Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew's The Shadow Hero will be serialized digitally each month by First Second beginning Feb. 18.

The upcoming graphic novel crafts a new origin for the Green Turtle, an obscure Golden Age character believed to have been imagined as Chinese-American by his creator Chu Hing -- making him the very first Asian-American superhero.

“His publishers didn’t think that would fly in the marketplace,” Yang explained last year, “so Chu Hing reacted in this really passive-aggressive way: He drew those original Green Turtle comics so that we never see the hero’s face. Whenever the hero is on a panel, we almost always just see his cape. Whenever he is turned around, something is blocking his face. [...] Rumor is that Chu Hing did this so he could imagine his hero as he originally intended, as a Chinese-American.”

In The Shadow Hero, the Green Turtle is envisioned as a young Asian-American immigrant whose mother is excited about having a superhero for a son, "with at times disastrous results."

In keeping with the Green Turtle's Golden Age roots, First Second will serialize The Shadow Hero in six monthly digital issues:

  • The Shadow Hero 1: The Green Turtle Chronicles  -- On sale Feb. 18
  • The Shadow Hero 2: The Dawn of a Golden Age – On sale March 18
  • The Shadow Hero 3: Fathers and Sons – On sale April 15
  • The Shadow Hero 4: Fights You Cannot Win – On sale May 20
  • The Shadow Hero 5: True Colors – On sale June 17
  • The Shadow Hero 6: Enter the Green Turtle – On sale July 15

Each issue be available through Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble. The Shadow Hero full graphic novel will be published July 15 in print and digitally.