One Of The MCU’s Goofiest Characters Is Secretly A Marvel Badass

Randall Park’s FBI Agent James “Jimmy” Woo doesn’t come off as much of a threat when he makes his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as a foil to Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang in “Ant-Man and the Wasp.” In a movie already dripping with comic relief, his bumbling agent seems to exist solely as a punching bag. And while he’s given more to do in “Wandavision,” the MCU’s Woo is still played more or less as the butt of the joke in most of his scenes. He’s a far cry from the comic book version of Jimmy Woo, who for decades has flown under the radar as a size-shifting, Avengers-leading, Godzilla-fighting badass.

Jimmy Woo actually predates Marvel Comics, having debuted in 1956 in the “Yellow Claw” series from Atlas Comics before that publisher eventually became Marvel. While “Yellow Claw” would only last four issues, it was enough for Woo to establish himself as one of the publisher’s earliest standouts. In “Yellow Claw” #3, he shrinks himself down to fight an army of tiny soldiers years before Ant-Man was on the scene, and his adventures were just getting started.

Despite “Yellow Claw” ending after just four issues, Woo proved popular enough that he would go on to join S.H.I.E.L.D., where he’d eventually be assigned to the Godzilla Squad when Marvel briefly had the rights to the legendary monster. In 1978, a “What If…?” issue explores an alternate universe where the Avengers unite years earlier. “What If the Avengers Had Fought Evil During the 1950s?” sees Woo leading a different team of heroes in battle, and while the story was a hypothetical one, this issue puts Woo in the position of one of the first-ever leaders of Marvel Comics’ flagship team.

Jimmy Woo as a comic book trailblazer

Besides being a character with tons of untapped stories to be explored in the MCU, Jimmy Woo was also somewhat of a milestone for diversity and representation in comic books. Around the time of Woo’s debut, Asian characters were often portrayed in comics as racist stereotypes speaking in broken English. But Woo bucked that trend, and the character was quickly established as being just as capable as — if not more than — any of his fellow agents, regardless of race.

Eventually, comic book Woo would lead his very own super team, the Agents of Atlas. In recent years, the character has continued to foster more representation in comics, as the team was rebranded as the New Agents of Atlas in 2019, a group now comprised entirely of Asian and Asian-American heroes.

Randall Park’s portrayal of Woo onscreen is undeniably charming and likable, but it’s also fair to view it as somewhat of a missed opportunity. He serves his purpose as a goofy side character amongst a sea of goofy side characters in the MCU perfectly well, but Woo has a wealth of history begging to be explored that could easily, and deservedly, raise him on another level. It’s hard to imagine that the guy stupefied by a card trick in Marvel movies is the same secret agent who volunteered to fight Godzilla in a giant Gundam suit.

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Read the original article on Looper.