reliance is two things. The first is, we wanted a Chinese version of A.R.G.U.S., so it’s definitely rooted more in the DC Universe than it is in actual Chinese politics.

The second thing is that there was this movement in China known as the Self-Strengthening Movement in the late 1800s, when China was really losing a lot of power to Western influences, and this was their response to the West. This is how they responded to Western power, with this movement of self-reliance. In a lot of ways, the Ministry of Self Reliance is the China of the DCU’s response to DCU’s superpowers in the West.

In “New Super-Man” #3, Dr. Omen confronts August General in Iron and openly mocks the Great Ten, saying China has passed them by — they just haven’t realized it yet, and that’s why New Super-Man and the Justice League of China are needed. Why did you create the Justice League of China as opposed to reimagining the pre-existing Great Ten for DC Rebirth?

I really like the Great Ten, and I think they are really interesting characters – they’re fascinating characters, but there are some problematic elements to some of them. The nuances of the characters maybe outweigh the problematic elements. Maybe. But it was given before we started “New Super-Man” that China already had its own super team, namely the Great Ten.

I read the Great Ten bible that Grant Morrison had written, and a lot of it was rooted in bureaucracy. It’s a funny thing, but whenever the Great Ten needs to do something, they have to fill out all of the paperwork. It’s very much how old school Chinese communism worked, but China is changing at such a rapid pace. The way that the Chinese describe it is trying to feel your path along stone in a river. They’re just trying to feel one stone to the next. What they are right now is some kind of weird hybrid between old school Chinese communism and something much more modern.

Within the “New Super-Man” story, the Great Ten represent the old way of doing things – the more standard, Chinese communist government way of doing things. The Ministry of Self Reliance and the Justice League of China represent this hybrid model that I think China is in the midst of figuring out.

In keeping with the exploration of the old versus the new, we also have a really interesting relationship unfolding between Kenan and his father, who, as we have learned, is far more than a simple mechanic.

That’s really the central relationship of the first arc – Kenan and his dad. They really represent the yin and yang of a moral tension. Some people love humans more than humanity, and other people love humanity more than humans. Meaning some people are able to love the concrete people around them, but they could care less about wider society, and other people have and are devoted to a lot of ideals about society, but they have a hard time loving the people who are actually concrete around them.
continued next post

[GeneChing]

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I would say Kenan is the extreme of the first. He basically just loves the concrete person that he, himself, is. He’s, like, super selfish — at least at the beginning of the story. His father is the exact opposite. His father is completely devoted to ideals to the point that he can’t even spare any sort of emotional energy, even for his own son. American Superman – as he exists in the modern world – represents an ideal that’s in the middle. He cares about concrete people who are not himself. The journey is going to be about how Kenan finds balance between the yin and yang that he and his father represent.

Finally, the final page of “New Super-Man” #3 reveals the latest real threat to Kenan — the Freedom Fighters of China led by the awesome Flying Dragon General. I love their look, and I love their names.

They are obviously inspired by the Freedom Fighters of the DC Universe that were originally created by Will Eisner. Uncle Sam, Phantom Lady, Black Condor, Doll Man – all of them have a Chinese analog, and we’ll show all of them by the end of the story arc. What they represent is valuing ideals over actual, concrete human beings. It’s another part of that yin and yang equation. Kenan is super selfish and only cares about himself. These people care so much about other people that they actually value ideals over actual human beings.

“New Super-Man” #3 by Gene Luen Yang and Viktor Bogdanovic is available now.

Anyone here read any of these yet?

[GeneChing]

Review: New Super-Man #4 (http://comiconverse.com/review-new-super-man-4-14694)
October 15th, 2016 | by Kyle King

Review: New Super-Man #4 COMICS 0
Review of: New Super-Man #4
Price:Intricate
Reviewed by: Kyle King
Rating: 5
On October 15, 2016
Last modified:October 15, 2016
Summary:
Tightly plotted, beautifully rendered, and increasingly detailed, the fourth chapter featured multiple deceptions yet ultimately produced the truth.

http://comiconverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/New-Super-Man-4-featured-image-650x250.jpg
New Super-Man #4 pits the Justice League of China against the Chinese Freedom Fighters. Writer Gene Luen Yang and penciler Viktor Bogdanovic tie together plot threads running through the first three issues in Made in China — Part Four. T. Kyle King, who covers Kryptonians and those with Kryptonian-like powers for ComiConverse, brings you his review.

New Super-Man #4 Review:
Although Kenan Kong is still adjusting to his newfound role as the Super-Man of the Justice League of China, he is beginning to see the possible consequences of his impulsive actions… but has the brash, rash hero overlooked critical clues about a mystery that threatens to hit him where he lives?

New Super-Man #4 Synopsis:
As Blue Condor slowly suffocates Super-Man, Flying Dragon General orders Kenan’s teammates to put down their weapons. Wonder-Woman moves to comply, but it is a feint, and she and Bat-Man counterattack. The General forces the Condor to free Kenan, insisting that his threat to kill Super-Man was a bluff. The Justice League saves Shiqiang Zheng, Blue Condor and Ghost Woman are captured and taken to the Crab Shell, and Flying Dragon General escapes after a chastened Kenan makes no move to stop him.

Laney Lan shows up at the Oriental Pearl Tower, where Dr. Omen grants the interview through which she intends to stage-manage the Justice League’s introduction to China. At the Crab Shell, Ghost Woman frees the metahuman colleague she sneaked into the prison, Folding Paper Man, and they together make their escape. As they go, they release teammate Human Firecracker, who shows them the secret weapon of the Ministry of Self-Reliance. Kenan, concerned that his public revelation of his secret identity has put his father in jeopardy, returns home to find a nasty surprise awaiting him.

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Credit: DC Comics

New Super-Man #4 Analysis:

Bogdanovic’s imagery, embossed in this issue by Richard Friend’s inks and Hi-Fi’s colors, continues to exhibit the series’ distinctive stylistic signature in Made in China — Part Four. The artist’s multiple full-page splashes in New Super-Man #4 possess the defined lines and confident composition of Jim Lee’s influential work, but with varied and realistic body types instead of preposterous muscularity. At the same time, as the storyline has gotten more serious, Bogdanovic has scaled back some of the manga-influenced whimsical physical exaggerations, giving the lighter moments of the book a less cartoonish look and bringing to Kenan’s facial expressions a previously unseen emotional range that highlights the title character’s growing depth.

The drama also deepened in New Super-Man #4, and that heightened intensity was reflected in the graphics, which contain a number of figures wholly cloaked in shadow who appear as blackened outlines hovering near the gutters between panels and beside the edges of pages. Muted color schemes keep such morally ambiguous characters as Blue Condor, Ghost Woman, Folding Paper Man, and Dr. Omen in literal grey areas, but vibrant hues nevertheless burst forth from Super-Man’s and Flying Dragon General’s primary-colored costumes.

In addition to the bright lights given off by the fights, the action is underscored by Dave Sharpe’s lettering. Onomatopoetic sound effects abound, reverberating across the pages with palpable force and occasional wry wit — as when Super-Man delivers a punch and a kick emphasized by a “POW!” and a “STOMP!”, respectively, and (exquisitely) when Folding Paper Man emerges from hiding with a delightfully deadpan “UNFOLD!”


Such touches exhibit the subtle humor that permeates the interstices of the increasingly menacing developments of New Super-Man #4. The title character’s internal monologue cleverly stresses the overconfident bravado he has embraced in lieu of self-awareness. Kenan’s running banter with Bat-Man comically clarifies the differences that mirror those separating Clark Kent’s and Bruce Wayne’s caped alter egos. The two male heroes’ false macho posturing is punctured by Wonder-Woman when she barges out front where they fear to tread.

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Credit: DC Comics

These jokes, while amusing, are not merely silly diversions, though. Yang uses humor to illuminate character, poking fun at the heroes’ boisterous braggadocio prior to unveiling their more introspective selves. Deilan’s confrontational boldness conceals the compassionate friend who later reassures Kenan: “Whatever you need, okay? Just call.” The would-be Super-Man who boasts of his leadership even as he is unable to breathe shortly thereafter declines to delve into his motivation for failing to halt the General’s escape.

The Justice League teammates’ more complex inner lives reflect the many ways in which little truly is as it seems in Made in China — Part Four. The Freedom Fighters’ incarceration in the Crab Shell after being defeated, Dr. Omen’s ostensible openness to Laney’s interloping inquiries, and Kenan’s fear for what Flying Dragon General’s getaway might mean for his father’s safety all are as indicative of artifice as Wonder-Woman’s apparent surrender and are as much bluffs as the General’s threat to slay Super-Man. That pair of first-page deceptions sets the stage for clandestine stratagems — and one hidden metahuman — to unfold throughout New Super-Man #4.

As usual, Yang includes nuances that are easily missed by the inattentive. Folding Paper Man, when savagely attacking a prison guard, jests that he gives “the world’s nastiest paper cuts”; this alludes to the fact that, while origami (which literally means “folding paper”) is a Japanese cultural practice, Chinese papercrafts are distinguishable by their use of paper cutting. Ghost Woman likewise goads Bat-Man by deriding him as “a fifty-center” to emphasize the Freedom Fighters’ opposition to the covert government ministry for which the Justice League works. This small jab hearkens back to the political diatribe Flying Dragon General delivers to Super-Man, which muddies the philosophical waters by raising the questions about truth, justice, and democracy in modern China by which Yang understandably is intrigued. “Flying Dragon General” is even part of the name of a Chinese aviation company, which is itself a callback to a detail from the series’ inaugural issue.

New Super-Man #4 was a rich and rewarding read. As the plotlines converge, the complexities deepen; as the adventure intensifies, the ambiguities multiply; as Kenan Kong grows more comfortable with his powers, he becomes more confused about his responsibilities; as this comic comes to feel more familiar, its cultural milieu appears increasingly distinct. The disparate elements of Made in China — Part Four coexist in harmony, balanced and blended, confirming what the MacArthur Foundation recently certified: New Super-Man is a work of genius.

T. Kyle King is a Contributor to ComiConverse. Follow him on Twitter: @TKyleKing.

'a work of genius'? I should really check these out someday.