Secret Identities Superhero Contest Winner: Hush
By Guest Contributor Angry Asian Man, originally published at Angry Asian Man
I apologize that this took so long… At long last, here’s the final winner from our Secret Identities Superhero Contest, where readers were asked to submit their own original idea for an Asian American superhero. We would have posted this sooner, but understandably, superstar comic book artist Bernard Chang is a busy man. So without further ado, here is Hush by Juli Martin, as rendered above by Bernard Chang.
EDITORS’ NOTES
We apologize for the long delay, but we were set on having Bernard Chang, the superstar artist behind Greg Pak’s THE CITIZEN in SECRET IDENTITIES, bring this last winning hero to life–in part because he also happens to be the artist for DC’s WONDER WOMAN, making him the perfect guy to visualize this powerful female hero. Unfortunately, as you might guess, Bernard’s a busy guy!
As for why we picked Hush as a winner in our contest: We loved the uniqueness of Hush’s background–how many other lesbian, transracially adopted superheroines are there in comics? Not enough!–and the rich emotions at play in her characterization. We did end up editing aspects of her power and origin, however, both to make her code name make sense and to bring her power away from that of other characters.
We also liked the notion of turning a vulnerability into a power: In this edit, Jane goes from self-imposed isolation and emotional repression to becoming superhumanly empathic; we thought that it was really interesting that such an ability would turn her into a formidable opponent. Think about it: If you could instantly read a person’s emotions and responses, and react with exactly the right physical or verbal cue, you’d be both a killer hand-to-hand combat artist and a devastating manipulator, wouldn’t you?
All in all, a great character, like the other three we discovered through this contest. With any luck, this won’t be the last we’ve heard of any of them!
HERO DESCRIPTION
Abandoned as a newborn, Jane was adopted from Korea by a wealthy white couple at four months. After unexpectedly having two biological children, Jane’s adoptive parents feel they have no use for her, and when she comes out as bisexual at age 13, they kick her out. She is shuffled through the foster care system until aging out, at which point she moves to The Center, a cooperative home for homeless LGBTQ youth. Abandoned so many times, she now calls herself “Jane Doe.”
Jane is a queer femme woman, slim build, 20. Her black hair is cut choppy and asymmetrical, streaked with electric blue. Her style is edgy and futuristic, in black, gray and blue.
Corrupt governmental wheeling and dealing put The Center in the hands of multibillionaire Elliot Rush, whose biotech firm GenFX needs secret human testing. Believing the residents of The Center are “throwaway” people – people no one will miss – Rush uses them as human guinea pigs.
GenFX’s serum takes prexisting traits in the host and amplifies them to a superhuman level, operating under the theory that if a body has a predisposition towards a certain ability, enhancing that trait will give the individual intuitive control over it. Jane has a keen emotional awareness that allows her to read people, situations, feelings and intentions, so when exposed to the serum, her body reacts by amplifying her existing emotional intelligence. She becomes telepathic, and in addition to being able to read others’ minds, she can speak to them in their thoughts and share images or sounds. When experiencing strong emotions, these feelings “radiate,” positively or negatively affecting those around her.
Because it is not immediately known what powers are developing within each subject (and how), Jane’s telepathy allows her to learn more about Rush’s intentions than subjects were supposed to know. Using her abilities, Jane informs the others that Rush plans to destroy them once he has the data he needs. She and the others secretly develop their powers and plan an escape. Their plans are interrupted, however, when Rush, suspicious of Jane, separates her from the others.
While being held by Rush, Jane learns that he has called for armed reinforcements. She pleads with the others to get out and leave her behind, but they refuse. Instead, they risk everything to rescue her, and when the battle is over, Jane feels claimed and protected for the first time. From that moment on, her commitment to the others and ensuring their safety is solidified.
Rush manages to escape the fighting, but not without sustaining severe burns in the process, and slips into a coma. When he awakes, he has been disenfranchised by his company and insane from a virus in his skin grafts which ate away the logic and reason portions of his brain. Engraged, he begins to assemble a crew of bio-engineered villains to seek revenge and destroy all who inhibit his rise to power.
. . . . .
And there you go. Congratulations to Juli and the rest of the winners. And a big thanks to Bernard and the other Secret Identities artists who contributed such great work to this contest and made it happen.
By the way, I just heard some very cool news about the next Secret Identities book. Here’s the skinny on Volume 2, straight from co-editor Jeff Yang:
Sales on vol 1 have been excellent–in fact, our publisher, The New Press, said we were the one of the best-selling books they released last year, and we’re now headed for our third printing. Given that, they outreached to us and told us they definitely want to do volume 2. We’ve told them that if we were doing it, we’d want to do it bigger and better–more pages, more color–and to both continue some of the storylines/characters from the first book, as well as introduce new ones. As for the hook for the new book: As we’ve hinted at in the past, the natural extension of a book about Asian American superheroes is a book that looks at the dark side of the mask.
So volume two will contain stories that explore Asian American super-baddies, seeking to add authenticity and richness to the portrayal of villainy (though not necessarily sympathy). In the process, we hope to disrupt some of the tired stereotypes of evildoers that we’ve seen through the years–the one-dimensional gangsters and Fu Manchu clones with no motivation and no internal life. After all, superheroes are nothing without great supervillains. (Where would Batman be without the Joker? Spider-Man without The Green Goblin? Superman without Luthor, or X-Men without Magneto?)
Great to hear that the first book has done so well, with brisk sales and multiple printings. But even better, that they’re in the planning stages for another volume. The editors are currently working on the outline for the book, so they’re not yet ready to accept submissions. But I’m sure that will come soon enough. Optimistically, they’re aiming for a Spring 2011 release. To learn more about the anthology, visit the Secret Identities website here.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Jha wrote:
OMG! A Vol. 2 of Secret Identities? AWESOME!!
Posted 26 Oct 2009 at 10:22 am ¶
lizzie wrote:
so wait…is she lesbian? or bisexual? was the bisexual part “just a phase”? if so, not cool…
Posted 26 Oct 2009 at 10:29 am ¶
BSK wrote:
I have a bit of a gripe, though perhaps it is based more on my own naivete than anything here, but here goes:
Why, so often, are female super heroes given “mental” abilities and male super heroes given “physical” ones? I know there are exceptions, but generally, the super heroes I am familiar with break down along the “strong and stupid” or “smart and weak” divide. And, more often than not, females are on the “smart and weak” side. I would have liked to have seen this mold broken, especially if she was able to maintain her femininity but still been kickass. And, that is not to say she should have been a martial artists. She could have just been a strong, bruising girl while still femme. Just my 2-cents…
Posted 26 Oct 2009 at 2:15 pm ¶
kendra wrote:
@ lizzie:
I tend to see sexuality as a spectrum rather than a specific endpoint. Perhaps the hero’s sexuality was changed after submission or something was ommitted from the main story. Her being lesbian could simply reflect Chang’s preference, as the new Wonder Woman is herself a lesbian. Either way, I would not see her bisexuality as simply a phase–just part of the overall spectrum expressed within her life. Who is to say she does not express amorous feelings for both men and women at varying stages in her life? Also, we may wonder for what reasons she expresses a particular sexuality whether due to gender void, necessity, or aspects of “choice.”
Posted 26 Oct 2009 at 3:40 pm ¶
refresh_daemon wrote:
@BSK: Maybe it’s just the comics that I tended to be drawn towards when I was still reading them, but I can think of more heavy hitting bruiser female superheroes than psychics. She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel (and consequently, Rogue of the X-Men), Molly of the Runaways and the first notable female superhero lead, Wonder Woman, whose strength puts her alongside DC’s other heavy hitters.
I actually notice a lot more of the physically strong and brave vs. highly intelligent, physically weak and craven when looking at the heroes vs. villains aspect, although most of those characters were created in the past. Interestingly enough, if you look at the earliest ages of superheroish comics, you’ll see a whole lot of tough woman headlining comics, quite possibly because the medium was originally more widely read by girls than boys (think Archie comics).
That said, I’ve been out of regularly reading comics for almost a decade now so my perception might be one locked in the past and not in the present.
Posted 26 Oct 2009 at 3:53 pm ¶
BSK wrote:
RD-
Thanks for the info. Like I said, I am not a huge comic buff, so was basing that primarily on what I see nowadays in the “mainstream”. Most of the recent portrayals in movies were all played played by skinny women. Even the ones who were “fighters” had powers beyond their own body (Storm) or used a martial art (Uma Thurman’s character in ‘Kill Bill’). I can’t think of a recent mainstream portrayal of a female hero who is both muscular and sexy, strong and smart. They’re often cast or drawn with stereotypical female attributes.
From your description, it sounds as if this wasn’t always the case. Why can’t we see a female bruiser nowadays? Why, in this area at least, has comics gone backwards? Or was there some other insidious reason why this was possibly more prevalent back in the day but no longer is? I’d love to see a female Wolverine, both with the muscle, no-holds-barred approach, but also the toughness, independent-mindedness, and lack of “goody-two-shoes”-ness.
Posted 26 Oct 2009 at 4:39 pm ¶
juli wrote:
as the creator of this character, I guess I’d like to address a few things – first of all, let me just say that I’m a queer Korean adoptee myself, and the characters I developed came out of my own experiences and people I know.
@lizzie : In this particular origin story Hush came out as “bisexual” as a teenager but later identifies as queer. for some reason the folks at AAM/SI decided to call her a lesbian which is pretty much ridiculous! In later edits I’ve actually removed her “coming out” completely to avoid the binary implied in bisexual.
@BSK: Hush’s powers develop from the mechanisms she has used to survive as an adoptee/orphan – if she was any other gender it would be the same. Also, she is a part of group (which the origin story alludes to) of queer folk of many different genders, so drawing a line around “female” and “male” is pretty irrelevant. Finally, Hush is not “feminine” in the way it is understood in other comics!
Posted 26 Oct 2009 at 4:41 pm ¶
refresh_daemon wrote:
@BSK: It might just be that you’re not well exposed enough to comic books. There are still plenty of female bruisers who are active in comicbookland from a cursory glance through the internet.
As for the “female Wolverine”, it’s kind of amusing that you mentioned it, because there is actually a female Wolverine. A female clone of Wolverine, to be specific: X-23. Although, I wouldn’t say that Wolverine/X-23 are really bruisers, more like scrappy fighters.
I do think you have a point in that the characters that make it to mainstream movies don’t tend towards brutal physical violence (except for the anti-heroes Elektra and Catwoman, but we need not talk of those movies). But that says less about comics and more about movies.
Posted 26 Oct 2009 at 5:19 pm ¶
Snowdrop wrote:
@lizzie, just wanted to mention that of course lesbian/bisexual identities are not exclusive…my girlfriend identifies as bisexual, but more so as a lesbian (since she is bisexual but has been in lesbian relationships for the last few years) and the two are not mutually exclusive even though they may sound it. I also know bisexuals who identify primarily as straight.
It’s very frustrating when bisexuality is ignored or simplified, and I definitely also read the change of ‘bisexual’ to ‘lesbian’ in the second paragraph as an assumption, just wanted to mention it wasn’t an either/or thing necessarily. Thanks for clarification, juli, as well – wonder why they
changed it?
Good job with the character design, I’d love read this comic. It’s nice to see female characters subverting the superhero trope.
Posted 26 Oct 2009 at 5:51 pm ¶
BSK wrote:
RD and Juli-
Thanks for the info, especially X-23! I am clearly not well-versed in comic book land, a point I am willing to concede. How then do we get better representation of the variety of protagonists that exist in the comics into the mainstream? And, Juli, I think your point about how this new group can break the binary thinking of gender assignment is particularly salient, as we may begin to see a whole bevy of character traits mixing and matching in ways we haven’t before.
Also, my quibble was a minor one, as I think the story of Hush is really captivating for many of the reasons already articulated. I’m curious to see how the group develops. Where can we follow it’s progress? I don’t know anything about “Secret Identities”, so any info would be appreciated.
Posted 26 Oct 2009 at 8:30 pm ¶
Jeff Yang wrote:
Hi all,
As editor in chief of SECRET IDENTITIES, I’m the buck-stopper for editorial questions like these, so I thought I should chime in with an explanation.
If you read the post from AAM carefully (as reposted here), you’ll see that the description of HUSH as “lesbian” was in our Editors’ Notes to the character. The character is referred to in Juli’s description itself only as bisexual and queer.
In referring to her rhetorically as follows—”How many other lesbian, transracially adopted superheroines are there in comics? Not enough!”—we made the mistake of accidentally flattening her sexual identity. We should have referred to her as bisexual or queer, as Juli intended. The error was all ours.
Sorry, Juli!
Jeff
Posted 26 Oct 2009 at 9:45 pm ¶
lizzie wrote:
thanks guys! just had a little alarm bell, but that’s why i like communities like this one–someone is always there to explain that yes, these issues are being thought about in a serious way. yay for queer superhero/ines!
Posted 26 Oct 2009 at 10:15 pm ¶
ashlynn wrote:
This sounds great. Definitely glad that the error in Hush’s sexuality was caught- it’s all too common for bisexuals to identify themselves as such and have someone say, “but who do you date/prefer more?’ and if you say women, they go, “so you’re lesbian then. there’s no in-between,” which is full of fail. Anyways, I definitely want to check out the series. It’s nice to see variety in comic book storytelling these days.
Posted 26 Oct 2009 at 10:17 pm ¶
Collie wrote:
I too was going to ask for clarification of Jane’s sexual identity. Now that I read that, while she originally came out as bisexual, she now identifies as queer, I’m really excited about her as a character. It sounds similar to the way I came to understand my own identity,and I’ve never seen anything similar protrayed in anything I’ve read. I’ve never really read superhero comics, but if there are other works like Secret Identities out there, maybe I should start.
Posted 27 Oct 2009 at 12:16 pm ¶
NicolaB wrote:
This read like a joke – a parody on the Other, then I realised you were serious!!
She has Caucasian features – blue eyes, pronounced nose and lips and skin tone.
She’s called “Hush”?! So, perpetuating the “silent but deadly”, compliant and passive Asian (or Korean) stereotype. “Hush” is not an order or operative word.
So, she’s bisexual and adopted and kicked out of her adoptive home to go through the care system. Only thing she doesn’t have is a wheel chair.
Very surprised and disappointed this has been embraced by Racialicious and co.
Enjoying the discussion regardless.
Mod Note – Yes, and I stand behind that embrace. Her features didn’t necessarily indicate whiteness to my eyes. Go back in the archives when we talked about the controversy over the rendering of Faith from Mirror’s Edge to see how people can have very different perceptions of what “Asian” looks like illustrated and how the racist/western gaze factors into those representations.
Two, I like the fact that Hush has been in the care system. It’s sadly the perfect place for a child to slip through the cracks. Third, a queer identity isn’t uncommon. As for your other charges, I don’t think they can be discerned from the story outline posted.
As for parodying the other, I disagree. While Hollywood and other mainstream entities like to make use of double others to eliminate messy issues of characterization, that doesn’t appear to be the case here at all. However, the editor and the originator of the character are on the thread, so I suppose they can add additional clarification if they so wish. – LDP
Posted 27 Oct 2009 at 4:19 pm ¶
Harlowmonkey wrote:
Yay Juli, I am so excited to see your story included!!!
Posted 27 Oct 2009 at 5:57 pm ¶
julijeong wrote:
@NicolaB I don’t really know how to address your criticisms, because if this is what you think of Hush, then you clearly don’t understand her at all. But, I will try to clarify a few things in case others are confused.
For one thing, the name “Hush” is not a “command”, nor does it at all imply that she is submissive (or silent). In fact, the name came about because she is telepathic and therefore hears things that others cannot hear – she lives in a world where silence is nearly impossible. To address the “deadly” part, she does not use her powers in physical battle. Also, her abilities are derived from her life experiences, which is made clear in the story.
As far as her identity – Hush was created as part of a group of queer runaway and homeless youth/superheroes. All of them have multiple, intersecting marginalized identities and reflect the lives and identities of real people. Your insinuation that her life is just a laundry list of “Othering” seems a bit misplaced considering that I, her creator, am a queer disabled Korean adoptee similarly marginalized to Hush.
Finally, there is far more to Hush than could have been expressed in the 500 word blurb of the contest, this project is ever growing and ever expanding.
Posted 27 Oct 2009 at 8:25 pm ¶
Seattle Slim wrote:
BSK,
Might I add Misty Knight to that list. She had that bionic arm that had tons of power behind it. She’s a bad chick. She also seems to be pretty smart, but she, in my opinion, was the bruiser of the two (the other being Colleen Wing)
Posted 28 Oct 2009 at 2:17 pm ¶