asian superheroes
Once upon a time, I was in a little high-school based community theater troupe called Youth for Asian Theater where I served four loyal years as actress, playwright, board member, publicity/outreach director, and a slew of other odd positions. During my last year of involvement, where I wasn’t physically in the area to be a part of the show (was in China), I signed on to write a play – and came up with a skit featuring neglected Asian Barbie dolls. Later on, I was asked last-minute to write another filler play that would possibly serve as a good lead-in to the halftime intermission. Having used up all my creative energy by then, I quickly half-assed a play featuring an Asian superhero whose singular power was to be able to turn into any fruit or vegetable he wished (thus aptly named “Fruit and Vegetable Man.”)
The play pretty much had nothing to do with being Asian, but I remember at the time being defensive of my theme, arguing that sheer visibility of a superhero who just happened to be Asian (no attacking chopsticks, no chow mein sprouting from wrists) was a good statement in itself. The play wasn’t great, and it’s not something I consider one of my finer achievements, but years later I still support the statement.
Four years later, I’ve become an avid watcher of Heroes, as much as the show sucks, where it features not one, but two Asian superheroes (both non-American, mind you, and a third one who will soon become a superhero as per the allusion in the premiere), my comic-loving boyfriend has made me watch virtually every episode of Justice League and I’ve become abnormally knowledgeable about DC Comics superhero lore, and I’ve become a huge fan (and occasional creator!) of webcomics and graphic novels, particularly from female artists who are sorely missing from the paper comic world.
Which provides sort of a convenient personal environment for me to have discovered a few months ago the existence of an upcoming graphic novel featuring all Asian American superheroes, entitled Secret Identities. Parry Shen (you may know him from a movie called Better Luck Tomorrow) is one of the managing editors and has been promoting the anthology on his blog, and AngryAsianMan has been doing likewise. From the little snippets of news and 
small preview I’ve seen, it looks promising. I’ll have to wait till 2009 to read the actual thing, but I’m excited about it.
BUT, I did notice while scrolling through the news and about pages of the website — where are all the ladies? Yes, it looks like there are some good Asian female protagonists in the anthology (one a mom, I think), but where are the female artists? The storywriters? The entire Secret Identities editorial board is composed of men — and I know there are only 5 of them, so it’s not a stark underrepresentation — but I want to hear from the womens. Supposedly, superheroes and comic books are “boy territory,” but aren’t there comic-loving ladies out there who have something to say? If I could draw better (or at all) I would do it. As much as I love Buffy and Xena (yes, they count as superheroes too), they were created by men. Although, to be fair, they were developed in part by women writers as well.
Anyway, I might be premature in my ranting because I don’t think a list of authors has even been published anywhere yet, so there might actually be the representation I’m looking for. Still, ladies in comics, keep it coming! (and maybe I will get off my ass and do the same.)
