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Superman Smashes the Klan
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Superman Smashes the Klan
Superman Smashes the Klan is a three-part superhero limited series comic book written by Gene Luen Yang with art by Gurihiru and published by DC Comics. It is a Superman story which is loosely based on the 1946 The Adventures of Superman radio show's story-arc "Clan of the Fiery Cross".
In 1946, the Lees, a Chinese-American family, move from Chinatown to the Metropolis suburbs in the wake of World War II after the father, Dr. Lee, starts a new job at the Metropolis Health Department. The family faces "overt and subtle racism as they settle into their new community" and the book focuses on the children, Tommy and Roberta (Roberta's real name is Lan-Shin, but she uses the name Roberta "for the ease of the white people around her"). "While Tommy joins a local baseball team and uses self-deprecating remarks to make friends (referring to his family as 'wontons' to his white peers), Roberta struggles to fit in". The family is targeted by the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, who burn a cross on their lawn and attempt to firebomb their house. Dr. Lee "tries to distance his Chinese family from the black men who helped them in the aftermath of a Klan attack for fear of being grouped in with them".
Tommy and Roberta find themselves increasingly threatened while new friends such as Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, and Inspector Henderson try to help them and are similarly targeted. Meanwhile, Superman's own efforts to assist the children are complicated by disturbing visions that prove to be linked to his own self-doubt and his confusion about his own self-identity.
Superman Smashes the Klan is loosely based on a 16-part episode story-arc, "Clan of the Fiery Cross", from the radio serial Adventures of Superman which ran from June to July 1946. In the radio serial, "Superman exposed Ku Klux Klan codewords, rituals, and its bigotry—all based on intel collected by activist Stetson Kennedy—before a national audience. The show damaged the group's reputation and led to a steep decline in membership from which the KKK never recovered".
In an interview with Inverse, Yang stated that "the Klan didn't disappear. Though a fraction of what it was then, the ideas driving the Klan seem to be making a resurgence", adding that pushed him to revisit Superman's original battle with American bigotry: "Superman Smashes the Klan is my attempt to talk about these modern issues in an old context".
Yang learned about the radio serial in Freakonomics (2005) by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Yang stated that the book brought "it up because it had a real-world effect. For fanboys like me who are criticized for having our heads in other universes, this was a great example of a guy in a cape that had a real, positive effect on the world". Yang said: "I remember talking to my son about it after I read it, and the next time we were at the library we found a book on it, called 'Superman vs. the KKK'. It was fascinating. At the center of it was this Chinese-American family that moves into Metropolis. I'm Chinese-American, and I grew up in the 1980s and read Superman comics, but I don't really remember seeing a lot of folks who looked like me in those stories". Yang also highlighted the immigration connection with both Superman and the Chinese-American family.
Superman Smashes the Klan was the 2020 Harvey Awards winner for Best Children or Young Adult Book, was the awarded the Mike Wieringo Spirit Award at the 2020 Ringo Awards and won both Best Publication for Kids and Best Adaptation from Another Medium at the 2021 Eisner Awards.
Reviews were positive, especially with regards to its message and themes. Pierce Lydon of Newsarama praised Gene Luen Yang for exploring the "subtle and insidious ways that prejudice shows up in our everyday life". Rory Wilding of AIPT Comics said the series "succeeds as a positive and somewhat educational adventure about the acceptance of others". Sheraz Farooqi, for Newsweek, wrote that "a poignant moment in the story comes when a member of the Klan is cheerful of Superman's powers, taking it as a sign of white supremacy. This ultimately is the catalyst for Superman to reveal himself as an alien to the rest of the world, unashamed of not being a human".
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Superman Smashes the Klan
Superman Smashes the Klan is a three-part superhero limited series comic book written by Gene Luen Yang with art by Gurihiru and published by DC Comics. It is a Superman story which is loosely based on the 1946 The Adventures of Superman radio show's story-arc "Clan of the Fiery Cross".
In 1946, the Lees, a Chinese-American family, move from Chinatown to the Metropolis suburbs in the wake of World War II after the father, Dr. Lee, starts a new job at the Metropolis Health Department. The family faces "overt and subtle racism as they settle into their new community" and the book focuses on the children, Tommy and Roberta (Roberta's real name is Lan-Shin, but she uses the name Roberta "for the ease of the white people around her"). "While Tommy joins a local baseball team and uses self-deprecating remarks to make friends (referring to his family as 'wontons' to his white peers), Roberta struggles to fit in". The family is targeted by the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, who burn a cross on their lawn and attempt to firebomb their house. Dr. Lee "tries to distance his Chinese family from the black men who helped them in the aftermath of a Klan attack for fear of being grouped in with them".
Tommy and Roberta find themselves increasingly threatened while new friends such as Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, and Inspector Henderson try to help them and are similarly targeted. Meanwhile, Superman's own efforts to assist the children are complicated by disturbing visions that prove to be linked to his own self-doubt and his confusion about his own self-identity.
Superman Smashes the Klan is loosely based on a 16-part episode story-arc, "Clan of the Fiery Cross", from the radio serial Adventures of Superman which ran from June to July 1946. In the radio serial, "Superman exposed Ku Klux Klan codewords, rituals, and its bigotry—all based on intel collected by activist Stetson Kennedy—before a national audience. The show damaged the group's reputation and led to a steep decline in membership from which the KKK never recovered".
In an interview with Inverse, Yang stated that "the Klan didn't disappear. Though a fraction of what it was then, the ideas driving the Klan seem to be making a resurgence", adding that pushed him to revisit Superman's original battle with American bigotry: "Superman Smashes the Klan is my attempt to talk about these modern issues in an old context".
Yang learned about the radio serial in Freakonomics (2005) by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Yang stated that the book brought "it up because it had a real-world effect. For fanboys like me who are criticized for having our heads in other universes, this was a great example of a guy in a cape that had a real, positive effect on the world". Yang said: "I remember talking to my son about it after I read it, and the next time we were at the library we found a book on it, called 'Superman vs. the KKK'. It was fascinating. At the center of it was this Chinese-American family that moves into Metropolis. I'm Chinese-American, and I grew up in the 1980s and read Superman comics, but I don't really remember seeing a lot of folks who looked like me in those stories". Yang also highlighted the immigration connection with both Superman and the Chinese-American family.
Superman Smashes the Klan was the 2020 Harvey Awards winner for Best Children or Young Adult Book, was the awarded the Mike Wieringo Spirit Award at the 2020 Ringo Awards and won both Best Publication for Kids and Best Adaptation from Another Medium at the 2021 Eisner Awards.
Reviews were positive, especially with regards to its message and themes. Pierce Lydon of Newsarama praised Gene Luen Yang for exploring the "subtle and insidious ways that prejudice shows up in our everyday life". Rory Wilding of AIPT Comics said the series "succeeds as a positive and somewhat educational adventure about the acceptance of others". Sheraz Farooqi, for Newsweek, wrote that "a poignant moment in the story comes when a member of the Klan is cheerful of Superman's powers, taking it as a sign of white supremacy. This ultimately is the catalyst for Superman to reveal himself as an alien to the rest of the world, unashamed of not being a human".