How a comics geek quit his boring job and wrote Marvel Comics a Hong Kong Iron Man story
- Chinese-Canadian Howard Wong created the narrative for Hong Kong Disneyland’s Iron Man Experience ride, and later an Iron Man story set in the city
- The ultimate fanboy turned professional, his obsessive side came in handy when Bandai was putting out Stormtrooper samurais with nipples on their armour
One of Howard Wong’s strangest career moments came in 2014 during an important meeting in Hong Kong with Japanese executives from Bandai, the toy company that produces manga action figures like Astro-Boy, Ultraman and Gundam.
A freelance creative consultant, Wong was there to discuss storylines for a new robot character. But before that, the agenda included updates on a crossover product line showing Star Wars characters as samurais. As the suits reviewed sales projections and production schedule, the Chinese-Canadian writer noticed something odd in the prototype toys.
“The Stormtroopers had nipples on their armour,” Wong says. “So I asked ‘why do they have nipples?’ The executives paused, then also asked, ‘yeah, why are there nipples on Stormtroopers?’”
Urgent emails flew off to Japan. Responsible adults evaluating management decisions suddenly degenerated into a round table of nerds debating whether Edo-period troops for Darth Vader would have protruding areolas.
“I was just curious. I figured the designer was dirty-minded. But it turns out there’s a rationale. Back in feudal Japan, some samurais were Buddhist and had armour shaped like the Buddha’s chest, so that’s why they had nipples,” he says.