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Future Fight Firsts #1
Future Fight Firsts: White Fox #1
THE SUPER SPY FROM THE MARVEL FUTURE FIGHT MOBILE GAME STARS IN HER OWN ONE-SHOT! Ami Han is WHITE FOX: a spy, a superhero, and the last of the kumiho, a mystical race of shapeshifters. But who was she before she became White Fox? And what happened to the rest of the kumiho? Also featuring MARVEL’S FUTURE AVENGERS in an all-new story!
35 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 9, 2019
3 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Alyssa Wong
386 books417 followersAlyssa Wong studies fiction in Raleigh, NC, and really, really likes crows. She was a finalist for the 2016 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and her story, “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers,” won the 2015 Nebula Award for Best Short Story and the 2016 World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction. Her fiction has been shortlisted for the Pushcart Prize, the Bram Stoker Award, the Locus Award, and the Shirley Jackson Award. Her work has been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Nightmare Magazine, Black Static, and Tor.com, among others.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 30, 2021
¿Me he leído todo lo que hay casi de los orígenes de este personaje? Podéis estar segures.
October 19, 2019
This was broken into two stories. If it was just the first story which was an origin/back story for White Fox, this would have been 3.5-4 stars. It was actually pretty good. This was a pleasant surprise being as how I only bought this book because the cover was so gorgeous. The second story about the Future Avengers was super basic.
April 1, 2020
I wondered whether this would explain why she is called Ami Han and not Han Ami if she is South Korean, well, it did not. Nor did it explain, or even mention, some others of her powers that I had read she possessed.
But maybe that is too much to ask for an issue that is supposed to introduce new readers to the character, because the Agents of Atlas comics sure as hell don’t know what to do with her. And while this story is leagues above those comics, I still would hesitate to call it good. It was already obvious in the start that they would not only have Lao be wrong here (just like with the other 2 issues) but to say "no, kumihos are not monsters." Even though you must wonder where they get their bad reputation in Korean folklore.
Not that Ami has much in common with kumihos except appearance (well, to a minor degree as that thing looks like a nine-tailed wolf and not a nine-tailed fox). In fact, just like her super-hearing is a pretty standard trait of beast-themed superheroes, I cannot say that she stands apart from others. Her powers also include super-nose and strength (and shapeshifting). Pretty standard, and a bit disappointing when you know the powers of 9-tailed foxes. They couldn't at least give her hypnotic powers?
The powers don't even add anything to her personality, as they usually do with others. In fact, as cliché as the old “wrestling with your animalistic urges” thing is, especially when it contains aggression, at least they provide a source for conflict and character. But Ami does not have that, and her personality is not thrilling to me either.
So, what her introduction does here at first is basically the story of someone who must hide. And it does it in the typical 2-dimensional way of portraying anyone suspicious of her as bad. The girls who are used for that here, are quite perceptive, and despite this comic trying to portray them as biased, they are correct, Ami is presenting a fake image and naturally that makes someone suspicious.
And I wonder why they have a book called "Tales of the Imuldan: A history of Korean folklore" here. Sure, it is fake, that is to be expected and not what I find odd, but isn't "imuldan" just one type of folklore? Google says it means foreign substance and apparently it refers to folklore of the supernatural, so that title does not fit as not all Korean folklore is dealing with the supernatural. And I know that because I read Korean folk tales. And 3-legged dog is something I read about also. And it was also clear that that one would be portrayed as bad despite being considered something good in Korean folklore. Sure, such an inversion is not bad, but this comic here does not handle it well.
Which is clear when you see the bad guys for the first time. I mean, come on, not only do these four girls come across as cliched mean girls but the mentioned gang has one boss in red and the rest all in black suits. But gangs who look like that would be quite rich, most of their members would not dress like that because it stands out. So not only that but we have the old "Men said kumiho are evil" crap (possibly because kumiho in popular consciousness are mostly women), which was already not a good start.
And the leader of said gang is called “Kyungtae Kim”, which sounds just weird to me, but he is not the boss, that means the others around him aren't high in the pecking order either, which makes them look even more cliched. And seriously, would you send people dressed like this to beat someone up?
And the comic was as subtle as a sledgehammer when it had the 3-legged dog being mentioned and then showed a drawing and tattoo of it with the gang. You might as well have given Kim a collar and call him Fido, it was so obvious that he is the dog. He even has a partially artificial leg.
But back to Ami as the “she is discriminated” routine continues. Because of course her aunt and uncle do not like her and did not like her mother either (just saying "that woman"). And I was wondering, what about her father? Where is he in this? She only talks about her mother and he is never mentioned.
Not that I think that he could have saved this as the story is just boring. In it I saw her mother being killed but I was totally bored. At least Ami cares for her friend. You know, I am convinced that Wong can write better than this, she has done it before, she is either made or choses to write this way.
I feel a bit bad for the artist, though. The partial transformations look pretty good and the artist really knows how to draw and portray motion. These partial transformations make Ami stand out a bit more, because so far, she is just a run of the mill werewolf or other beast person in Marvel's zoo, nothing distinct about her. And didn't her wikia say that she could talk to animals? Nothing mentioned here of it, even though it would distinguish her more.
Maybe there is something dark that is due to her kumiho nature as the story says that it feels right to her to scare people and slash into them, even though she is supposed to be the hero. But maybe the story means that this is all justified.
Considering that she manages to beat Kim even though he had managed to kill her mother, who must have been way more experienced than Ami is and so why is she any trouble for him? Sure, they make her struggle, but she is a schoolgirl and he a bigger, stronger and more experienced killer. No way would she have a chance. So, this was a very forced story after all.
And always funny to see how people have no idea about anatomy. Ami just went full giant “fox” and apparently took out his eye with her front paw, but she is a fox and not a cat, fox legs are way too stiff for that maneuver.
It I also a bit forced to show how she came to work with the South Korean intelligence, but it is fitting to the Marvel Universe, in fact it is one of the few things here that make sense.
Also, Ami is quite disappointing and doesn't stand out at all. She is basically some run of the mill werewolf and nothing that makes the kumiho of folklore stand out is present here. They should have given her some charming abilities at least.
And maybe they could have done this and flesh her out more if they had used the entire space of the comic, but instead half of it is for the Future Avengers and I have no idea why. I still think they should not be in this issue, as Ami needs way more space to develop. And these avengers say it was tough with Hydra, but they had some good moments, but in the other two stories they had nothing but good moments. And here we have another good time at Hydra. And another pointless story with the Future Avengers.
That entry on White Fox after the end is not even half the size of those for Crescent and Luna Snow. That says a lot of how uncreative a character she is both design and background wise.
But maybe that is too much to ask for an issue that is supposed to introduce new readers to the character, because the Agents of Atlas comics sure as hell don’t know what to do with her. And while this story is leagues above those comics, I still would hesitate to call it good. It was already obvious in the start that they would not only have Lao be wrong here (just like with the other 2 issues) but to say "no, kumihos are not monsters." Even though you must wonder where they get their bad reputation in Korean folklore.
Not that Ami has much in common with kumihos except appearance (well, to a minor degree as that thing looks like a nine-tailed wolf and not a nine-tailed fox). In fact, just like her super-hearing is a pretty standard trait of beast-themed superheroes, I cannot say that she stands apart from others. Her powers also include super-nose and strength (and shapeshifting). Pretty standard, and a bit disappointing when you know the powers of 9-tailed foxes. They couldn't at least give her hypnotic powers?
The powers don't even add anything to her personality, as they usually do with others. In fact, as cliché as the old “wrestling with your animalistic urges” thing is, especially when it contains aggression, at least they provide a source for conflict and character. But Ami does not have that, and her personality is not thrilling to me either.
So, what her introduction does here at first is basically the story of someone who must hide. And it does it in the typical 2-dimensional way of portraying anyone suspicious of her as bad. The girls who are used for that here, are quite perceptive, and despite this comic trying to portray them as biased, they are correct, Ami is presenting a fake image and naturally that makes someone suspicious.
And I wonder why they have a book called "Tales of the Imuldan: A history of Korean folklore" here. Sure, it is fake, that is to be expected and not what I find odd, but isn't "imuldan" just one type of folklore? Google says it means foreign substance and apparently it refers to folklore of the supernatural, so that title does not fit as not all Korean folklore is dealing with the supernatural. And I know that because I read Korean folk tales. And 3-legged dog is something I read about also. And it was also clear that that one would be portrayed as bad despite being considered something good in Korean folklore. Sure, such an inversion is not bad, but this comic here does not handle it well.
Which is clear when you see the bad guys for the first time. I mean, come on, not only do these four girls come across as cliched mean girls but the mentioned gang has one boss in red and the rest all in black suits. But gangs who look like that would be quite rich, most of their members would not dress like that because it stands out. So not only that but we have the old "Men said kumiho are evil" crap (possibly because kumiho in popular consciousness are mostly women), which was already not a good start.
And the leader of said gang is called “Kyungtae Kim”, which sounds just weird to me, but he is not the boss, that means the others around him aren't high in the pecking order either, which makes them look even more cliched. And seriously, would you send people dressed like this to beat someone up?
And the comic was as subtle as a sledgehammer when it had the 3-legged dog being mentioned and then showed a drawing and tattoo of it with the gang. You might as well have given Kim a collar and call him Fido, it was so obvious that he is the dog. He even has a partially artificial leg.
But back to Ami as the “she is discriminated” routine continues. Because of course her aunt and uncle do not like her and did not like her mother either (just saying "that woman"). And I was wondering, what about her father? Where is he in this? She only talks about her mother and he is never mentioned.
Not that I think that he could have saved this as the story is just boring. In it I saw her mother being killed but I was totally bored. At least Ami cares for her friend. You know, I am convinced that Wong can write better than this, she has done it before, she is either made or choses to write this way.
I feel a bit bad for the artist, though. The partial transformations look pretty good and the artist really knows how to draw and portray motion. These partial transformations make Ami stand out a bit more, because so far, she is just a run of the mill werewolf or other beast person in Marvel's zoo, nothing distinct about her. And didn't her wikia say that she could talk to animals? Nothing mentioned here of it, even though it would distinguish her more.
Maybe there is something dark that is due to her kumiho nature as the story says that it feels right to her to scare people and slash into them, even though she is supposed to be the hero. But maybe the story means that this is all justified.
Considering that she manages to beat Kim even though he had managed to kill her mother, who must have been way more experienced than Ami is and so why is she any trouble for him? Sure, they make her struggle, but she is a schoolgirl and he a bigger, stronger and more experienced killer. No way would she have a chance. So, this was a very forced story after all.
And always funny to see how people have no idea about anatomy. Ami just went full giant “fox” and apparently took out his eye with her front paw, but she is a fox and not a cat, fox legs are way too stiff for that maneuver.
It I also a bit forced to show how she came to work with the South Korean intelligence, but it is fitting to the Marvel Universe, in fact it is one of the few things here that make sense.
Also, Ami is quite disappointing and doesn't stand out at all. She is basically some run of the mill werewolf and nothing that makes the kumiho of folklore stand out is present here. They should have given her some charming abilities at least.
And maybe they could have done this and flesh her out more if they had used the entire space of the comic, but instead half of it is for the Future Avengers and I have no idea why. I still think they should not be in this issue, as Ami needs way more space to develop. And these avengers say it was tough with Hydra, but they had some good moments, but in the other two stories they had nothing but good moments. And here we have another good time at Hydra. And another pointless story with the Future Avengers.
That entry on White Fox after the end is not even half the size of those for Crescent and Luna Snow. That says a lot of how uncreative a character she is both design and background wise.
January 29, 2022
This issue has two stories, one focusing on White Fox and one... not.
I really liked White Fox' origin story. It was cute, and fun to read, if a bit predictable. I liked her in Black Cat (2020-) Annual #1, so I was excited to learn more about her.
The second story was lame. It was the super basic "I don't wanna work with you" "we're better together" power of friendship kinda story. It felt pointless and I'd rather they gave us more on White Fox...
I really liked White Fox' origin story. It was cute, and fun to read, if a bit predictable. I liked her in Black Cat (2020-) Annual #1, so I was excited to learn more about her.
The second story was lame. It was the super basic "I don't wanna work with you" "we're better together" power of friendship kinda story. It felt pointless and I'd rather they gave us more on White Fox...
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January 22, 2021Primer numero leido de esta linea y último. Está claro que estos nuevos personajes no son para mi al menos en este tono y linea más juvenil/infantil.
December 16, 2023
I really enjoy White Fox as a character and it was cool to learn about some Korean folklore.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews