The Green Turtle
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The Green Turtle is a
superhero A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...
originally published by
Rural Home Publications In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...
. He first appeared in '' Blazing Comics'' (1944), and was created by Chinese-American cartoonist Chu F. Hing. While the original run of the character lasted only five issues, the Green Turtle is notable for three factors. First, during WWII, the stories represented the Chinese in U.S. popular media as heroic partners fighting the
Axis An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis *Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinate ...
. One issue begins with the banner 美國及中華民國 (the United States united with the Chinese Republic), and features a U.S. general joining Chinese guerrillas in battle. During the war, U.S. depictions of the Pacific theatre were typically racialized; the "
Yellow Peril The Yellow Peril (also the Yellow Terror and the Yellow Specter) is a racist, racial color terminology for race, color metaphor that depicts the peoples of East Asia, East and Southeast Asia as an existential danger to the Western world. As a ...
" stereotypes applied to the Japanese were originally anti-Chinese and portrayed Asians as racial enemies of Western civilization. Second, the character is often identified as the first Asian-American comic book hero. These factors inspired a contemporary graphic novel on the Green Turtle, ''Shadow Hero,'' by
Gene Luen Yang Gene Luen Yang (Chinese Traditional: 楊謹倫, Simplified: 杨谨伦, Pinyin: ''Yáng Jǐnlún''; born August 9, 1973) is an American cartoonist. He is a frequent lecturer on the subjects of graphic novels and comics, at comic book conventions a ...
, whose ''
American Born Chinese American-born Chinese are the subset of Chinese Americans who were born in the US. The term may also refer to: * ''ABC'' (Jin album), a Cantonese language album by Chinese American rapper Jin, the name of which is the colloquially used acronym of ...
'' was the first work in a comics format to be nominated for the
National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...
.


Character history

The Green Turtle aided the Chinese in
guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...
against the Japanese invaders in
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. He wore a green cowl and a cloak with a turtle-shell design. Most origin stories around the comic say that Hing initially wanted to make him an overtly Chinese hero, but his publisher would not allow this, believing there would not be a sufficient market for an Asian superhero, so Hing never drew the character without his mask. He had a sidekick, Burma Boy, a young beggar whom the Green Turtle rescued from execution by the Japanese army. He also had a manservant, Wun Too. The Green Turtle's secret identity was never revealed, and readers never saw the character's face without a mask, until a reboot presented Hank Chu's face, identity, and origin story.


Powers and abilities

The Green Turtle as originally written has no special powers but is a skilled fighter and flies a high-tech Turtle Plane. He wears a large, flowing cape with a green turtle emblem, and is occasionally depicted with a huge, shadowy, black turtle silhouette rearing behind him. Though the significance of this is never established in the original series, it could be a visual reference to the
Black Tortoise The Black Tortoise () is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. Despite its English name, it is usually depicted as a tortoise entwined together with a snake. The name used in East Asian languages does not mention either anima ...
of Chinese mythology.


Reboot

In 2014,
Gene Luen Yang Gene Luen Yang (Chinese Traditional: 楊謹倫, Simplified: 杨谨伦, Pinyin: ''Yáng Jǐnlún''; born August 9, 1973) is an American cartoonist. He is a frequent lecturer on the subjects of graphic novels and comics, at comic book conventions a ...
and
Sonny Liew Sonny Liew (born 26 September 1974) is a Malaysia-born comic artist/illustrator based in Singapore. He is best known for ''The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye'' (2015), the first graphic novel to win the Singapore Literature Prize for fiction. Ea ...
created a six-issue miniseries ''The Shadow Hero'' to revive the Green Turtle, with a
retcon Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in which established diegetic facts in the plot of a fictional work (those established through the narrative itself) are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subse ...
explaining the turtle silhouette as a spirit who keeps the Green Turtle from getting shot. A trade paperback collecting all six issues was published by
First Second Books First Second Books is an American publisher of graphic novels. An imprint of Roaring Brook Press, part of Holtzbrinck Publishers, First Second publishes fiction, biographies, personal memoirs, history, visual essays, and comics journalism. It als ...
in 2014.


See also

*'' Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology''


References


External links


Comic Vine: The Green TurtleDigital Comic Museum - Blazing Comics collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Green Turtle, The Comics characters introduced in 1944 Golden Age superheroes Chinese superheroes