Yellow Claw #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeYellow Claw #1 is the debut issue of one of Atlas Comics' most unusual pre-Marvel espionage titles, introducing two characters who would endure for decades: Jimmy Woo, one of the earliest Chinese-American protagonists in mainstream American comics, and the Fu Manchu-inspired supervillain Plan Chu — known to readers as the Yellow Claw. The series was rare for 1956 in centering its heroism on a competent, consistently capable Asian-American FBI agent, even as it operated within the 'yellow peril' genre conventions of the Cold War era. All principal characters established here — Woo, Suwan, the Yellow Claw, and Nazi war criminal Fritz Von Voltzmann — were later folded into Marvel continuity, most visibly when Jim Steranko reintroduced them through the Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. feature in Strange Tales #160 (1967), and again when Jeff Parker's 2006–2007 Agents of Atlas series used them as a foundation for a sweeping retcon that recast the entire original run as a long game of succession.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 19 grades ▾
This exact issue on ebay
More listings for this title
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The issue was written by Al Feldstein — then a freelancer between his EC Comics years and his long tenure as editor of Mad Magazine — and illustrated by Atlas mainstay Joe Maneely, with Maneely also providing the cover art. Feldstein had been let go by EC publisher Bill Gaines in 1956 when the Comics Code gutted the EC line, and he picked up freelance scripting assignments for editor Stan Lee at Atlas during the brief window before Gaines recalled him to take over Mad after Harvey Kurtzman's departure. Maneely, whom Stan Lee rated as potentially the next Jack Kirby for his extraordinary speed and atmospheric draftsmanship, handled the full art duties on this first issue; Jack Kirby took over as writer-artist beginning with issue #2, making those two issues among the rare instances where Kirby inked his own pencils. Maneely's tragic death in a commuter-train accident in June 1958 cut short what many considered one of Atlas's most distinctive artistic voices, and Yellow Claw #1 stands as one of his most-reprinted works.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Jimmy Woo (James 'Woo Yen Jet'), Chinese-American FBI special agent and the series' central hero — cover-dated October 1956, published by Atlas Comics.
- First appearance of the Yellow Claw (Plan Chu), a century-old Mongol-dynasty Khan and world-domination schemer loosely modeled on the Fu Manchu archetype; his real name and true agenda were not revealed until the 2006–2007 Agents of Atlas miniseries.
- First appearance of Suwan, the Yellow Claw's grandniece, whose romantic feelings for Jimmy Woo place her in recurring conflict with her granduncle's schemes.
- First appearance of Fritz Von Voltzmann (real name Karl von Horstbadden), the Yellow Claw's second-in-command — a Nazi war criminal and former Auschwitz commandant who fled to America under an assumed identity and was blackmailed into the Claw's service.
- Written by Al Feldstein (EC Comics, Mad Magazine) and illustrated and cover-drawn by Joe Maneely, under the editorship of Stan Lee at Atlas Comics.
- The issue contains two complete stories; Feldstein's script credits were confirmed directly by him to researcher Michael J. Vassallo, as documented in the Grand Comics Database.
- Stories from Yellow Claw #1 were reprinted in Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu #2 (December 1974) and subsequently collected in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Black Knight/Yellow Claw (September 2009 hardcover) and Agents of Atlas: The Complete Collection (2018).
- Jimmy Woo was reintroduced into Marvel continuity in Strange Tales #160 (September 1967) — a decade after his Atlas debut — and later portrayed by Randall Park in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) and WandaVision (2021).
Cast · 6 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in All Star Adventure Comic #3 (1960), Climax Adventure Comic #12 (1973), Climax Adventure Comic #11 (1974), Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu #1 (1974), Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu #2 (1974), Agents of Atlas #[nn] (2007), Big Hero 6 #5 (2009), Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Black Knight / Yellow Claw #1 (2009), Agents of Atlas: The Complete Collection #1 (2018), Atlas Artist Edition #1 (2023)
Key issues in Yellow Claw
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.