24 AMERICAN BORN CHINESE
AAF #14). In virtually all of the stories, the protagonists are male, and women—to
the extent that they do show up—are treated in a patronizing manner. “Darling,” a
woman cries in AA #6 after her male companion has saved the world, “Forgive me for
criticizing—for complaining!! I’ll never do it again, never!!”
In contrast, the fi rst three protagonists of the 21st century’s Amazing Fantasy comics
are females. However, unlike Spider-Man, who discovered how to use his powers on his
own, Araña (#1–6) and Scorpion (#7–12) are found and have their powers pressed into
service by agencies (and strong male fi gures) that guide them. A patronizing patriarchy
is thus preserved, if transformed. Th e stories of the 21st century also fi t neatly into the
established Marvel universe, whereas the stories of the 1960s provided much of the raw
material for creating this universe in the fi rst place. Scorpion, for instance, is recruited
by the global police agency S.H.I.E.L.D. and courted by the global terrorist organiza-
tion A.I.M., organizations common to many titles and characters in Marvel. Moreover,
advanced and fantastic science and technology are no longer strange and novel, but are
in fact taken for granted, having become the norm. Th e morality tales of poetic justice
are also largely abandoned.
If the Cold War defi ned the fi eld of stories of the 1960s, the stories of the 2000s
take place in the context of the United States’ War on Terror and the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan. However, the main antagonists in the stories are not Arab/ Muslim
terrorists, but secret criminal societies or A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics), a
“techno- anarchist” terrorist organization that critiques corporations, consumer-
ism, and capitalism. Western civilization (and the United States in particular) still
faces an existential threat from those out to destroy it. However, the rather minor
contradictory tension this time is not the misidentifi cation of potential friends as foes,
but the potential abuse of power by American rulers and allies—such as weapons
manufacturers who make profi ts from war or the incompetence of (an implied) Presi-
dent George W. Bush. Simplifi ed representations of war- and dictator-prone Th ird
World countries that ignore, or only moderately imply histories of Western interven-
tion, abound. Yet, while Western civilization is seen as worth defending (for this is
what the protagonists do), the critiques of its belligerence, its war-profi teering and
anti-egalitarian capitalist system are not substantively opposed.
Noaman G. Ali
AMERICAN BORN CHINESE (2006). American Born Chinese is a graphic novel by Gene
Luen Yang published by First Second Books, an imprint of Roaring Books Press. Yang’s
earlier graphic novels include Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks (2004) and
Loyola Chin and the San Peligran Order (2004). Like these earlier comics, American Born
Chinese focuses on an Asian American teenage protagonist, but it is a more complex
and autobiographical text than its predecessors. It also reached a much wider audience
than Yang’s earlier comics, becoming the fi rst graphic novel selected as a National Book
Award fi nalist (in the category of Young People’s Literature, 2006) and the fi rst graphic
novel to win the ALA Printz Award (2007).
