The Good Asian #9 Review

Writer: Pornsak Pichetshote / Artist: Alexandre Tefengki / Image Over the past year, we have been diligently following the misadventures of one Edison Hark, a Chinese-American detective who found himself embroiled in several conspiracies, encountering serial killers, and police who actively wished him dead (a slight distinction I suppose, but one that must be noted), and as of last issue, death itself. The Good Asian #8 situated the perspective around Lucy Fan in the aftermath of Hark’s death post a factory explosion after a conflict with the Hui Long and Mr. Nash. However, the final pages revealed that Hark was very much alive, and the mystery behind Ivy Chen’s disappearance and the dark dealings of Hark’s former love Victoria Carroway still had plenty of loose ends. It’s 1936 folks and hits just don’t stop coming. The Good Asian #9 flashbacks to the coda of The Good Asian #8 and lets Pichetshote explain the circumstances that allowed Hark to escape the predicament and also give more time to show some poignant backstory. Watching a young Edison Hark talk with three different parental figures, each giving him drastically different advice and muddling his sense of identity, hits like a goddamn truck. As a mixed Filipino-American myself, this conversation resonated deeply and are perfect examples of why I have latched onto Hark as a protagonist. His internal struggles, his processing of the impossible situation he is constantly thrust into, the slow iteration to becoming better…