DC is celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month in May with a variety of variant covers and a new series entitled Duo.
Duo, written by Greg Pak (Action Comics) and illustrated by artists Khoi Pham (Teen Titans) and Scott Hanna (Green Lantern Corps), takes place in DC's new Earth-M universe, which will be the banner moving forward for all of the company's Milestone books. Nanotech engineers Dr. Kelly Vu and Dr. David Kim -- a husband and wife duo -- take center stage in the six-issue series. The pair can command regenerative nanobots and share a single super-powered body. Their first appearance was in Milestone Returns: Infinite Edition #0, which is available to read on the DC Universe Infinite website and app.
Aside from Duo's debut, DC will also release seven AAPI-themed variant covers that will release each week of May. The variants include a Batgirls #6 cover by Audrey Mok showcasing Cassandra Cain swinging through the traffic of Hong Kong, a Marcus To cover for the Monkey Prince #4 that shows the titular simian singing karaoke with his pig mentor, a Jen Bartel Nightwing #92 cover showing Dick Grayson, Melinda Zucco and the Batgirls eating dim sum, a Dexter Soy cover for Robin #14 featuring Damian Wayne and Connor Hawke enjoying Korean barbeque on a rooftop, a Superman: Son of Kal-El #11 cover by Brian Ching centered on Jon Kent and his new boyfriend Jay Nakamura, and a The Swamp Thing #13 variant by Anand Radhakrishnan showing the new Indian avatar of the Green, Levi Kamei. A Catwoman #42 variant by Takeshi Miyazawa is also in the works and has yet to be revealed.
On the subject of Duo releasing during AAPI Heritage month, Pak pointed to the two main characters, calling them a prime example of the representation that the Milestone imprint has brought to comic books over the years.
"No single project can represent the experiences of a whole community, so I'm not going to make any sweeping statements like that," Pak said. "But I'm thrilled about the project because so many Asian-Americans live in Pan-Asian families, where you have people of multiple backgrounds in the same family. And here, we've got a Korean-American man and a Vietnamese-American woman. Those kinds of relationships are everywhere, but they're seldom represented, you know? And so, there's something nice about normalizing that kind of experience."
DC's 2022 AAPI offerings follow the company's 2021 release, a special entitled DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration. The 96-page one-shot introduced the Monkey Prince to the DC Universe and was filled with stories starring Asian characters. The company has promised more AAPI Heritage Month content to come in the future.
Duo #1, by Pak, Pham and Hanna, goes on sale May 17. The variant covers hit comic shops beginning on May 3 and every following Tuesday.
Source: Trendz OH
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