Comic Book Review: Superman Smashes the Klan #3 story by Gene Luen Yang, art by Gurihiru
Note: This review contains SPOILERS for the first two issues.
Previously: The Lee family moved from Chinatown to Metropolis when Dr. Lee got a job with the city health department. Tommy Lee, a young baseball player, soon found his footing as a member of the Unity House team, coached by Jimmy Olsen. His sister Roberta, who has a tendency to motion sickness and is more shy, has a harder time fitting in with her new neighbors. Things are not helped by the Klan of the Fiery Cross, a hate group that wants to expel all people not like them from Metropolis. They’ve attacked several times now, thwarted by Superman and his friends at the Daily Planet. But Superman is undergoing his own crisis, and the Klan has struck at the Planet itself….
This volume opens with a flashback, as Clark Kent goes to the circus with his parents and Lana Lang. After a cameo by the Flying Graysons, there’s a fire in the tent, and Clark helps out. He meets circus strongman Samson, who gives him some tips on costuming and pulling off a double identity. (This is a tip of the hat to Superman’s costume being designed to look like a circus strongman’s including the shorts worn outside the tights to smooth out embarrassing bulges.)
In the present, Superman saves the Planet building, then goes to rescue the hostages the Klan took.
Meanwhile, Chuck Riggs, nephew of Klan leader Matt Riggs, has a fight with Tommy because he’s still trying to process that his uncle’s philosophy is evil.
Roberta poses some questions to Superman that point out he may be holding himself back, and he goes back to Smallville for some answers about his past. He finds them in Lake Solitude.
Matt escapes custody with the aid of a mole in the police department, then contacts the real head of the Klan in Metropolis. That man reveals the true purpose of the Klan, and he and Matt have a falling out.
At last it’s time for the Unity House baseball game against the team from Gotham City, but it’s interrupted by Matt Riggs, who goes public as the Grand Scorpion, now armed with weapons that can harm even Superman, who he has some alarming news about! Will the Grand Scorpion triumph and force his “One Race, One Color, One Religion” dogma on the citizens of Metropolis?
Okay, no, the ending is right there in the title.
The text article talks about the original radio story that inspired this miniseries, and more about Mr. Yang’s personal history.
The art remains fun and bright, and the themes of accepting others and yourself, and “bigotry is bad” shine through.
This is a suitable ending to the story, and I think will play well for middle-schoolers on up. (Younger readers may need some adult guidance on racism and related themes.) Highly recommended, and now available in a collected volume.
