It's 1946 in Metropolis and Lois Lane is waiting for Superman to save the day. He shows up, of course, and slays the Atom Man, a Nazi soldier. Like a movie, there's a scene change to a car ride with four passengers: the Lee family.
There's Dr. Lee, who has a new job at the Metropolis Health Department, his wife, who he keeps reminding to speak English instead of Cantonese; and his two kids: Roberta (originally Lan-shin) and Tommy. They're moving from Chinatown, Los Angeles to White suburbia. Upon arrival, they're greeted by a welcoming committee of his new boss, Dr. Wilson, and mildly racist coworker, Dr. William. Soon, they're harassed by local hate group, the Klan of the Fiery Kross. A whole slew of problems are encountered, but with Superman and a team-effort, Good trumps Evil.
Touching on racism, assimilation, and coming-to-age woes of trying to fit in, Gene Luen Yang merged all themes into a deep-but-still-lighthearted digestible bundle. Character-heavy, Yang includes flashbacks from Superman's early days in 1926, where we discover he, too, was an immigrant of sorts (alien sorts) trying to condense himself for human approval.
Yang based the graphic novel off of his own life growing up as a first-generation and a 1946 radio serial episode of "The Adventures of Superman." This popular radio show single-handedly humbled another potential revival and uprising of the Klu Klux Klan. If Superman was against bigotry, so were Superman's biggest fans, the American people.
His personal history and the American history surrounding the radio show is all detailed in an afterword essay once the story is done. A nice closure essay to grasp interesting tidbits, like Superman's uniform actually being based off of circus' strongmen, and how the duo creators of Superman were two Jewish friends – right after World War II – who also felt the impact of hate in their own land.
A must read for tweens, teens, and Superman fans everywhere.