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CHIN WU

Real Name: Chin Wu

Identity/Class: Normal human (early 1950s era) (possibly Chinese citizen - see comments)

Occupation: Jet fighter pilot

Group Membership: Korean People's Air Force

Affiliations: Fellow pro-Communist pilots

Enemies: UN military forces (especially US Air Force)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: mobile in Korea;
   formerly China? (see comments)

First Appearance: War Comics#10/5 (June, 1952)

Powers/Abilities: Chin Wu was a trained jet fighter pilot, but susceptible to propaganda and over-estimated his enemy's weaknesses. He also smoked.

Height: Unrevealed
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Black
Hair: Black

History:

(War Comics#10/5 (fb) - BTS) - As part of his military training, Chin Wu was shown propaganda films of easy Communist victories against scared and disorganized enemies with underarmed war machines and under-armored planes. When Wu graduated as a fighter pilot, a prominent general traveled from Peking (now known as Beijing) to congratulate them. The general reinforced the propaganda lies, also telling them of the beauty of a blossoming rose of an exploding bomb. Having completed his training and on his first mission, Wu was eager to shoot many American planes, confident in his side's military, moral and weapon superiority. His jet fighter squadron bombed a US military convoy and he enjoyed the chaos.

(War Comics#10/5) - Wu watched one of his falling bombs explode in the midst American troop convoy and thought it beautiful. But US jet fighters soon attacked back, downing several Communist planes. Wu managed to hit an American plane, but was surprised that it had armor. Shocked that his foes weren't as weak as he had been told, he didn't fully realize that his own jet had been hit. His plane rapidly caught fire and plummeted. Wu's remaining unused bombs contributed to the blossoming fireball as his plane hit the ground with a massive explosion.

 

 

Comments: Created by uncredited writer & Sol Brodsky (art).

A little bizarre that this US quasi-propaganda piece is about North Korean propaganda.

A general came from China's capital city to congratulate the graduated pilots, and many fighter pilots for North Korea came from China (and Russia), so I think Chin Wu is likely Chinese.

The American jets in the story look like the F-84 Thunderjet, but they're not clearly shown. I'm not sure at all about Wu's jet (pictured); it looks a bit like the Russian MiG-9, except the exhaust vent shown is at the tail. Artistic license or maybe a squad of experimental jets?

Chin could be the surname, but given this was the early 1950s, I expect American mentality of the era to consider Wu as the family name.

I (sarcastically) expect it was difficult for artists at the time to depict the Asian enemy in the Korean War; a foe's appearance was often an ugly racist caricature (consider the depictions of Japanese ten years earlier (1940s)), yet Koreans were divided ideologically, so race was not an easy identifier of a foe.

Profile by Grendel Prime.

CLARIFICATIONS :
Chin Wu has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
War Comics#10/5, p2, pan4 (main image)
   p4, pan3 (headshot)
   p3, pan2 (jet)

Appearances:
War Comics#10/5 (June, 1952) - uncredited writer, Sol Brodsky (art), uncredited editor

First posted: 06/18/18

Last updated: 06/18/18

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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