His paper is titled "Amending Masks and Secret Identities: The Journey of Asian-American Superheroes and Portrayals." Here's a short summary:
As many iconic superheroes as Batman and Iron Man remain popular in contemporary society, the gap between White American superheroes and superheroes of ethnic diversity continues to widen. Within the Marvel and DC Comics rosters, Asian and Asian American superheroes have limited visibility and have remained solely as secondary characters. The Asian American superheroes who have emerged and have gained popularity such as "Master of Kung Fu" Shang Chi of the 1960s and more recently Amadeus Cho (noted as the 7th Smarted person in the entire Marvel Universe) exemplify characters possibly created due to racial preconceptions and stereotypes.Part of Jonathan's research is to measure the general visibility of Asian American comic book characters. Thus, he needs some folks to take an online survey. Doesn't matter if you're into comic books or not. Can you help him out?
