Secret Identities – Asian American Superheroes

Secret Identities is a comic book anthology that features 26 original stories centered around Asian American Superheroes; stories set in a shadow history of American history, from the opening of the West to the election of the first minority president, and exploring ordinary Asian American life from a decidedly extraordinary perspective.

“What if we told you a tale about a quiet, unassuming guy with black hair and thick glasses? He’s an immigrant, who’s done his best to fit in to a world that isn’t his—one very different from  the land of his birth. He’s got a hidden side to himself that he can’t quite bring himself to show, not even to the popular girl he’s got a huge crush on. If only she knew who he really was—what he could really do—she’d be amazed, he thinks. If only she knew. If only everyone knew…

For many Asian Americans, this chronicle is a familiar one, because many of us lived it. But this also happens to be the story of a mild-mannered reporter named Clark Kent, better known to the world by his alter ego: Superman. And it’s just one example of the parallels between the cultural narrative of Asian America and the mythic foundation of the comic book superhero.” From the Secret Identities website

This is very thought provoking. As an avid comic reader in my youth and all round nerd I totally understand this parallel between my own upbringing and the Superman myth. I have always treasured the Superman movie as one of my all time favourite superhero movies and now I understand why it held so much emotional resonance for me.

“Your name is Kal-El. You are the only survivor of the planet Krypton. Even though you’ve been raised as a human being, you are not one of them. You have great powers, only some of which you have as yet discovered….

Live as one of them, Kal-El, to discover where your strength and your power are needed. Always hold in your heart the pride of your special heritage. They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you… my only son.”

Now that I think about it, the depiction of Asians in superhero comics have always been satirical or bordered on whimsical. Even though many of the most prolific comic book artists and writers have been Asian: Jim Lee, Brando Choi, Greg Pak, Bernard Chang, Francis Tsai, Greg LaRocque, Sonny Liew, Kazu Kibuishi, Christine Norrie:, Tak Toyoshima, Jerry Ma, Cliff Chiang, Dustin Nguyen, Larry Hama, etc.

These character always fit several shallow asian sterotypes:

* foreigner from Asian nation (Sunfire from the X-Men)

* martial arts expert (Karate Kid from Legion of Superheroes)

* sexy asian woman (Psyclocke from X-men)

* villain (The Mandarin from X-men)

It is not often that an Asian character is ever the main character or just an Asian American and by extension draws parallels to myself being an Asian Australian. So growing up I have had to idealise western heroes archetypes. My favourites being Superman and Batman.

Even though I was born in Australia, all my friends are predominantly Caucasian. I am the Twinkie.

Yet I have always felt deep down inside that I didn’t quite fit in completely into society. First being anethnic minority and then also being a nerd. That’s kinda like a double whammy.

I applaud the authors, artists and contributors for their work on producing this anthology and will be definitely checking it out.

Visit their website: Secret Identities

MacGruber

Ok He’s a parody of MacGuyver (Richard Dean Anderson is the man).

Living in Australia I kinda missed most of the SNL skits so I don’t have any history with this particular parody but it looks reasonably funny.

Powers Boothe and Val Kilmer. That’s some decent star power.

Hot Tub Time Machine – Yeah… ok……

So the premise is a bit contrived but it’s got John Freakin Cusak in it.

And it’s got that whole ‘Old School’ old guys getting a second chance at youth vibe to it.

I’m nearing that big 40 in the not too distant future so this trailer really speaks to me and it looks like a barrel of fun as well. ;p

Walt Mosspuppet review of the iSlate

Lego Universe MMORPG

This looks so cool. I love the concept and apparently anything you see in game, you can buy as a lego pack that they send you.

Forget my mid life crisis! I feel my second childhood coming on!

Tekken Movie Trailer Kicks Major Ass

Movie adaptations of fighting game properties have traditionally always had a very poor record of being any good.

Several bad ones come to mind straight away: Streetfighter, The Legend of Chun Li, Dead or Alive, Dragonball (ok its a RPG too but hey it was bad). In fact the only semi good one that I can think of is Mortal Kombat (I know, matter of taste I guess).

The latest contender, Tekken has given us a taste of what it has to offer (with it’s new trailer) and I can honestly say that I am actually a little excited with this one. It looks like a futuristic Bloodsport ala Jean Claude Van Damme.

The Plot:

“A Young Man Who seeks revenge of his mothers death. He finds his grand-father, Heihachi Mishima, and pleas to be trained. When the Mishima leader announces a “King of Iron Fist” tournament. He finds out that his mother’s killer, OGRE, will be participating in the tournament. He must fight against the worlds top competitors to achieve his goal with no interference.” IMDB

Actions Stars of the World Unite?

Ok. The Expendables looks like a big mish mash of mindless action, cheesy one liners and a conglomeration of every 80s and 90s action star in the one corny and ill conceived movie.

Actually it looks so bad…. It might turn out to be awesome!!

The plot is simple: A team of mercenaries head to South America on a mission to overthrow a dictator.

I am sure that the plot is paper thin and there are enough fight scenes and explosions to fill ten movies but the fact that we have Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Randy Couture, Steve Austin and Mickey Rourke all together is a phenomenal task all in itself.

IMDB also has Brittany Murphy (who recently passed away), Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger as ‘other’ cast. I wonder if they do another CG Arnie ala Salvation or if he makes a cameo as the Governator.

Anyway enjoy the trailer. With so much cheese that it may actually turn you lactose intolerant.

Chow Yan Fat is Confucius

Wow. These trailers have that whole whole Ten Commandments, Charlton Heston, Moses vibe going for them. The makings of a truly great epic. Hardly surprising considering the man in the centre of the story. Looks Great!

For the uninitiated (from Wikipedia):

Confucius was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher (551 BCE – 479 BCE), whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese thought and life.

The formal name of Confucius was Kong Qiu (孔丘), and he was also called Zhongni (仲尼). He was born in 551 BCE in the Lu (鲁) State. (This state was in the south of modern-day Shandong Province) in the later days of the Spring and Autumn Period.

Confucius was from a warrior family. His father Shulianghe (叔梁紇) was a famous warrior who had military exploits in two battles and owns a fiefdom. Confucius lost his father when he was three years old. Confucius lived in poverty with his mother since childhood. With the support and encouragement of his mother, Confucius was very diligent in his studies. When Confucius was seventeen years old, his mother died of illness and overwork.

Three years later, Confucius married a young woman who was from the Qiguan family (亓官氏) of the Song state (宋). Though he had a mild tempered wife who loved him, he left his family to strive for his ideals. Confucius wanted to revive the perfect virtue of Huaxia and the classical properties of the Western Zhou Dynasty to build a grand harmonious and humanistic society.

His philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. These values gained prominence in China over other doctrines, such as Legalism (法家) or Taoism (道家) during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE). Confucius’ thoughts have been developed into a system of philosophy known as Confucianism (儒家).

Some famous Confucian Quotes:

A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it, is committing another mistake.

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

Always and in everything let there be reverence.

If you know, to recognize that you know, If you don’t know, to realize that you don’t know: That is knowledge.

Never hesitate to ask a lesser person.

Never seek illicit wealth.

People with virtue must speak out; People who speak are not all virtuous.

What you do not wish upon yourself, extend not to others.

We take great pains to persuade other that we are happy than in endeavouring to think so ourselves.

Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.

Mass Effect 2

This trailer is really making me think seriously about buying a XBox 360 or at least a decent gaming rig.

Either way, Mass Effect 2, the latest Bioware offering looks awesome.

I am not usually into third person shooter RPGs, but these honestly this looks awesome.

Oh and this is a video with the cast. Some big names there Carie Anne Moss, Martin Sheen, Trica Helfer, etc. And also quite a few Battlestar Galactica and Firefly alums. I am excited ;p

Storm Warriors – The Return of Storm and Cloud

In 1998. Storm Riders, a Hong Kong martial arts/wuxia film based on a popular comic book series (directed by Andrew Lau starring Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok) was released. I remember this as being one of my absolute favourite martial arts films in the 90s.

A little over a decade later the Pang Brothers bring us the second installment of the adventures of Storm and Cloud. And it looks awesome! It has a very 300ish hyper-realistic feel to it.

Here are the official trailers:

And the kick ass music video:

Can’t wait!