Teen Tuesday: Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang

Image: DC Comics

Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang with art by Gurihiru240 p. DC, May, 2020. 9781779504210. (Review of finished purchased copy.)

Teen Tuesday features Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang with art by Gurihiru. Mr. Yang brings a radio show from the 1940s to vivid life in this graphic novel. The Lee family has moved from Chinatown to Metropolis so that Dr. Lee can start a new job with the Health Department. The Lee children, Tommy and Roberta set about trying to make new friends. Tommy is outgoing and willing to let overt and covert ethnic slurs slip. Roberta, though shy and awkward, feels the need to call out these micro-aggressions. Tommy's an ace pitcher and is asked to join the local baseball team by Jimmy Olsen, who coaches the rec center team when he's not working as a cub reporter for The Daily Planet. The team's pitcher is not at all happy about this change. He and his mother live with his uncle, who is head of the local Klan of the Fiery Kross and they are not at all happy about the Lees move to Metropolis. And then there's Superman, who is fighting crime in Metropolis but also wondering about his own identity and where he fits in. 

The art, energetic and expressive, moves the story along briskly. Eleven pages of author notes and historical photos provide historical context in the back matter. Fans of the superhero and the graphic novel format will not want to miss this!