MAJOR PICTO SPOTLIGHT: WONDER WOMAN #157
Today's Picto Spotlight features a first appearance you might not be too familiar with—Egg Fu, a bizarre villain who seems like he should belong to the Golden Age rather than a comic from 1965! His debut stands out as a truly unique moment in comic book history.
Here's a quick bio from DC Comics:
Egg Fu is a Chinese super-villain and enemy of Wonder Woman. Shaped inexplicably like a giant egg, he is a super-genius and former communist agent. Utilizing a mechanical exoskeleton, Egg Fu walks around on spider-like legs, each concealing a hidden armory. He’s been involved with groups like Intergang, the Great Ten, and the Science Squad on Oolong Island.
What makes Egg Fu so notable isn’t just his outlandish appearance or his role as a Wonder Woman antagonist, but also the time in which he was introduced. This character’s concept, with its heavy reliance on questionable racial stereotypes, is a stark reminder of the era when he was created. Interestingly, around the same time, DC Comics was beginning to distance itself from such portrayals. For example, the Asian sidekick Chop Chop was later rebranded as Dr. Hands, a move that signaled a shift in how publishers were starting to address issues of these racial stereotypes
It’s fascinating to look back at characters like Egg Fu, as they’re products of their time—an era when stereotypes were more commonly used in comics.
