"Representing"

You may not know this but it's Asian Pacific Heritage Month. So as an Asian-American, I'm going to point out some of the horrible Asian characters and stereotypes within comic books even today.

One of the biggest problems is the tendency for Chinese superheroes and villains to have very colorful and descriptive names almost like stereotypical Native American names. I don't know if something is lost in translation or an over-exposure to badly-translated kung fu movies.

For example, in Batman and The Outsiders #6, the introduced a trio of Chinese metahuman operatives.



Angry Wizard - I'm just confused and baffled and speechless about this one. Though I can't wait for the next issue to find out if he's actually a practicing magician, and also to see if he's really angry or just slightly miffed.

Barefoot Tiger - I'm guessing it's because tigers normally wear shoes.

Dragonfire - simple enough name except do Chinese dragons even breathe fire??!!? I've done a little research and I can't find anything.

It's written by Chuck Dixon who I don't think is a bad writer, but then again I don't he's a great writer either. He seems to have an Asian fetish, having written Way of the Rat for CrossGen and the DC Comics mini-series Connor Hawke which is set in mainly Shanghai and features...wait for it...a fire-breathing dragon.

BTW, I actually really like the costumes. They're simple and uniform but modern and patriotic looking, all qualities valued by the Chinese Government, and not archaic like those worn by majority of the Great Ten [DC Comics other group of Chinese metahuman operatives]. My only problem is the use of Roman numerals instead of Chinese characters. The Chinese do use Roman numerals but in conjuction to Chinese characters, not in place of them. Otherwise, nice costumes.

-Chris