The Secret’s Out: Secret Identities Is Here And It’s Awesome!
In addition, the editors elevate Secret Identities beyond a simple graphic novel/anthology format with their inclusion of single-page one-shots that depict the editors discussing the impact of comics on Asian Americans, and vice versa. These one-shots punctuate the intervening stories with a sociopolitical context that help formulate the argument as to why a book like Secret Identities is a necessary and natural evolution in our community’s relationship with comics. Sidekicks by Keith Chow features a conversation between Gene Yang (American Born Chinese) and Michael Kang (filmmaker, The Motel) that examines, and ultimately dismantles, the stereotype of the Asian sidekick. Commenting on Bruce Lee’s role as Kato, The Green Hornet’s chauffeur and manservant, Yang says, “Like it or not, the legacy of Kato is ingrained in our pop culture zeitgeist.” Kang replies, “That’s why it’s important to do what Bruce did. Tell our own stories, on our own terms. The more of us there are out there telling our stories, the more multifaceted, complex Asian characters we’ll see.” Yang then remarks, “One thing’s for sure, if Bruce had never gotten fed up with roles like Kato, he might not have gone back to Hong Kong. And the world would have been without the true legacy of Bruce Lee.” This simple exchange provides a useful commentary for the subsequent tale of The Blue Scorpion & Chung (mentioned above), who are clearly references to The Green Hornet and Kato.
To their credit, the editors of Secret Identities paid careful attention to match their writers with talented artists who are capable of augmenting the stories’ plots and tones with their craft. Sampler by Jimmy Aquino is perfectly illustrated by Erwin Haya in stylized shades of greys that match the playful light-heartedness of Aquino’s script. Meanwhile, Jonathan Tsuei’s 9066 is rendered by Jerry Ma in a darker, somewhat more realistic style and heavy inking (all culminating in a beautiful final page) that hits an appropriately somber and cynical note. Secret Identities includes eight full-colour profile pages, each worthy of reprint as a poster pin-up.
If there’s any criticism that can be made of Secret Identities, it would be some minor problems resulting from the unwieldiness of the anthology genre. The necessary brevity of each story produced an occasional sense of disjointedness from story to story. Though many of the stories introduced the reader to interesting and compelling new Asian/Asian American superheroes, the limits on story length also resulted in an overrepresentation of cursory origin-type stories, and I was left with a hope that future editions of Secret Identities (if additional volumes are to be published) will leave more room for longer stories that are able to delve into somewhat more intricate plots or character development. And, as with all anthologies, there are some writers and artists who are slightly more polished than others. But these are all small issues that don’t come close to diminishing a stunning and politically important final product.
Secret Identities is a unique anthology that I believe will prove to be an essential part of any collection of Asian American literature or pop culture works. Not only do we finally have a work that celebrates Asian American superheroes, but we have an incredible example of the heights we can achieve when we produce those works, ourselves. I’m not sure there’s a more compelling argument in favour of supporting our independent Asian American writers, artists and filmmakers. Secret Identities hits shelves today – and, it’s well worth a purchase! In fact, now that I’m finished reading, I can safely say this: I’m already waiting for volume two.
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