The Shadow Hero Omnibus by Gene Luen Yang and Chu Hing

In the comics boom of the 1940s, a legend was born: the Green Turtle. He solved crimes and fought injustice just like the other comics characters. But this mysterious masked crusader was hiding something more than your run-of-the-mill secret identity ... The Green Turtle was the first Asian American super hero.

In the Chinese neighborhood of San Incendio, Hank's mother wants him to become a superhero. Hank is not interested, until gangsters threaten his father's grocery.

I think I admire the project of this more than I actually enjoyed reading it? It's a cool reboot of the maybe-first Asian American superhero, and knowing all the backstory and the way Yang reintepreted details from the 40s comics is really cool. The coming of age stuff was fun, and it's a pretty satisfying superhero story, but overall I think this will have the most appeal to adults or older/nerdier teens who can appreciate the backstory here.

I was so into this book that I had no idea what was going on around me!

This had everything I love about comics. The origins, the history, an Asian-American main character, self made superheroics.....It was a dream! The little blurb about the history of The Green Turtle at the end with the panels from the original strips were great! The idea that this author hid the hero's identity from his readers?!

The story itself is sad, funny, heartwarming and tense. It really is such a great book and I found myself wishing Yang & Liew would continue on with a series of their own. I met Gene Luen Yang briefly on Free Comic Book Day last year and he was so nice and approachable and after reading this (I've only read his Avatar books) I'm not a HUGE fan. Lucky for me the library has all of his other titles so I'm off to get those as soon as possible.

I've loved Sonny Liew's artwork in everything I've seen of his (Wonderland being my favorite) and this book is no different. I just want to read through it again!