KUALA LUMPUR: When the author Minh Le began thinking of ways he could put his own spin on the story of the DC Comics character the Green Lantern, he suddenly recalled the jade ring his late grandmother always wore.
Le's grandmother, Ton Nu Tuy-Nhan, had brought the ring with her when she and the rest of the family fled Vietnam as refugees during the Vietnam War.
As Le began developing the storyline for his graphic novel Green Lantern: Legacy, which DC Comics is set to release next Tuesday, he realised that making his main character a Vietnamese-American boy who is granted supernatural powers through a jade ring he inherits from an elder would be a perfect fit for the story he wanted to tell.
"There was something about that imagery and iconography of the character that felt really familiar," Le said of the Green Lantern, who was introduced to comic readers in 1940.
"That's when I thought of my grandmother and her jade ring. Once I had that picture in my head, the rest of the story fell into place," he said in a news report by NBC News today.
Green Lantern: Legacy marks the first time the character has been depicted as an Asian-American.
The original comic introduced readers to a Caucasian New Yorker named Alan Scott, but in recent years the Green Lantern has diversified.
Illustrated by Singaporean artist Andie Tong, Green Lantern: Legacy explores the story of Tai Pham, a schoolboy who lives in an apartment above the store his grandmother runs.
One day when he puts on his grandmother's ring he realises that he is the Green Lantern.
As he comes into his powers, Tai realises that it is his job to protect his neighbourhood from racist bullies while building on the legacy his grandmother began in Vietnam.
Le, a father of two, said writing the book made him realise just how critical a child's school years was.
"I always say that kids of this age are very much living their own origin story," he said.
"Writing for them means writing about what it means to navigate the world."
Le said that as he was growing up in a family of refugees, he found it particularly powerful to be given the chance to remake an iconic American character into a story about a Vietnamese-American boy and his grandmother.
"To me, this is a moment to pay tribute to not only my grandmother but to that whole generation of people who uprooted themselves and came to this country with almost nothing but the fortitude and creativity to carve out a life," he said.
It was also significant that Le had the chance to tell a different story about the Vietnam War from the one typically told to young American readers.
"When you go to the bookstore or library growing up, there's this huge section on Vietnam, but it's all about the Vietnam War. Books about Vietnam as a country and Vietnamese people are only there as the backdrop to American historical trauma," he said.
"So to be able to write a story that centres our community — where we're not just background characters or sidekicks but the actual heroes of the story — was really meaningful."
As in many refugee families, Le's relatives were often hesitant to talk about life during the war or the struggles they faced during their early years in the United States.
"The stories of my family's departure from Vietnam in particular weren't stories I grew up with. It wasn't something our family talked about," he said.
"I wanted to talk about that, too, because we have such a rich history, but there is also so much pain there."
Le hopes readers will embrace their own powers, superheroic or otherwise.
"Anyone has the potential to be a hero and to step up when it matters," he said.
"For readers to come away from this to look at the real-life heroism that surrounds them on a daily basis — that would be a huge win for me."