It's always tough to create a new hero so blatantly riding on the coattails of a classic one.
It's a difficult balancing act. On one hand, certain elements need to feel familiar, but on the other, the new hero needs to set himself apart from the source of his inspiration.
Such is the case with the Chinese Superman from New Super-Man #1, out now. However, rather than have a Chinese kid simply emulate DC's big blue boyscout, writer Gene Luen Yang delivers something far more clever.
Spoilers for New Super-Man #1 below!
At first glance, the circumstances surrounding the teen who will become China's Superman are immediately familiar. Kong Kenan comes from a working class family. He's good-looking. A reporter by the name of Laney Lan catches his eye.
However, it's there that the similarities end. In actuality, Kenan couldn't be more different from Clark Kent, namely because Kenan's a self-absorbed jerk. The issue begins with a clever bit of misdirection. With narration from Kenan, it shows an overweight boy, Luo Lixin, running from a bully trying to steal his lunch. The kid falls down and gets punched in the face before his lunch is thrown onto the ground and his soda stolen.
At first, it's assumed Kenan is the down-on-his-luck kid, but Kenan is actually the bully. This new Superman's story literally begins with him harassing an innocent kid. That's certainly one way to distinguish Kenan from the American Superman fans know and love.
It's not just that Kenan likes to harass one of his classmates. His ego is also wildly out of control, and he believes himself to be as handsome as a movie star. So, when he accidentally finds himself in a situation where he (sort of) saves his bullying victim from a Chinese supervillain, of course, he makes the most out of it. He hits on female reporters and makes a big deal about his heroics on television. He even takes Luo Lixin's money in exchange for saving him.
This is not the selfless, chivalrous hero fans might have been expecting. For what it's worth, Kenan's dad isn't impressed. He knows his son, and knows Kenan wasn't doing good just prior to the event the smartphone cameras recorded for all the world to see. Eventually, a shady Chinese government organization recruits Kenan to be imbued with the powers of Superman, and it's there where future issues will pick up.
It's an impressive first issue, if only for the fact that it subverts reader expectations. A jerk and bully just became imbued with the powers of Superman. That's not exactly something fans have seen before, and seeing if Kenan can embrace what Superman represents, alongside his new-found powers, should make for interesting reading.
If there is one aspect of this new Superman that falls short, it's his reasoning for becoming a Superman in the first place. Though it might be expanded upon in future issues, it's never really made clear why Kenan agrees to undergo a dangerous experiment (he even seems a bit confused) at the request of a shadowy organization, a shadowy organization Kenan's dad has warned him about, no less. Perhaps Kenan's ego is to blame, but it would be nice to explore why exactly he said yes to becoming China's Superman.
New Super-Man could have easily come off as a Chinese knock-off, but instead, it walks a fascinating path all its own, one that DC Comic readers would be wise to follow.
