12.6.10

Egg Fu (re-revisited)

In 2006, DC Comics introduced a new version of Egg Fu called Chang Tzu in the pages of the popular weekly mini-series 52.

In 1965, some twenty years after World War II and during the civil rights movement in the United States, DC Comics published Wonder Woman #157 featuring "the most startling villain ever devised" - the Communist Chinese agent and mastermind Egg Fu - a supersized egg-shaped monstrosity with a Fu Manchu mustache as a weapon. I think most people would agree that this was a racist caricature, maybe not the hateful vitriol of neo-Nazism or the Klu Klux Klan but there's definitely malicious and spiteful aspect to the ridiculous of the character. It is a literal example of de-humanizing your enemy and Communist China was the enemy of this country at that time [and some people would argue they still are].

In subsequent interviews, a couple of the writers of 52 claimed the rehabilitation of the Egg Fu was one of their greater achievements in the series. Can someone please explain how the character is rehabilitated ? At what one point does the re-imagined version stop being racist ?

Text from Chris, and more here.
Egg Fu (Revisited)

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