Review: Boxers and Saints

Having recently read Gene Luen Yang's Dragon Hoops, I felt spurred to check out a pair of books of his which I had missed: Boxers and Saints, which were published in 2013. Although each graphic novel has a different protagonist, they have the same setting (during the Boxer Rebellion) and not only do characters appear in both books, but events are repeated from different perspectives.

Boxers concerns Little Bao, a young man who gradually becomes the leader of a rebellion which is determined to kill all foreigners in China as well as those Chinese who have converted to Christianity. Little Bao becomes more zealous and fanatical as time carries on.

In Saints we meet Vibiana, a neglected Chinese girl who converts to Christianity after seeing a vision of Joan of Arc, then finds herself in the path of Little Bao's army.

It's only now that I've read my fifth Gene Luen Yang title that I'm beginning to see recurring patterns in Yang's work -- like, he really, really likes dream sequences. They figure into everything I've read so far, including Boxers and Saints.

But I'm kind of mixed as to how I feel about Boxers and Saints. I love the idea of telling the same story from two different perspectives and the Boxer Rebellion is a pretty fertile setting and one which I was interested in learning more about. But I feel like these two books would have been stronger as one single graphic novel.

You see, the division between Little Bao and Vibiana is not equal. Boxers is exactly the length of Saints! And for that, while Vibiana appears only briefly as a character in Boxers, Little Bao gets a lot of new material in Saints. It feels like Yang is more strongly drawn to the mysticism of Little Bao and less comfortable writing Christianity (strange that, as in Dragon Hoops I learned he was working at a Catholic school). Or perhaps he was simply more comfortable writing about a male protagonist than he was a female one.

I do recommend the two books and definitely think if you're going to read one you really should read both.

"This is why people love basketball." Dragon Hoops review

When I was a boy, one summer I went to a summer camp which had a basketball net set up. I played around with the basketball, usually alone. A counselor who must have surmised that I had low self-esteem tried to encourage me in the sport and I got to think that I was okay at it -- but once I saw how much better my classmates at school were at basketball, I keep away from it. In retrospect, I should have asked my parents for a basketball and played it on my own time just for fun. I regret that I've never been very good at any competitive sports.

Which brings me to Gene Luen Yang's new graphic novel Dragon Hoops. I heard the book was nominated for some awards so I signed out a copy from my library knowing nothing about it other than the author and title. But then, Yang is an author I already enjoyed. Years earlier I bought his American Born Chinese based on good word-of-mouth. A few years later when I audited a university course on graphic novels, American Born Chinese was one of the textbooks and the professors brought to light a lot of elements from the novel which I hadn't noticed on my own. (Yang's The Shadow Hero was a fun read too; I reviewed it here)

Hoop Dragons is something of a memoir book with Yang as the lead character. He depicts his own unathleticism (which I empathize with) but, while searching for a topic for his next graphic novel, Yang becomes interested in the basketball team at the Catholic high school where he teaches. This 400+ page tome features Yang's investigation of the sport, taking the time to explain the history of basketball while Yang tries to better understand the members of the Dragons and follows them through the year until they enter the state championship game. At the same time, Yang recounts how DC Comics were courting him to write Superman, but he wasn't certain he should take the assignment after hearing DC's editors gleefully describe how 'Superman isn't Superman' anymore.

Even with my lack of athleticism, I've enjoyed plenty of films about sports -- the triumph of the underdog is always a strong subject, whether it's Rocky, Creed, Remember the Titans or Mean Machine. It's amazing how often these 'underdog stories' play out in real life. Perhaps it's a matter of perspective -- the Dragons' lineup includes the single strongest ranked high school player in the nation -- but the book frequently shows the team's failures. Even some of their victories are tarnished as spectators opine the Dragons lack teamwork. But Yang had no idea when he began the book that he would be following them to their eventual victory.

As someone who gave up a career in comics because I thought my permanent position in a school was a much more secure future, I couldn't believe Yang gave up his teaching job to toil in comics. I understand that he felt he had to follow his passions and go 'all in', but man, in comics you have to fight for every paycheque and there is an infinite number of wannabes who want your job. However much teaching pays in the USA, it still has to be better than becoming another disposable DC Comics writer.

Yang's questionable career goals aside, I highly recommend this book! It will probably be best enjoyed by teenagers but you don't have to like basketball in order to fall under the book's spell.

"Sometimes a fight you cannot win is still worth fighting." The Shadow Hero review

In recent years, comic book publishers came to the realization that many Golden Age super hero characters had lapsed into the public domain. Eagerly, they sought to rebuild those lapsed properties into new franchises, but the characters had become so forgotten over the decades that they might as well have been new characters - and the comics market, already overburdened with super hero material, has never been welcoming to new faces.

However, at least one fine book has come to us thanks to these developments: The Shadow Hero by writer Gene Luen Yang and artist Sonny Liew (with letterer Janice Chiang making it an all-Asian extravaganza!) through publisher First Second. It concerns a long-forgotten super hero called the Green Turtle, whose untold origin Yang & Liew proceed to tell.

Lore surrounding the Green Turtle asserts his creator Chu Hing intended him to be an Asian hero but his publisher wouldn't permit him to. According to this lore, Hing deliberately withheld the Green Turtle's origin and frequently concealed his face so that the creator would - if nowhere else - remain Asian in his mind.

The story Yang & Liew cook up doesn't completely mesh with Hing's work (they note themselves how they altered his cape), but it still goes to a lot of effort to line up with the 1940s stories (including an explanation for why an Asian man would have pink skin - seriously!). More importantly, the story they've chosen to tell is fun and clever on its own, an absolutely charming tale of super heroes quite unlike most of the marketplace (which is why it hasn't been marketed to super hero fans, I would assume).

The hero is Asian-American Hank Chu; after a super hero saves the life of Hank's mother, she becomes obsessed with the idea of turning her son into a super hero, with mostly comedic results (she even chauffeurs him on his first patrol like a parent whose child has a paper route). Super hero comics frequently work on father-son relationships, but this one has a fun take on a hero whose mother is the driving influence behind his donning a cape and cowl.

Hank even winds up with super powers in the end (albeit, not due to his mother); the spirit of the Tortoise comes to dwell within Hank's shadow and grants him immunity to all guns. Thus, while Hank is mortal in most respects, bullets have a way of missing him, no matter how close the gun is held. This ability is, likewise, a frequent source of comedy. He can also consult the Tortoise in his shadow which grants him someone to both monologue with and to play games of tic-tac-toe against.

The entire story is set around San Incendio (San Francisco?) in the late 1930s and it does a convincing job of making the environment seem authentic and lived-in. As the Green Turtle, Hank becomes a champion of Chinatown - although most of his enemies live in Chinatown too. Despite Hank's powers, it's ultimately his wits which serve him best, particularly when he meets a similarly-enhanced crime lord whose magic power is to win every fight - Hank actually beats the no-win scenario!

In all, the Shadow Hero is an atypical super hero romp, somewhat irreverent and quite funny. If you are interested in the original 1940s stories, the first one is included in the back of the book as a bonus feature. The Shadow Hero came out earlier this year and should still be available at superior bookstores, comic shops & online stores everywhere.