Teenage sad sack Marcus Shugel-Shen gets new powers and a weird mentor as he fends off attacks by the side demons of a powerful big bad. But his biggest enemies are his own anxieties and fears. (It is interesting that those anxieties and fears are tied directly to Batman though.) Of course, he starts to loosen up, flirting with a girl and having some fun with his powers. Despite all the trappings of Chinese mythology, this comes off as a fairly typical teenage superhero launch, reminding me strongly of the Billy Batson Captain Marvel or the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle.

I wondered why the collection stopped in the middle of a four-chapter arc, but I researched and found out this is a 12-issue limited series, so they broke it in the middle in order to have two collections. I'll probably pick up that second volume to see how things turn out.

I am tempted to read Monkey King: Journey to the West the 16th century epic by Wu Cheng'en that inspired this comic and Yang's American Born Chinese. I see my library even has a version with a foreword by Yang. ( )