Greg Pak is a writer who is very active in several areas, especially on representation and necessary progress. Considering his various comic inspirations, his political aspirations, and how his career starts, this is a given. His debut in Marvel brings about resolution to both the X-Men and Incredible Hulk, meeting good friends, and learning to appreciate what you’ve got. Because opportunities can arise from many situations like DC allowing Pak to show the human side of Superman. So why sweat the small stuff when showing off your passions can lead to people making personal and social progress?
The Greg Pak Foundations
When it comes to comics a list Pak makes on Bookshop.org reveals his early inspirations. From the Peanuts and Marlys, Greg Pak finds humor in the mundane relatability of everyday life. The samurai stories of Kazuo Koike and Stan Sakai are also something that sticks; my best guess that much like with Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One, there’s an appeal of different people coming together for something. But unlike any of these characters, Pak wanted to go into politics where he could get his perspective out.
Pak in particular grows his passions from the people closest to him. This includes but is not limited to his immigrant Korean grandparents; his grandfather being the star of his award winning student film Fighting Grandpa. This and a few other films about different people (usually Asians) struggling to coexist with others get plenty of attention from others. Not least of which is his wife Keiko Ibi and some people at Marvel. Funny how the things you do in your spare time are the things that matter more when you can share them.
Marvel’s War With Continuity
The first title Pak tackles is Warlock: Second Coming, this series details the struggle of trying to live up to a legacy. Through the character Janie, Pak demonstrates trying to forge an identity from scratch. Because entering one of the Big Two comic publishers comes with a lot of expectations. No one can hope to do great on their first tries and it’s going to take a lot of oversight and insight to properly develop. Fortunately building on the inspirations of others is what Pak takes away from this.
X-Men: The Claremont Chronicles
Pak would eventually get the chance to work with the X-Men. With the mutant metaphor, it seems like a good fit. However some of Greg Pak’s most notable work involves filling gaps from the era of Chris Claremont. The first of which involves putting Jean and the Phoenix Force to rest in X-Men: Phoenix – Endsong. The story fully accepts that some things cannot be brought back for more stories.
Jean Grey and the Phoenix Force have started to become static and somewhat redundant in their usage. As an ever resurrecting powerhouse, Jean and the Phoenix feel lackluster in comparison to the other X-Men. This is especially relevant as the Phoenix in terms of relationships can feel parasitical. It’s dependent on both high energy and the need to feel things like love. So Pak and artist Greg Land bring both parties to their full potential before sending them both off after a satisfying sendoff. It’s follow-up Phoenix – Warsong is best left untouched.
Reflecting On the Metaphor
Then there’s X-Men: Magneto Testament, the story of Max Eisenhardt, Magneto’s original identity. Building off of Claremon’ts original origin, Pak shows Max’s exposure to some of the worst of humanity even as he tried to make the most of everything; this includes a fleeing romance with a gypsy and trying to subtilely stay connected to his parent’s traditions. Only for all of it to be ripped away by the Nazis with a note being the only thing left of Max. If anything it reinforces his present self’s beliefs about humanity, as the hopeful boy has been long dead. Neither has it gotten any easier with humanity’s numerous prejudices.
Storm’s Coming In
But then there comes stories that are just simple tributes to character Pak loves. X-Men’s Storm is about seeing the humanity of such a character. Ororo Munroe is someone who wishes to help whoever she can, but also dealing with a paragon complex. While she does help a lot of people, she can also get judgmental with her achievements. Silver lining, it’s easier to relate to a character who is as self-conscious as any other person. Not every great hero needs to be totally aspirational.
Fitting In Is Hard
When it comes to his time at Marvel, Pak spends a lot of his time trying to find another niche. While still working with the X-Men, Pak tries to find more work with some rather unnecessary tie-ins and sequels. Marvel Nemesis: The Imperfects and Iron Man: House of M are merely cash grabs to poorly planned gambles from Marvel. This would obviously leave Pak more than a little frustrated as he has made good work on a What If story featuring Namor; a story about how neglecting one’s heritage and living with prejudice can ultimately doom people. Yet during Marvel 1602: The New World, Pak finds a kindred spirit to his frustrations, the Incredible Hulk.
Greg Pak Rages Against the Marvel Machine
Greg Pak has a spotty record when it comes to most of the Marvel Universe; War Machine, Alpha Flight, Silver Surfer, nothing seems to connect with him. Now the Hulk is a different story. The Hulk has come to represent every person’s anger about the small things that lead to severe consequences; but most people only see an unstoppable monster. For that reason, Marvel didn’t want the Hulk around for its Civil War event; so they casually decided to throw him into space. When Pak becomes writer for this turn of events, he displays not a monster but a frustrated everyman at his breaking point. The rage boils into a point where all depictions of the Hulk become one. This Green Scar persona of Planet Hulk is both a savior to a planets’ slaves as well as a paramount threat to Earth.
The Rage of War
In an almost meta-textual fashion the Green Scar serves Pak’s the collective rage against Marvel’s executive meddling. Ultimately, he fights a losing battle where the status quo remains dominant over a conflict that started from within. Still with a contract to finish, Pak sticks it out a bit longer to build up World War Hulks. The reader meets an extensive family of Gamma mutates including Hulk’s sons Skaar and Hiro-Kala. This series for all of its flaws details how humanly vulnerable these people really are. Beneath all of the layers and rage is a need for love and compassion.
Growing With The Marvels
Now let’s go over a character Pak created and has a deep attachment with, Amadeus Cho. This boy genius and supporting character of the Hulk shares Pak’s feeling of being misunderstood. Amadeus in his early appearances spent life on the run with signs of depression and aimlessness. Like just about anybody, Amadeus and Pak share the frustrations of how the world is full of people abusing power and thriving. But what’s the point of complaining about it if this doesn’t come with self-help. Pak does meet some good friends at Marvel including Amadeus’ co-creator Takeshi Miyazawa and Fred Van Lente. So for some therapeutic times, Pak teams-up with Van Lente for Marvel’s Incredible Hercules.
The adventures of these characters practically mirror the chemistry of Pak and Van Lente; Pak/Cho is the straight man to Fred/Herc’s funny man. But like all great bromances, the roles don’t define either pair. Hercules’ laid back attitude helps Cho keep a cool head during all of the stressful times. Cho in turn ensures Herc takes matters more seriously including making amendments with his wife. Funnily enough, when each of them get a starring role fans don’t seem to care that much. For Amadeus Cho, he didn’t seem to have much direction or arcs. Even as a Hulk or Brawn, Pak just put him on whatever scenario he could think of.
The Direction of Greg Pak
From what I can tell, Greg Pak writes most of his series with an outline but not a lot of long-term plans. This isn’t a bad thing, as Pak does seem to have a good time with everybdy; it just feels like Pak flies by the seat of his pants at times. Weapon H stars a tragic if loving character in the campy Marvel universe. Because when it comes to spinning off of Pak’s more serious but less successful Weapons of Mutant Destruction, sometimes it’s better to embrace the madness. Grant Morrison probably says it best through Superman; “These no-nonsense solutions of yours just don’t any water in this complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel”. Because when you try to take things more seriously like in Turok: Dinosaur Hunter but no long-term plan, the improvisation can come across as jarring.
Greg Pak Meets The Man Of Steel
Just look at Pak’s opportunity to work with Superman. Starting out with Batman/Superman, Pak finds the World’s Finest larger-than-life hijinks so absurd that there’s no point in trying to make it serious. But a counterpoint rises in the Action Comics line where Superman’s humanity becomes more visible. Greg Pak unfolds Superman’s humanity including his relationship with his Smallville crush Lana Lang. What’s more Superman does whatever he can to defend people who lack the power to defend themselves. Because everyone at the mercy of people abusing power needs a Superman. But don’t take my word for it.
Greg Pak Cuts Loose
Greg Pak seems to really enjoy doing stories that don’t take themselves so seriously. That’s what his sillier X-Men stories suggest; nothing all that notable, but it might’ve inspired Exiles. On the other hand, Pak finds Kickstarter to be a place to put in ideas he genuinely wants to try out and have a good time with. I mean the guy gets to adapt songs by comedy songwriter Jonathan Coulton; he even gets Miyazawa to be the artist for these projects. Between Code Monkey Save The World and The Princess Who Saved Herself, it felt like three friends getting together.
The Anthology Chronicles
There are plenty of gonzo ideas to choose from, so why should creators like Greg Pak limit themselves to the big publishers? But with so many ideas it’s hard to know what will stick. So by working with creators of similar and different backgrounds, Pak puts out some ideas onto anthologies. Two of which deal with the Asian American identity with Shattered being where one of these ideas get picked up by a publisher.
Some people at Boom Studios found a story they liked from the anthologies and give the okay to make it a full series. After the premature end of the weird western Kingsway West, Pak seemed up for it. Mech Cadet Yu pairs Pak and Miyazawa again for a story about defying expectations. The title character is an admirer of past giant robots of heroism; but he doesn’t have the resources to join the corps. As fate would have it however, he ends up bonding with a giant misfit robot. With both of them struggling as much as everyone else, it sends a positive message that no matter the background anyone can be something more; all with some great emotional payoff.
Greg Pak On Asian Identity
Not willing to stop at that point Pak decides to put his love of the chanbara genre to the test. Ronin Island is a rather interesting take on the East Asian identity. A number of people like to put Chinese, Korean, (sometimes Vietnamese) and Japanese people into one group despite the cultural differences. It’s a topic that Pak keeps so close that he has all three trades in his best books list.
Anyway… what happens when a 19th century cataclysm forces these three groups of peoples together on an island; one that seems to favor feudal Japan no less? Hana does not seem to like this situation; being the daughter of dead Korean farmers she regularly clashes with samurai heir Kenichi. But when the Shogun demands tribute to protect the island, they have to confront that the surface level differences mean very little. People will always fight over the small things to maintain a sense of identity. Yet despite whatever flaws are present, people are more than willing to fight for a home despite the mistakes they make along the way. It’s being able to learn from those mistakes that make the difference.
What Kind of Difference?
Among the topics that Greg Pak seems to want to dive into are the clashes between the melting pot and salad bowl philosophies. With a greater demand for ethnic representation in pop culture, there comes a lot of ways of trying to implement the idea. With Marvel putting emphasis on its Shang-Chi movie, the company calls in Pak for supplementary material in relation to the character. Enter the Agents of Atlas lead by Shang-Chi and golden age character James Wu. This all Asian team is mostly an advertisement on several fronts. The biggest are for new characters Aero and Sword Master from a partnership with Chinese IT company NetEase.
The Asian American Identity
However fans seem to have a strong preference for Greg Pak and Pop Mhan’s backup stories featuring the characters. The main stories by NetEase creatives don’t seem to reach audiences as well. The reason for this is what I feel is the main difference between Asians and Asian Americans. See more about that on this post here.
Greg Pak: The Fanboy
Despite being an advocate for authentic representation, Pak wants creators to work with material they can personally enjoy. Greg Pak’s catalogue does include comics of licenses for Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Star Wars, Stranger Things, and James Bond. Passion and love for someone, something, or even what they can represent can push people to get through the day. Comic writing is still a job, so it’s best to stay attached to what can push those feelings out. Not everyone will share those feelings in regards to Pak’s series, even if it’s for things beyond the writer’s control like artwork. But if a creative can make a difference for somebody even a small one, it can mean a lot more than anyone thinks. Otherwise people are going to feel stuck.
Thanks for coming to the end and as always remember to look between the panels.