Wang the Tiger

[mistygeek]

There is so much here I don't know where to start.

The outfit, the character art, the really completely unexpected twist...The fact that China is given it's own hero during World War II is also notable.




It is extra bizarre to see Chop-Chop here, looking like he does.  His normal appearance is so much more twisted when put against normal looking Chinese people. 




"I soil my sword with your blood!" 









Fun aside: The Blackhawks sing A LOT. They had their own theme song, but even in story you often find them singing.

Oh and Andre is pretty much also boss when Blackhawk isn't around. 






I know you never guessed who wang really was, right?

More information available in Wang the Tiger: The Man Without Fear post.

Comments

[icon_uk]

I'm vaguely reminded of Marvel's entry in their 1980's Official Handbook where they go to some lengths to explain that character "The Yellow Claw" must have some sort of skin disorder (or possibly a mutation) since his lemon yellow pigmentation was unlike any actual skin tone ever recorded.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Did they ever explain why Shang-Chi was orange for the longest time?

[icon_uk]

Perma-tan/Sunbed addiction?

[mistygeek]

A overpower love of carrots?

[cleome45]

He's really that Durlan who went on to be a Green Lantern?

[kenn_el]

He was known on the Jersey Shore as the Situ-asian! (Totally stolen from 'Glee', but couldn't resist!)

[stolisomancer]

Probably the same disorder that meant every Arabic character in the comics in the 1980s had slate-gray skin.

[auggie18]

...insert Jersey Shore joke here?

[full_metal_ox]

...his lemon yellow pigmentation was unlike any actual skin tone ever recorded.

Barring advanced jaundice, of course.

[nefrekeptah]

Until we got Agents of Atlas, where we learned the proper name was Golden Claw, and Yellow Claw was just a slur of the west.

[icon_uk]

That has to be a contender for the briefest costume ever worn by a male character, even down to his jockstrap with the butt-floss back.

[mistygeek]

There were some guys in just their underwear and a cape, but this is the smallest thing I've seen.

[full_metal_ox]

I'll note that the manga hero Crying Freeman has a canonical penchant for pulling the Full Monty (the Nailer: not just for the Girl-Watcher's Gaze!)

[mistygeek]

We have a winner!

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

You're not complaining, are you? :)

[icon_uk]

Me? Perish the thought


Nightwing Thong by *andypriceart on deviantART

[cleome45]

There is something so weird about Blackhawk smacking the enemy soldier in the head with the uprooted stocks... o_0

I mean, even by s_d standards it just looks gonzo.

[full_metal_ox]

Multi-Pop-Cultural Fun Fact: one of the heroes of the epic Chinese novel The Water Margin is one Wang Ying, nicknamed "Dwarf Tiger"; Pearl S. Buck's English translation, All Men Are Brothers, was published in 1933 and might conceivably have been on the writers' radar.

[filthysize]

Haha, this is actually a pretty hilarious backtracking. It's basically trying to say "Nooo, look at all these totally normal depictions of Chinese people. So you see, Chop-Chop doesn't look and speak like that because he's Chinese. He's just a bizarre freak."

[full_metal_ox]

See also: Omi of Xiaolin Showdown.

[auggie18]

I was always surprised that nobody got offended at that. That seemed pretty, y'know, offensive.

[full_metal_ox]

Series creator Christy Hui, as a first-generation Chinese-American herself, may have gotten a pass--but I am wondering whether she's ever explained her choice of that sort of grotesquely stereotypical character design.

[baihu]

Because it honestly isn't. He looks exactly like a young Chinese boy kung-fu actor who was very popular in the 80s. And also how several Chinese characters were depicted in China-made cartoons back when their animation industry was booming.

You have the stereotypical Texan, was Omi really so different?

Actually, funny enough, I'm a Singaporean Chinese, Omi never occurred to me as being racist. Did any of you ask another Chinese/Japanese person whether he/she thought Omi was racist, or are you saying you assumed he was racist because of popular opinion?

[baihu]

Sik Siu-Lung: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__OSuM4cflLE/Sd7Jf8OXoUI/AAAAAAAAC1w/rL9z9UlwisA/s400/img.db

And his often co-star, Kok Siu-Man: http://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml?id=10257&display_set=eng

They often acted together in several Taiwan and Hong Kong kung-fu films, and often their roles were as young bald Shaolin monks. Kok Siu-Man, who often was the comic relief, was usually involved in slapstick gags and generally playing off as a the clumsy one compared to the usually more serious role of Sik Siu-Lung.

So I grew up on those movies and Omi acts nearly exactly like them, in other words, acts exactly as how slapstick antics work in Hong Kong cinema. A form that Christy Hui may also be familiar with, as am I.

[lascoden]

So when Mandarin Wang decided to disguise himself, he chose Wang the Tiger as his codename. That would be like Batman calling himself Bat-Bruce.

[intertobamf]

Well, the pretense is that Wang the Tiger is Mandarin Wang's brother, so it makes sense.

[auggie18]

*cough cough* http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwzcdzV89Z1qmfjj7o1_500.jpg *cough*

[mistygeek]

I've actually read that.

I tracked it down to do it too.

[intertobamf]

I can't really get over how dumb it is for Japanese people to speak to each other in broken English.

[icon_uk]

It's the "'Allo, 'Allo" Far East edition

[leoboiko]

I like how apparently the Chinese living in China can speak better English than Chop-Chop, who lives with Americans.

[riddler13]

I like the Blackhawks, but this can't hold a candle to Herge's "The Blue Lotus" when it comes to a description of the Sino-Manchurian conflict of the early 30's (the true start of WWII, according to some historians).

[mistygeek]

I still haven't read that. I've been trying to read more Tintin, but I just can't seem to pick this up when I do it.

[cypherfdp]

Should I be offended or not? I really don't know.

[cypherfdp]

Also, I'm pretty sure that the Chinese, and any culture with archery, would instantly recognize the act of using flaming arrows.

I mean, Yi Ling, anyone?

[icon_uk]

Blackhawk possibly explains everything to everyone like that... "Now this Andre, is called cof-fee, it's a drink we have here in America" or "Now Sven, you may not recognise these things here, but we call them "windows", they're made out of some sort of non-freezing ice and let you see through walls"

He's heroic, no one said he was bright.

[pallas_athena]

The Chinese would be like "What, you didn't think to strap some gunpowder on that thing?"

See also Hwacha, which fired a barrage of gunpowder arrows, in the 1300s. (Yes, it's Korean, but the Chinese would probably have adopted the idea too.)

[silicondream]

Did Blackhawk just incinerate a board attached to his hands and neck with no visible injuries? That's a good trick.

[mistygeek]

Lockpicks are for the lame!

[lucean]

I love how apparantely burning arrows were only known by native americans. No one else ever thought of such a ingenious trick.

Also, everything else that has been said.

[blackruzsa]

I actually like this. It's an interesting and relatively round sort of storyline for a non-white hero character.

So Wang's a common enough name to not connect Mandarin Wang and Wang the Tiger?

Also, how many girls were reading this? Because that outfit leaves little to nothing to the imagination, inclusive of the knot up front. :))

[skemono]

So Wang's a common enough name to not connect Mandarin Wang and Wang the Tiger?

Could be. 58th most common surname in mainland China, with around 93 million Wangs as of 2007.

[salamangkiero]

93 milllion Wangs. Oh, myyyyy.

[full_metal_ox]

I presume that you intend the "Oh, myyyyy" to be read in George Takei's voice?

[salamangkiero]

Very much so. Though as my old Lit professor said: Once you see a lot of junk bouncing around (he was backstage of a beefcake contest for a local gay bar), it gets boring.

[gtrout]

And then there's the barracks ass-crack, which nobody else has mentioned so I'm doing it here.

What's the date on this?