Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, cultural appropriation, entertainment, iron fist, marvel, netflix, racism, whitewashing

Complaints About Iron Fist's Cultural Appropriation And Lack Of Asian Protagonists – From 1974

There has been considerable complaints regarding the recent Marvel Netflix version of Iron Fist, for casting a white man in the lead, of a show that focuses on East Asian imagery, spirituality and concepts. It has been criticised for cultural appropriation – but that has also been criticised because Danny Rand, Iron Fist, was and always has been portrayed in the comics in exactly this fashion. And that this is a modern complaint that shouldn't apply to adapting such a comic from the seventies. Iron Fist was fine at the time, and should be seen in that context.

But was it fine at the time?

In the letter column from Marvel Premiere #17, which referred to Marvel Premiere #15, the first appearance of Iron Fist back in 1974, one letter really stands out in this context.

William F. Wu of Kansas wrote over forty years ago, "Iron Fist might have been a pioneer, a publishing coup. Instead, it's just another new superhero. Marvel now has two regular comic-book titles featuring martial arts experts [the other being Shang Chi, Master Of Kung Fu]. The total of Asian ancestry is one-eighth and belongs, of course, to the symbol of the "Yellow Peril," Fu Manchu. Marvel continues to turn away from Asian protagonists, even when the heart of the storyline is Asian in basis."

"Marvel's omission of an apparently human Asian hero is reminiscent of the omission of black characters in the early 'sixties. For many years, racial consciousness has been growing, and with the success of the kung fu films, the problem of identifying with a pen-and-ink Bruce Lee is gone"

The letter gets no reply from the editor, Roy Thomas, who also created the character (basing him on Bill Everett's Amazing Man, also white) but he did run the letter.

But to everyone who sees this as criticism as something born of the social media age of taking offence… with Iron Fist, it was there right at the beginning.

As for William F Wu, he is a Chinese-American science fiction author who published his first story in 1977, three years after this letter. He has had thirteen published novels, including two entries in the Isaac Asimov Robot City series and the entire Robots in Time series and a collection of some of his many short stories, being nominated for Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards, and being a member of the Wild Cards writing group.

Wu is the author of the scholarly work, The Yellow Peril, a revised version of his doctoral dissertation in American Culture from the University of Michigan on American fiction's evolving depiction of Chinese and Chinese-Americans.

His most acclaimed book, Hong on the Range, was adapted into a comic book trilogy by Fly Paper Press for Image Comics and is in development for film and television entertainment with Matinee Entertainment.

Many thanks to Hugh Sheridan for noticing the letter in question…

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