Edited by Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow and Jerry Ma,
Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology
The New Press, 2009.

Ages 12+

Secret Identities is an anthology of comic strips by various Asian American artists.  Edited by a team – Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow and Jerry Ma –  this book is chock-a-block with a variety of stories and styles of drawing presented in strip form.  There are superhero-type drawings like those found in Marvel or DC comics, as well as more anime-style graphics commonly seen in manga.  The diversity is dazzling, with every angle of Asian American identity explored in the stories.  Themes relevant to Asian Americans, like the Vietnam War, the Pacific War and its effect on Japanese Americans, or the adoption of Chinese girl babies are turned into tales with fascinating but familiar super hero subtexts of revenge and justice.  Women artists also have a hand at exploring the female Asian American psyche in such strips as Ultra Girl by Kripa Joshi and You are Supergrrrls by Hellen Jo.

The book is divided into six sections: War and Remembrance, When Worlds Collide, Girl Power, Many Masks, Ordinary Heroes, and From Headline to Hero.  Within these sections are between two and nine strips, varying in length from one page to several;  some of them are strictly graphic with no dialogue.  In the middle of the book, in the Many Masks section, there is a Character Gallery with beautifully illustrated profiles of characters created by different artists.  For example, the piece entitled Agent Orange by Dustin Tri Nguyen features a misshapen Frankenstein-like creature born of a Vietnamese American mercenary trapped in an explosion of armaments and defoliants.  Jia by Kelly Hu and Mark Allen (art by Cliff Chiang) features an eponymous ancient Chinese empress who is made immortal by drinking a magical elixir.  She goes into hiding for several hundred years during which time she studies human abilities like “language, sciences, and all forms of combat.”  Jia then emerges in the 21st century as a kind of goddess warrior, full of cunning and wisdom!

I cannot think of a more engaging way for a young adult, especially an Asian American, to explore his/her racial identity than through this book, which, incidentally, my pre-teen son enjoyed very much.  Kidsdo love comics and I fervently concur with the editors who state in their acknowledgements that “ultimately this [book] is for them.”

Sally Ito
December 2009