DC’s new Asian American superhero is Shazam by way of Journey to the West

polygon.com:

Wu Cheng’en’s Journey to the West has inspired countless tales, and been retold over and over again, as one of the four classics of Chinese literature. And at the heart of this legendary masterpiece is its breakout character: Sun Wukong, the Monkey King.

The Monkey King has long been a subject of fascination and inspiration to Asian imaginations creatives. Son Goku, of Akira Toriyama’s Dragonball is, after all, just the Japanese translation of “Sun Wukong” — and Goku is further equipped with Wukong’s magic staff, tail, and flying cloud to surf upon.

It is only fitting then that the tradition continues, and something new is created once more from the legend of The Monkey King: DC Comics’ newest superhero, the Monkey Prince.

What if Sun Wukong, the legendary Monkey King, had a son? And what if that boy didn’t know who he really was? That’s the juicy premise of The Monkey Prince, set to kick off the story of a whole new Asian American hero and his journey of self-discovery.

Marcus Shen is the son of two henchmen-for-hire — meaning he’s afraid of superheroes, and he moves around a lot. He struggles to fit in at a new school, but things seem to change when he meets Mr. Zhu, the maintenance man, and learns that his true father is the legendary Sun Wukong, the Monkey King.

There’s a touch of The Karate Kid here, clearly, as we see a kid who’s lost really find his purpose and stand up for himself. But beyond that, this is very much a coming-of-age-story steeped in Chinese literature and American superhero world-building. Marcus’s life has taken him all over the DC Universe, he’s seen Batman, and the book is even set in Gotham. So it’s very rooted in a familiar superhero setting, but with touches like “Mr. Zhu” — who is just