Yellow Claw (character)

The Yellow Claw is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Al Feldstein and artist Joe Maneely, the character first appeared in Yellow Claw #1 (cover-dated October 1956), published by Atlas Comics, the 1950s predecessor of Marvel.

Publication history

The Yellow Claw 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 written a novel titled The Yellow Claw) whose grandniece, Suwan, was in love with Woo.

While the short-lived espionage series named for him ran for only four issues (October 1956 – April 1957), it featured work by such notables as writer Al Feldstein and artist Joe Maneely (who created the character), Jack Kirby, and John Severin, and introduced characters later integrated into Marvel Comics continuity. Kirby took over as writer-artist with issue #2 – his own pencil art there and in the following issue representing two of the very rare occasions on which he did so. Unusually for a Kirby series, other artists drew the covers: Severin on #2 and 4, and Bill Everett on #3.

The series' influence was felt during the 1960s Silver Age of Comic Books, 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 (September 1967), which introduced a robot version of the character. 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). The actual Yellow Claw resurfaced later, in Captain America #164 (August 1973).