DC Comics reviews 5/11/21 – Superman #31, Rorschach #8

With the craziness going on with disgusting rising Anti-Asian sentiment it’s nice to see DC use its platform to honor this still too small contingent of its universe.

The wild part is DC actually has some relatively high profile Asian characters headlined by Damian Wayne, Batgirl, Ryan Choi Atom and Katana.

There’s actually so many that not all of them make the cut in this 100-page issue. That’s a strong sign for DC’s efforts to be more inclusive. The next step is bringing more up to top tier Justice League member status.

Just as impressive for this special is the fact that the creative teams are all/predominantly of Asian and Asian-American descent. Some of the talent includes Gene Luen Yang, Mariko Tamaki, Minh Lê, Ram V, Greg Pak, Dustin Nguyen, Amy Chu, Bernard Chang, Marcio Takara, Trung Le Nguyen, Francis Manapul, Marcus To, Sean Chen and Sumit Kumar.

This special also marks the debut of the Monkey Prince, a character that’s just starting his superhero journey in another city with a big powerhouse flying through and protecting it.

My main knock is some of the stories in this anthology are so short they’re over just before they really get going.

I appreciated that DC has plans for these characters beyond this special teasing future appearances in other titles. In fairness, there’s enough quality and power diverse characters here that are lately directionless that a team book might be the best option. I’d happily sign up to read that book every month BTW.