There’s an Official Chinese Superman, And He’ll Replace Clark Kent Now

We’ve seen a number of failed knock-offs from China, from the iiPhone (I didn’t make that up—it really comes with two i’s) to the ridiculously looking Pokémon GO clone, City Spirit Go.

So I won’t blame you if you think that this Superman from China is yet another failed copy.

But apparently, it isn’t. It’s an official comic from DC Comics, the official publisher of the Superman comic books, and the first issue has just been released.

Here’s the thing: in one of the comic-book versions, the real Superman (i.e. Clark Kent) dies, and he sort of transfers his powers to some people. Well, firstly, you’ll have to understand that a superhero’s death is never permanent—all he needs is some writers’ creativity to bring him back to life, because how often have we seen superheroes dying? Too many times.

What happens next is something we’ll have not expected: a new series, aptly named New Super-man, is born.

The New Super-man (with the hyphen) isn’t another American, but a Chinese. His name is Kong Kenan and he’s from Shanghai. And he’s a completely different person altogether: he isn’t as heroic as Clark Kent and is seen bullying others in the first issue. And most importantly, he has such a fat ego that no one would be surprised if he tells the world about his powers.

As the first issue of the comic is just released, we won’t know what lies ahead for the New Super-man.

What’s interesting is the concept of the hero: the creator Gene Luen Yang, a Chinese-American, has changed the logo of Super-man to an octagon, because it represents a ba gua, which Google refers it as “a Chinese religious motif incorporating the eight trigrams of the I Ching, arranged octagonally around a symbol denoting the balance of yin and yang, or around a mirror.”

I’m not sure whether the colour of the costume represents anything, but I’m very sure red is an auspicious colour for Chinese (think Chinese New Year).

Now, that means Superman isn’t just going to change his race: his entire culture might be changed as well.

I don’t know about you, but seeing an Asian Superman isn’t interesting enough: seeing him hold a pair of chopsticks is.

Featured Image: YouTube (DC Entertainment)

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com