Writer: Gene Luen Yang / Penciller & Colour Artist: Gurihiru / Letterer: Janice Chiang / Collects Superman Smashes The Klan #1-#3 / DC Comics
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10th June 2020 (Released: 20th May 2020)
The Pitch: The year is 1946, and the Lee family has moved from Metropolis' Chinatown to the center of the bustling city. While Dr. Lee is greeted warmly in his new position at the Metropolis Health Department, his two kids, Roberta and Tommy, are more excited about being closer to their famous hero, Superman!
I felt sad reading this. It's a Superman story and although my favourite comic-book character is Batman, a good Superman story will always bring a smile to my face. And believe me, this is a good – no, a great – Superman story. But I still felt sad reading it. Based on a Superman radio play from the '40s, …Smashes The Klan tells us about the Lee family, Chinese-Americans in post-war Metropolis. They've moved from Chinatown to the suburbs because Dr. Lee has taken a job in scientific research. His children, Roberta and Tommy (their names Americanized) and his wife are pleased about the move, but Roberta and her mother are reticent about 'fitting in'. Within a day or two, they find themselves threatened by 'The Clan of the Fiery Cross', a Klu-Klux Klan stand-in. The story made me sad because the prejudices in this comic are all too present today, 70 years after the story is set. It made me sad because for a tale set so far back in American history, it feels all too contemporary. And that's a shame.
YANG KNOWS HOW BEST TO USE SUPERMAN - THE ULTIMATE IMMIGRANT - TO CREATE A UNIVERSAL FEEL
Obviously, in saying that, I'm ignoring the book's origins. That radio play it was conceived from was itself created as a riposte to the horrors of The Klan in the '40s. Yang, being a talented writer and a Chinese-American himself knows how best to use Superman - the ultimate immigrant - to create a universal feel. I don't want to say too much about the plot and story beats here, because I went in cold to this and I want you to have the same experience. Suffice to say that Yang uses the Lee's experience to better tell Superman's story and vice-versa. He displays an amazing talent for echoes, mirrors and metaphor whilst maintaining a tone that makes the book suitable for younger readers and satisfying to older ones. That is to say, this comic is an education. Yang uses the back-matter to chart his own origins and place those against the cultural origins of hatred in America. No small feat, but he neatly encapsulates the contradictions of the American dream with the American reality, something that is vital to examine at this point in time.
GURIHIRU'S ART
MAKES YOU BELIEVE IN THE GOODNESS OF SUPERMAN
Gurihiru's art is beautifully clean. His faces are open, sparse but expressive and emotional, showing their manga roots and giving them an American spin. His colours are perfect, again clean and beautifully lit. He makes you believe in the goodness of Superman, the heart and soul of Roberta, the moral struggle that some of the characters face as they come to terms with their actions and the effects of those actions. The American dream and the American reality. Chiang's letters capture the children's voices perfectly, giving them distinct and separate sounds and personalities and illustrating the strife of being caught between worlds that some of the adults find themselves dealing with.
ESSENTIALLY HE IS IN THE CHILD'S POSITION, NOT KNOWING HIS POWER OR REACH
As I mentioned at the top and as with all great Superman stories, his experience is echoed throughout the experience of the other characters. A man who doesn't know his true name (just as the Lee's hide theirs), or even the true extent of what he is capable of. This is the Golden-Age Superman, who was more powerful than a locomotive but couldn't fly. Essentially he is in the child's position, not knowing his power or reach and this is paralleled in Roberta's journey. This is the true skill of the book and its creators, even its title character. Superman's real strength, his true superpower, is to make his story ours and our story his. This is a book that needs to be read – by you, your friends and your children. It's a story we need. With hatred being a taught state rather than a natural one, a choice rather than an unconscious action, we need fictions like this one to show us we can make other, better choices. In comic book terms, we need a light to show us the way. And as sad as I felt at the beginning of the story, I was full of hope by its end.
Buy DC comics here and support The Comic Crush. You can check out Gene Luen Yang’s website and Gurihiru’s work can be found here. You can buy Superman Smashes The Klan from Gosh Comics or order a copy online from Bookshop.org.