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Marvel's Voices
Marvel Voices: Identity #1
CELEBRATING THE GREATEST ASIAN SUPER HEROES AND CREATORS FROM ACROSS THE MARVEL UNIVERSE! Some of the best Asian super heroes in comics are getting the spotlight in this special action-packed and heartfelt issue! Shang-Chi! Ms. Marvel! Jubilee! Silk! Jimmy Woo! Come celebrate these amazing and legendary heroes from new and established Asian creators that will surely expand “the world outside your window!” Plus: Be prepared for some big and special surprises that can only be told in the Mighty Marvel Manner!
49 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 25, 2021
3 people are currently reading
81 people want to read
About the author
Gene Luen Yang
368 books3,422 followersGene Luen Yang writes, and sometimes draws, comic books and graphic novels. As the Library of Congress’ fifth National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, he advocates for the importance of reading, especially reading diversely. American Born Chinese, his first graphic novel from First Second Books, was a National Book Award finalist, as well as the winner of the Printz Award and an Eisner Award. His two-volume graphic novel Boxers & Saints won the L.A. Times Book Prize and was a National Book Award Finalist. His other works include Secret Coders (with Mike Holmes), The Shadow Hero (with Sonny Liew), Superman from DC Comics (with various artists), and the Avatar: The Last Airbender series from Dark Horse Comics (with Gurihiru). In 2016, he was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. His most recent books are Dragon Hoops from First Second Books and Superman Smashes the Klan from DC Comics.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
August 31, 2021
Huge step up from their lackluster "Pride" issue! The stories were fleshed out and varied in tone (sadness, goofiness, etc) and I thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of them. There was so much heart to this issue and I couldn't put it down. Food is one of our, for lack of better phrasing, love languages. In my cultures, instead of "I love you," we would ask, "Did you eat yet? Are you hungry?" It was great seeing how big a role food played in some of the stories. Plus, I was super happy that I was able to snag the Rian Gonzales variant cover that I wanted!
So why 4 stars? I had an issue with everything else. There were only 8 stories and more than half of them were by East Asian people about East Asian characters 🥴 The tiny text interview of Larry Hama had little focus on being Asian American in a budding industry (and today) and way too much focus on what made working at Marvel great 🥴 Only 3 of the 8 comics advertised in the back of the issue were Own Voices Asian-created Marvel comics 🥴 Not to mention, most of the white people writing and overseeing the projects have been anti-Asian as fuck. To name a couple of the most recent offenders: CB Cebulski literally yellowfaced and pretended to be Japanese for a huge part of his career and Rainbow Rowell and everything about her shitty book.
Overall, Marvel Voices: Identity #1 is a great start to an issue that needs to be rectified in the entertainment industry. I appreciate that more characters like Shang-Chi and The Eternals are getting the attention they deserve. However, it's disingenuous to have an artistic endeavor centered around AAPI characters and creatives only to be sidelined by advertisements for larger, more well-funded projects by white people. That's just being a clown. The MCU also still refuses to have a fully-Asian project which makes me really sad; I'd like to see a project one of these days without a white person on the writing/production team. Marvel is slowly getting there with their comics but they can do better. That's all I want.
August 26, 2021
Long live Asian creators and super heroes! I'm glad and excited to see more Filipino representation in Marvel Comics. Stan Wave and Bishop ❤️
March 26, 2022
This is a typical marvel identity collection, and that is not a good thing. The introduction already could have been shortened into "I'm Asian, I get discriminated, this is finally a chance to belong despite all the people belonging before me." Could ghave been worse though. And I mean that, I have seen Marvel do much worse in such collections.
The first story was about Shang-Chi and I guess about what his life might have been, had he stayed with his father. And here, for some reason, Shang has to collect all the mystical items his father created and one is this Ruguo coin and apparently Ruguo just means "if" or "when", aka it is the "WHAT IF" in the story title... so... did Yang chose a coin because of the coin flip thing? If yes, was that something practiced in the Qing empire? Speaking of his old man and the Qing, that is definitely not the clothes that Fu Manchu or Zheng Zu wore back in the days, they have clearly retconned it. Ironically, I still don't get why now Zheng Zu is dressed somewhat like a Qing official or prince, but Fu Manchu was not. But the bigger question is: What was the point of this Shang-Chi story? The "what if" double of him that stayed with his father was easily beaten and not even some sort of fear for him. The real Shang-Chi is simply stronger for having left his father and learn from allies and siblings, but so what? The fight seems to have no impact or purpose except maybe in some way to say this new Shang-Chi is better than the 1970s version.
The Jubilee story states that she has no idea whether she made the grave sweeping thing right because her parents died before they could show her.... so what? She has internet access, she is neither the only chinese nor only chinese mutant around. Why should this be a problem? Just ask. This seems like some badly disguised allegory or something. And her parents are from Hong Kong?! Apparently that significant detail was missed by so many commentators. Or ignored more likely, considered how many pan-Asianists etc. there seems to be among them. That forced tomb sweeping comment notwithstanding, this was an ok story about Jubilee and her family.
That Jimmy Woo story was pointless. Why was there an alien whom he gave the reactor from his former employees back? What is with the other woman? Why was this here? And why do the three white guards have such oddly light hair, that is pretty unusual.
In case of the Kamala Khan story, I briefly hoped this story would be about this Red Dagger guy, you know a new hero for me, but alas no. And apparently this Red Dagger assumed that she can read Urdu and she says yes, and quietly that she can do it better than her baby nephew. Yeah "identity" is fitting for this comic, you get the entire smorgasboard of tropes here, even Shang-Chi, except with him it was the old mystic monks and temple trope. Which made it stand out a bit. Here Kamala hesitates to go into the water because her "Ammi" told her its bad to go into the waves. She can grow giant size, so who cares? Writers should give heroines fears that make sense. And with all the talk about Urdu and Karachi kebabs, I have the suspicion that this is a self-insert. And that assertion became even stronger when Red Dagger wants her to be in Karachi more often than Jersey, she says she feels alien here and misses Jersey when she is in Karachi. He then accuses her of being a self-hating Pakistani. And while she says he is a jerk, the rest of the story says how her ammi says that people can tell she isn't from there and Kamala says how that can be if she is from Pakistan. Except that she isn't from Pakistan, she is from Jersey, which the comic doesn´t tell you.
From that, we go to what is probably the most pointless story here: The Wave story. In it we get told that Wave (Pearl) admires Bishop. Don't get me wrong he, at least was, cool, but when did they ever meet? Did I miss something? And then we get to hear that she is a legend in his timeline and his parents told him stories about her, how he wanted to meet her and how she is one of his heroes (he never mentioned her before). I wondered who wrote this crap and then I saw and it made sense: it is Alyssa Wong. To be honest, I had expected Greg Pak, that sounds like the crap that he would write.
Afterwards we got an interview with Larry Hama and his story of starting at Marvel sounds almost like the complete opposite to the diversity hires that Marvel has today or the identity stories in this comic, were so far 2 were clearly identity crisis self-inserts, 1 was pointless, one maybe a "my version is better" statement and one just shameless promotion for a character via praise from an established character.
Then we get a dating story of a character I have never seen before and I think it is telling that the blue eyed, yellow haired white guy asks the "where are you from from" question. Which is pretty weird already but the situation is even odder as her dates are: white, asian and black, one for each race. And apparently this Silhouette is of Camabodian and Black American descent (according to fandom.com) and the only one she has sex with is the Asian guy... hm... not sure what this counts as. And then we get a statement like this: "like the diaspora of being biracial, my conflict isn't with what I was born with, it has has more to do with the absence of another identity that I could wear in broad daylight"... what on earth is that supposed to mean? And so far, when these here bring up identity stuff it is something negative. Do these authors even think of anything positive? She meets the black guy again and considers him a sweet single father and she gets more confident somehow. Well at least this is positive. But so far, these stories wee just short and mostly pointless. This really could have done with twice the number of pages that it was given. But at least they didn't go full racist propaganda so far, unlike DC.
The only truly positive story was a short cartoonish story of Armor and Silver Samurai, where Armor makes pink sushi (by using ketchup and mayonnaise), which is actually good. It is up-beat, funny and with its "TRADITIONS GET RENEWED" theme, way too optimistic for this collection. And I wonder whether it has to do with the fact that this author is from Spain while the other authors are all from the US apparently.
Sadly, that positivity was not to last as we were back to the same old whining again. In the last story, from watching the statue of liberty, the author goes straight to having Silk say that the concept of Han means to her a collective grief and resentment Koreans carry because of oppression. And while wikipedia states that it originated during the Japanese colonial period, I doubt that this author connects it to that. Either way, what a buzz kill. And instead of focusing on the battle with the villain, the author has Brawn and Silk state that since they are Asian American they know how it feels to be invisible. You know, considered how incredibly vague that term is now, that is ridiculous. They are way to many "Asian Americans" in high positions and cultural sphere for that to be true. Afterwards, all there is, is just stereotyping and whining galore. And makes me wonder whether the author is projecting in more ways than one. Especially in regard to the "one syllable" name. Not only would many "Asian Americans" have names with many syllables, but even just one syllable can have many different pronounciations and if you don't know the language in question, it can be really hard. And if I said that Koreans are born angry, as the author does, I would be called a racist. And speaking of angry, funny how all the angry rioters (caused by the Scarecrow) were apparently white, even the arguing couple here is white. Coincidence? I think not. This is the last story and it ends on a total buzzkill. The pink sushi story was clearly an exception.
Afterwards there were a couple of statements by the authors and funny thing: the only author who had a completely up-beat story is not in this listing of author statements about identity.
The first story was about Shang-Chi and I guess about what his life might have been, had he stayed with his father. And here, for some reason, Shang has to collect all the mystical items his father created and one is this Ruguo coin and apparently Ruguo just means "if" or "when", aka it is the "WHAT IF" in the story title... so... did Yang chose a coin because of the coin flip thing? If yes, was that something practiced in the Qing empire? Speaking of his old man and the Qing, that is definitely not the clothes that Fu Manchu or Zheng Zu wore back in the days, they have clearly retconned it. Ironically, I still don't get why now Zheng Zu is dressed somewhat like a Qing official or prince, but Fu Manchu was not. But the bigger question is: What was the point of this Shang-Chi story? The "what if" double of him that stayed with his father was easily beaten and not even some sort of fear for him. The real Shang-Chi is simply stronger for having left his father and learn from allies and siblings, but so what? The fight seems to have no impact or purpose except maybe in some way to say this new Shang-Chi is better than the 1970s version.
The Jubilee story states that she has no idea whether she made the grave sweeping thing right because her parents died before they could show her.... so what? She has internet access, she is neither the only chinese nor only chinese mutant around. Why should this be a problem? Just ask. This seems like some badly disguised allegory or something. And her parents are from Hong Kong?! Apparently that significant detail was missed by so many commentators. Or ignored more likely, considered how many pan-Asianists etc. there seems to be among them. That forced tomb sweeping comment notwithstanding, this was an ok story about Jubilee and her family.
That Jimmy Woo story was pointless. Why was there an alien whom he gave the reactor from his former employees back? What is with the other woman? Why was this here? And why do the three white guards have such oddly light hair, that is pretty unusual.
In case of the Kamala Khan story, I briefly hoped this story would be about this Red Dagger guy, you know a new hero for me, but alas no. And apparently this Red Dagger assumed that she can read Urdu and she says yes, and quietly that she can do it better than her baby nephew. Yeah "identity" is fitting for this comic, you get the entire smorgasboard of tropes here, even Shang-Chi, except with him it was the old mystic monks and temple trope. Which made it stand out a bit. Here Kamala hesitates to go into the water because her "Ammi" told her its bad to go into the waves. She can grow giant size, so who cares? Writers should give heroines fears that make sense. And with all the talk about Urdu and Karachi kebabs, I have the suspicion that this is a self-insert. And that assertion became even stronger when Red Dagger wants her to be in Karachi more often than Jersey, she says she feels alien here and misses Jersey when she is in Karachi. He then accuses her of being a self-hating Pakistani. And while she says he is a jerk, the rest of the story says how her ammi says that people can tell she isn't from there and Kamala says how that can be if she is from Pakistan. Except that she isn't from Pakistan, she is from Jersey, which the comic doesn´t tell you.
From that, we go to what is probably the most pointless story here: The Wave story. In it we get told that Wave (Pearl) admires Bishop. Don't get me wrong he, at least was, cool, but when did they ever meet? Did I miss something? And then we get to hear that she is a legend in his timeline and his parents told him stories about her, how he wanted to meet her and how she is one of his heroes (he never mentioned her before). I wondered who wrote this crap and then I saw and it made sense: it is Alyssa Wong. To be honest, I had expected Greg Pak, that sounds like the crap that he would write.
Afterwards we got an interview with Larry Hama and his story of starting at Marvel sounds almost like the complete opposite to the diversity hires that Marvel has today or the identity stories in this comic, were so far 2 were clearly identity crisis self-inserts, 1 was pointless, one maybe a "my version is better" statement and one just shameless promotion for a character via praise from an established character.
Then we get a dating story of a character I have never seen before and I think it is telling that the blue eyed, yellow haired white guy asks the "where are you from from" question. Which is pretty weird already but the situation is even odder as her dates are: white, asian and black, one for each race. And apparently this Silhouette is of Camabodian and Black American descent (according to fandom.com) and the only one she has sex with is the Asian guy... hm... not sure what this counts as. And then we get a statement like this: "like the diaspora of being biracial, my conflict isn't with what I was born with, it has has more to do with the absence of another identity that I could wear in broad daylight"... what on earth is that supposed to mean? And so far, when these here bring up identity stuff it is something negative. Do these authors even think of anything positive? She meets the black guy again and considers him a sweet single father and she gets more confident somehow. Well at least this is positive. But so far, these stories wee just short and mostly pointless. This really could have done with twice the number of pages that it was given. But at least they didn't go full racist propaganda so far, unlike DC.
The only truly positive story was a short cartoonish story of Armor and Silver Samurai, where Armor makes pink sushi (by using ketchup and mayonnaise), which is actually good. It is up-beat, funny and with its "TRADITIONS GET RENEWED" theme, way too optimistic for this collection. And I wonder whether it has to do with the fact that this author is from Spain while the other authors are all from the US apparently.
Sadly, that positivity was not to last as we were back to the same old whining again. In the last story, from watching the statue of liberty, the author goes straight to having Silk say that the concept of Han means to her a collective grief and resentment Koreans carry because of oppression. And while wikipedia states that it originated during the Japanese colonial period, I doubt that this author connects it to that. Either way, what a buzz kill. And instead of focusing on the battle with the villain, the author has Brawn and Silk state that since they are Asian American they know how it feels to be invisible. You know, considered how incredibly vague that term is now, that is ridiculous. They are way to many "Asian Americans" in high positions and cultural sphere for that to be true. Afterwards, all there is, is just stereotyping and whining galore. And makes me wonder whether the author is projecting in more ways than one. Especially in regard to the "one syllable" name. Not only would many "Asian Americans" have names with many syllables, but even just one syllable can have many different pronounciations and if you don't know the language in question, it can be really hard. And if I said that Koreans are born angry, as the author does, I would be called a racist. And speaking of angry, funny how all the angry rioters (caused by the Scarecrow) were apparently white, even the arguing couple here is white. Coincidence? I think not. This is the last story and it ends on a total buzzkill. The pink sushi story was clearly an exception.
Afterwards there were a couple of statements by the authors and funny thing: the only author who had a completely up-beat story is not in this listing of author statements about identity.
September 1, 2023
TW for violence.
December 26, 2023
This was an anthology of Asian-American or Asian superheroes and it was really fun to read — made me want to read more of some of the comics I was introduced to
September 12, 2021
These Voices anthologies from Marvel have been consistently excellent and this is no exception. Many of Marvel’s most interesting new characters are Asian, such as Ms Marvel, Silk and the Agents of Atlas, and so it’s good to see them get the spotlight here. But it’s not only Marvel’s Asian characters that are the focus here, but their Asian creators too.
Anthologies are always hard to review, as some stories will resonate with readers more than others, and which ones do or do now will vary from reader to reader too. But everything here is very strong, and you’re likely to find new characters and creators to love that you weren’t previously aware of.
There is vast diversity within the Asian community itself, and that’s fully on display here, with characters and creators from Korea, China, Pakistan, the Pacific Islands and more. The book really works well to dispel the myth that there is any one, singular “Asian” culture.
I particularly liked the way that the Ms Marvel story explored the way in which second generation immigrants can sometimes feel that they don’t belong either in the country their parents settled in or the one in which they settled. And I also liked the way the story about Silhouette explored many aspects of identity, as she’s not only biracial but also disabled. It’s good to see that kind of intersectionality explored.
Marvel are to be commended for their Voices series, I just hope that once it wraps up they can continue to give a voice to a diverse range of characters and creators.
Get early access to all my reviews and read them a week before everyone else over on my Patreon!
Anthologies are always hard to review, as some stories will resonate with readers more than others, and which ones do or do now will vary from reader to reader too. But everything here is very strong, and you’re likely to find new characters and creators to love that you weren’t previously aware of.
There is vast diversity within the Asian community itself, and that’s fully on display here, with characters and creators from Korea, China, Pakistan, the Pacific Islands and more. The book really works well to dispel the myth that there is any one, singular “Asian” culture.
I particularly liked the way that the Ms Marvel story explored the way in which second generation immigrants can sometimes feel that they don’t belong either in the country their parents settled in or the one in which they settled. And I also liked the way the story about Silhouette explored many aspects of identity, as she’s not only biracial but also disabled. It’s good to see that kind of intersectionality explored.
Marvel are to be commended for their Voices series, I just hope that once it wraps up they can continue to give a voice to a diverse range of characters and creators.
Get early access to all my reviews and read them a week before everyone else over on my Patreon!
September 13, 2021
I am here for the representation.
June 5, 2022
Marvel’s Voices: Identity #1, edited by Darren Shan (Marvel)
I sought this book out after it received a 2022 Eisner nomination for “Best Single Issue/One-Shot” (I was surprised it wasn’t in the “Best Anthology” category). Needless to say, my expectations were high. I enjoyed the first story by multiple Eisner-winner Gene Luen Yang entitled “What is vs. What if”. I felt that we all could have benefited from more elaboration of Shang-Chi’s story. The rest of the content was marginal at best (and that’s being generous). Any reviewer should be able to acknowledge the value of a project that empowers traditionally marginalized groups, but it is irresponsible to mistake an excellent idea with excellence execution. Considering the thousands of eligible books released in 2021, this book does not come close to meeting the distinction for one of the five coveted nominations in the category of “Best Single Issue”.
I sought this book out after it received a 2022 Eisner nomination for “Best Single Issue/One-Shot” (I was surprised it wasn’t in the “Best Anthology” category). Needless to say, my expectations were high. I enjoyed the first story by multiple Eisner-winner Gene Luen Yang entitled “What is vs. What if”. I felt that we all could have benefited from more elaboration of Shang-Chi’s story. The rest of the content was marginal at best (and that’s being generous). Any reviewer should be able to acknowledge the value of a project that empowers traditionally marginalized groups, but it is irresponsible to mistake an excellent idea with excellence execution. Considering the thousands of eligible books released in 2021, this book does not come close to meeting the distinction for one of the five coveted nominations in the category of “Best Single Issue”.
November 19, 2023
I'm not a big reader of superhero comics, so was unfamiliar with most of these characters. It looks like these stories were written especially for this collection, and they focus on how Asian identity defines or complicates superheroes' lives. Some are easy to read and understandable, others not so much, though some of that may have to do with my unfamiliarity with the backstories. Anyway, it's a good idea, and I appreciate that Marvel celebrates diversity in this and other collections.
January 9, 2022
A great collection of stand-alone comic shorts celebrating Asian voices. Picked this up because I love supporting Jason Loo's work, happy I read it and got to support all these other artists. Note- I'm not a super Marvel fan- many of these characters were new to me, but you can still enjoy this comic even if you don't know every character/series.
November 19, 2022
I really like these series because you get great little vignettes showing the characters and things that deal with not only in their personal lives but as Heroes as well. I like the mixtures of Art and storytelling and they quick reads that are enjoyable and help to be able to learn about other aspects of humanity.
October 25, 2021
Really enjoyed this issue, representation is really important. I would love to read more comics with Asian characters/superheroes. I especially loved the mini story with Silk and Brawn.
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December 27, 2021I enjoyed this! It's an anthology of some short comics about Asian characters at Marvel by Asian creators, with a range of tones and styles. I really need to go catch up on Ms. Marvel and Silk now…
August 10, 2023
Each story is 100% fire! As an AAPI reader, sometimes it’s been hard to identify with a lot of fictional characters because they are not like me. I’m so happy that the younger and future generations of AAPI readers will have more heroes like them to looks up to and I can’t wait to read how characters new and old grow and develop.
April 21, 2022
Another excellent comic
So many individuals, cultures and ethnicities that weren't represented in comic in the past. So many super heroes that would have been erased if not for people pushing for representation. I know that I think that this is a good thing. That it's a positive reflection on our society that any child has a chance to see someone from their culture, someone who looks like themselves in the comics that they read as the super heroes as well as the villain.
So many individuals, cultures and ethnicities that weren't represented in comic in the past. So many super heroes that would have been erased if not for people pushing for representation. I know that I think that this is a good thing. That it's a positive reflection on our society that any child has a chance to see someone from their culture, someone who looks like themselves in the comics that they read as the super heroes as well as the villain.
October 28, 2021
hell yeah!
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews