Pak & Cho Have Fun, Break Stereotypes with "Totally Awesome Hulk"

[CBR News]

Greg Pak & Frank Cho talk to CBR in-depth about "Totally Awesome Hulk," and the importance of Asian-American representation in superhero comics.


Full article here.

[Godlike13]

Ya, so about Herc. I do sure hope he pops up. This was really good though. I wasn't planning on picking this up, but i grabbed it on a whim and it surprised the hell out of me.

[Tien Long]

Picked it up today. I did a quick read through unfortunately, so I don't think I got all of the subtlties. HOWEVER, I really liked the characterization of Amadeus and his sister. In a way, this whole series has been misleading, because we aren't just getting one Asian-American to the forefront, but actually two! Great!

Another thing is this. While Pak and Cho are giving this vibe that Amadeus loves being the Hulk, there's certainly a sense within this issue that something is a miss. Does Amadeus have control of the Hulk? Is he really a fanboy of Banner? Additionally, there are other questions namely what happened to Banner? Why did Amadeus take up this role? How? How did his sister get involved? And, wait a minute, Amadeus has a sister?!

I'm excited. Definitely will check out the second issue.

[Spidey616]

Wonder who's drawing the next arc after Frank Cho. hope we haven't seen the last of Cho's Hulk interior art.

[KingsLeadHat]

Picked it up today. I did a quick read through unfortunately, so I don't think I got all of the subtlties. HOWEVER, I really liked the characterization of Amadeus and his sister. In a way, this whole series has been misleading, because we aren't just getting one Asian-American to the forefront, but actually two! Great!

Another thing is this. While Pak and Cho are giving this vibe that Amadeus loves being the Hulk, there's certainly a sense within this issue that something is a miss. Does Amadeus have control of the Hulk? Is he really a fanboy of Banner? Additionally, there are other questions namely what happened to Banner? Why did Amadeus take up this role? How? How did his sister get involved? And, wait a minute, Amadeus has a sister?!

I'm excited. Definitely will check out the second issue.

And most importantly of all; why does the new Hulk have Ed Grimley's hair style?

dce6f454f87efea3a9ca0460c371553b.jpg

[Kirby Krackle]

And most importantly of all; why does the new Hulk have Ed Grimley's hair style?

dce6f454f87efea3a9ca0460c371553b.jpg

He's sporting a hairstyle many K-pop and K-drama stars sport.

[Tien Long]

He's sporting a hairstyle many K-pop and K-drama stars sport.

Yeah, you can count some of the guys here in Hong Kong doing that as well. That being said though, the who pointed hair thing, I can see where some might see it as being a little goofy. (Reminds me, I better start putting wax in my hair again ).

[Miracleman]

I have to disagree with Martial arts and asian's being labeled a stereotype. I am not asian for the record. I have trained in Asian Martial Arts for years. For all if not most of them. Martial Arts is very much about their culture. It had alot of signifigant impact especially for the han-chinese who were trying for many centuries to repel the manchu's. Speaking of Korean culture. Hwrang Do is an art that was used by the legendary soldiers of Korea's past.

Martial Arts is not a stereotype for an Asian because it is a part of their culture. Now the stereotype is too assume that everyone who is asian know's martial arts. I do find it odd that they gave him a hair style that is typical in that community. Isn't that in of itself a stereotype?

[havok]

Lady Hellbender design was supposed to be used in Battle of the Atom? Looks like she could have been an alternate design for Molly aka Bruiser.

[kidstellar]

I'm incredibly excited for this title. There has been plenty of discussion about the lack of diversity in media, namely the lack of female, African American, and LGBT characters, that we neglect others in the process. Kudos to Marvel, and I know Frank and Greg will knock this outta the park.

[kurenai24]

I have to disagree with Martial arts and asian's being labeled a stereotype. I am not asian for the record. I have trained in Asian Martial Arts for years. For all if not most of them. Martial Arts is very much about their culture. It had alot of signifigant impact especially for the han-chinese who were trying for many centuries to repel the manchu's. Speaking of Korean culture. Hwrang Do is an art that was used by the legendary soldiers of Korea's past.

Martial Arts is not a stereotype for an Asian because it is a part of their culture. Now the stereotype is too assume that everyone who is asian know's martial arts. I do find it odd that they gave him a hair style that is typical in that community. Isn't that in of itself a stereotype?

Uhm...

That is the issue, most people are aware that martial arts is a part of Asian culture, and it became a fixed idea to showcase Asian characters only doing that. Add to the fact that most of the martial arts shown are simplified and watered down, and may or not have some "ancient" magic added to it which have their own can of worms to deal with.

A stereotype usually encompasses all, physical characteristics, culture, language, etc into a simplified idea or image, and that's what we've been getting for a long time.

Stereotype(s) and culture are not mutually exclusive.

Martial Arts may be a part of Asian culture, but it's not all they do, and yet every time we see an Asian character it's all they do, it's all they are, and that's the stereotype. Hell, you can watch 100 movies from different genres, and not see one Asian person, but you'll see 100 of them in a Martial Arts film, not saying that Asians shouldn't be in a Martial Arts film, but why can't they be in something not Martial Arts related.

The stereotype of it all, is that every time you see an Asian character in a book and they have abilities, you can guess they'll have something martial arts related. Every character that's not Asian is allowed to have these other abilities that don't relate to their culture, they can stretch, have super strength, fly, freeze things, and those abilities aren't about them being white or black, but Asian characters are not so lucky. If this wasn't such an overwhelming thing with Asian characters, than it wouldn't be a stereotype/trope.

But as the article said, it's changing, but very slowly.

~~

They should have also touched on the fact that there few male Asian heroes, b/c Asian males aren't look to as being masculine.

[ChrisIII]

Yeah, I'm kind of curious about the Hulk persona. While technically the same person, Banner and the Hulks were still sort of distinct, whereas Cho's persona seems pretty much the same, except perhaps a bit more confident (like She-Hulk). However the dream sequence with the Hulk in the trunk seems like there might be another persona sort of locked away. Then there's the Banner thing, looks and sounds pretty much like the sort of Hulk Pak usually writes, the Green scar, although I suppose it could still be Doc Green. The two personas sort of came to an understanding at the end of Duggan's run so it's sort of makes sense for him to simply using will to change.

[Ken Ashcroft]

Wonder who's drawing the next arc after Frank Cho. hope we haven't seen the last of Cho's Hulk interior art.

Yeah, that thought came to my mind as well. I like his work but going from memory, he doesn't tend to stay too long as a regular artist on a book.

[Kuwagaton]

I think that this will be the project to show that with planning, time, and enthusiasm, he can hit the mark more frequently than he has previously.

As for the article, eh. I don't really think much of this comic in the way of breaking stereotypes, and the martial arts thing hasn't been too bad in a while.