I love how fixated he is on that one aspect of Superman's person, and it's something I'd never thought about before.

Superman Smashes the Klan and the Complicated Art of Superman Smashes the Klan and the Complicated Art of

The tension in the story is built from them putting the people around him (mostly the Lee family) in danger instead. William Henderson is a black police detective who calmly and professionally does his job and rushes to help the Lees after the Klan tries to set their house on fire. Everyone knows that it was the Superman radio show that introduced Jimmy Olsen and Perry White and Kryptonite, but this is also the adventure that helped expose the real 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. Flying Brick: Once Superman accepts himself and his heritage, he learn to fly and comes down from the skies to save the kids from Matt Riggs. 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".

Book Breakdown - Superman Smashes the Klan Brings a Dark Past

The year is 1946, and the Lee family has moved from Metropolis’ Chinatown to the center of the bustling city.

The Dog Bites Back: When Matt shows up at the baseball game, Tommy, Roberta, and even Chuck stand up to him and start hitting him. After Superman has Matt beat and flies into the air with him, he tells him he considers everyone on Earth to be his own people, who share the same future and the same tomorrow, even Matt when he renounces his villainy. When Superman shows up to save Inspector Henderson, Perry White and Lois from the Klan, the Klan, who don't even have guns, are actually dumb (or psychotic) enough to attack him.

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The AV Club highlighted that the book weaves personal stories within the historical context and tackles a lot of concepts "for a middle-grade book, from the capitalist roots of the Klan to immigration, but the creative team does it all with grace and careful intention. Parents as People: The Kents raised Clark to have a heart of gold and the desire to use his abilities for the greater good. Sanity Slippage: Over the course of the story, Matt slowly becomes more fanatical and violent with every setback Superman and the Lees put on the Klan. Hoist by His Own Petard: The Grand Mogul gets strangled to death by Matt Riggs, a bigot he'd exploited for his own ends. The plan worked and although Superman managed to save them, as well as hostages inside the building, he was to late to stop the bomb from going off, destroying much of the building.Tommy is still the new hot starting pitcher for Jimmy Olsen’s Unity House baseball team (displacing Chuck Riggs, who ends up getting roped into the Klan by his uncle). 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". Even as Superman, he desperately hides his alien heritage despite his blatantly inhuman strength, speed, and durability.