Yellow Claw - Publication History

Publication History

While the short-lived espionage series named for him ran only four issues (Oct. 1956 – April 1957), it featured work by such notable artists as Joe Maneely, Jack Kirby, and John Severin, and introduced characters later integrated into Marvel Comics continuity. The series chronicled the adventures of a Chinese-American FBI agent, Jimmy Woo, and his battles against a "yellow peril" Communist mandarin, known only as the Yellow Claw. The title character was a Fu Manchu manqué (indeed, Fu Manchu author Sax Rohmer had a novel titled The Yellow Claw) whose grandniece, Suwan, was in love with Woo.

Kirby took over as writer-artist with issue #2 — inking his own pencil art there and in the following issue, representing two of the very rare occasions on which he did so. Well regarded for its relatively mature storyline and in particular for Maneely's atmospheric art, the series nevertheless failed to find an audience. Its influence was felt during the 1960s Silver Age of comics, however, as writer-artist Jim Steranko brought the Yellow Claw into Marvel Comics continuity, beginning with the "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." feature in Strange Tales #160 (Sept. 1967), which introduced a robot version of the character; the actual Yellow Claw resurfaced later. Woo was reintroduced that same issue, eventually joining the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D. in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 (July 1968).