laheereads's review
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
sasaboba's review against another edition
5.0
My Lana Condor fancast as Cassandra Cain
4.5
The opening letter by Jeff Yang pretty much describes my relationship with comic book superheroes—if I looked closely enough, Bruce Wayne was Bruce Nguyen, Dick Grayson was Dick Wei Shen, and Selina Kyle was Selina Kai-Le. I had to imagine myself and my cultures in characters that could pass as us, but I knew in my heart they would never say or act explicitly like someone like me. So when DC announced that they would be releasing an Own Voices Asian issue of their superheroes, I was elated. It's a long time coming, but better late than never. There are so few Asian superheroes that I'm aware of, let alone from DC. I was even more excited because some of my favorite creatives were featured like Gene Luen Yang, Mariko Tamaki, and Greg Pak. Here are my ratings for each story:
- "Sounds" by Mariko Tamaki and Marcus To: 4.5/5
- "Dress Code" by Minh Le and Trung Le Nguyen: 5/5 (this one made me cry; tw racism)
- "Hawke & Kong" by Greg Pak and Sumit Kumar: 5/5
- "Special Delivery" by Aniz Adam Ansari and Sami Basri: 1.5/5 (DC needs to do away with the League of Assassins; it's such a racist and gross stereotype and I'm tired of seeing Asians get beat on in comic books/media)
- "Masks" by Ram V and Audrey Mok: 5/5
- "What's In The Box?" by Dustin Nguyen: 4/5
- "Family Dinner" by Alyssa Wong and Sean Chen: 4/5
- "Kawaii Kalamity" by Sarah Kuhn and Victoria Ying: 3/5
- "Festival of Heroes" by Amy Chu and Marcio Takara: 5/5 (tw racism, islamophobia, white terrorism)
- "Perceptible" by Pornsak Pichetshote and Alexandre Tefenkgi: 4/5
- "The Monkey Prince Hates Superheroes" by Gene Luen Yang and Bernard Chang: 5/5
One of my main gripes with this issue (besides "Special Delivery"), is that out of 5 of the mixed race Asian characters, ALL of them had a white parent
claire_elizabeth's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
pun_intended's review
5.0
A great collection of stories and characters highlighting many facets of Asian culture and heritage beautifully. Very well done!
littlecat's review
adventurous
fast-paced
4.0
I liked this! It also made me check out Green Lantern Legacy which I LOVED so extra kudos for this.
My fav was definitly "Dress Code" (Writer: Minh Le, Artist: Trung Le Nguyen).
My fav was definitly "Dress Code" (Writer: Minh Le, Artist: Trung Le Nguyen).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Racism
Minor: Alcohol
birdmanseven's review
4.0
I've been really enjoying these anthologies DC has been doing. This features 11 different stories with a stellar lineup or authors and artists. Here are some of the standouts.
Dress Code by Minh Le and Trung Le Nguyen revisits the Green Lantern character Tai Pham from Green Lantern: Legacy. I thoroughly enjoyed the original graphic novel, and while this isn't a full sequel, it was nice to check in again with that world.
Hawke & Kong by Grek Pak and Sumit Kumar was a team-up between the Connor Hawke Green Arrow and New Super-Man. It's an unusual pairing and has a fun, buddy-cop kind of vibe.
Finally, a new character was introduced in The Monkey Prince Hates Superheroes. The story is by Gene Luen Yang and drawn by Bernard Chang. This was a lot of fun. I really liked the team-up with Shazam. This ends with a teaser that the series will continue down the road and I'm looking forward to that.
Dress Code by Minh Le and Trung Le Nguyen revisits the Green Lantern character Tai Pham from Green Lantern: Legacy. I thoroughly enjoyed the original graphic novel, and while this isn't a full sequel, it was nice to check in again with that world.
Hawke & Kong by Grek Pak and Sumit Kumar was a team-up between the Connor Hawke Green Arrow and New Super-Man. It's an unusual pairing and has a fun, buddy-cop kind of vibe.
Finally, a new character was introduced in The Monkey Prince Hates Superheroes. The story is by Gene Luen Yang and drawn by Bernard Chang. This was a lot of fun. I really liked the team-up with Shazam. This ends with a teaser that the series will continue down the road and I'm looking forward to that.
carochacord's review
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
4.75
This was fun, the stories were nice. Except for “What’s in the box?”. I felt it was wasn’t really a story at all. The Monkey Prince story exceeded my expectations. Disclaimer: I’m not asian.
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