DC Comics writer Amy Chu has said that some original characters were “downright racist”.
In an interview with Syfy, DC Comics writer revealed her aims in writing comics and her challenge in overcoming “downright racist” characters.
Chu has published several anthologies in the comic world including ‘Shattered: The Asian American Comic Anthology’, ‘Poison Ivy’ and ‘Wonder Woman’ as well as Marvel comics, ‘Deadpool’, ‘Secret Wars’, ‘DMC’ and even Gene Simmons’ own KISS comic.
Chu is currently writing three titles for Dynamite: ‘Red Sonja’, ‘Deja Thoris’ and a retelling of the Green Hornet that showcases the importance of Kato’s daughter.
When asked about why she chose to focus her ‘Green Hornet’ comic on Kato’s daughter, Cho said it was important to move away from racist characters.
“Taking on some of these older properties, it’s about fixing a lot of things,” Chu said. “I mean, let’s face it, some of their original stuff (not just green Hornet) but a lot of characters were just downright racist.
Chu believes that fans genuinely care more about Green Hornet’s sidekick. “The whole popularity of Green Hornet was really around the sidekick Kato,” she said. “If you ask a lot of people, he was the real star of the show.”
Chu added that because Kato’s ethnicity was constantly changed, the character needed to be fixed. “A lot of what I’m trying to explore here is to fix some of that because of course they kept changing his ethnicity,” she said. “I said well if the new Green Hornet is going to be Kato’s daughter, then I get an opportunity to start addressing some of these things in a more contemporary manner.”
