A to Z of 2024: Marvel hero Jitter creates discourse about cultural, neurodivergent stereotypes

Sofia Yong (Earth-616) is Jitter, a Singaporean teen mutant with the ability to take on any skill or talent for one minute before crashing. PHOTOS: MARVEL

Charmaine Lim

UPDATED Dec 29, 2024, 06:00 AM

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SINGAPORE – Singaporean Marvel character Sofia Yong, or Jitter, garnered plenty of online discussion after the announcement of her character on Aug 9. She first appeared as an unnamed character in the Aug 7 issue of the rebooted Uncanny X-Men series.

Written by American comic writer Gail Simone and illustrated by American comic artist David Marquez, Jitter can fully take on any skill or talent for one minute by concentrating. However, if she over-exerts herself, she fails. To pace herself, Jitter keeps a stopwatch with her at all times, according to the Marvel character card.

She has made several more appearances, revealing more of her backstory in the seven issues (as at Dec 11) that have been released so far.

Netizens have voiced varying opinions about her ability – hyperfocus – being a stereotype of Singaporeans and that having attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is not a superpower.

Many say the ability is nothing more than being a normal student in Singapore, citing displeasure with what feels like a heightened cultural archetype.

touched on such sentiments, leading to a response from Simone in the comments of a Facebook post by the newspaper on Aug 10.

The 50-year-old writer, who disagreed with some of the opinions in the article, wrote: “Jitter is meant to be fun, she has a great heart and bears no resemblance to the article.”

Simone also revealed in her comment that she was inspired to create the character after attending many comic conventions in Singapore and being questioned by comics readers why there were no Singaporean superheroes.

Jitter is one of four teen mutants known as The Outliers in the most recent reboot of the Uncanny X-Men series, first mentioned at the San Diego Comic-Con in July. The young heroes are from Singapore, Japan, Argentina and the United States, each with an ability inspired by invisible disabilities.

Jitter also struggles with a stutter.

Singaporean teen Sofia Yong, or Jitter, has appeared in seven issues of the rebooted Uncanny X-Men series thus far. PHOTO: MARVEL

Simone says: “I do have some experts helping me with the Singlish, the backstory and also her ADHD, which has nothing to do with her country. Each of the four new mutant characters has a difficulty of some kind to overcome.”

After the release of the comic’s first issue, voicing frustrations that the character once again portrays Singaporeans as being nerdy, no-nonsense individuals.

Lin writes: “With her mutant name literally meaning anxious when not doing anything productive, Jitter speaks to the performative pressure here and the uptight insecurities of not living up to expectations.

“As a stuttering mutant able to do a little of everything, she conveys a character hedging because she is unsure of who she is and what she can be really good at, despite being part of the X-Men. How did Marvel know we still feel this way?”

However, Lin also acknowledges that another group of netizens have found Jitter to be accessible, joking about the character being “SkillsFuture on steroids” and the product of a “kiasu tiger mum”.

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Responding in a Facebook post on Aug 21, Simone says: “There’s quite a bit of stuff here that has no place in the character. The stuff about nerdiness and glasses and all of that, simply has nothing to do with Jitter.

“Her power has nothing to do with her being Singaporean, there’s no hidden message in her cool abilities. I understand being concerned, but that just was never part of her character.”

She also points out that the character had appeared in only one panel with two lines of dialogue at that point.

Putting aside online discourse as to whether or not Jitter is a stereotype, the creation of the character is part of the increase in South-east Asian characters by Marvel.

It also highlights the growing trend of showing that not all heroes have to be white Americans or Europeans.

Jitter is one of four teen mutants known as The Outliers in the reboot of the Uncanny X-Men series. PHOTO: MARVEL

One of the most prominent examples of Marvel including Asian heroes in its comic canon is the appearance of Wong in July 1963. Coming from a family of monks in the Tibet-inspired location of Kamar-Taj, Wong would serve the Ancient One before following Stephen Strange later in the comics.

In six Marvel movies, starting with Doctor Strange (2016), Wong is played by English actor Benedict Wong, whose parents are immigrants from Hong Kong.

Jubilation Lee (Jubilee) was among the first Asian mutants to appear in the X-Men franchise under Marvel, debuting in May 1989 in the original run of the Uncanny X-Men series.

The character made several cameo appearances in the X-Men films before being portrayed by Vietnamese-American actress Lana Condor in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016).

While critiques of Jitter having a seemingly stereotypical Asian skill for a superpower are valid, she is not the first Marvel character to be laden with a culturally archetypal ability, such as martial arts or being technologically savvy.

Wong is famously a monk, while Shang-Chi is a gongfu master whose father briefly used the moniker of Dr Fu Manchu. The Collective Man, a Chinese mutant superhero first appearing in August 1980, is actually five brothers with the ability to merge their bodies into one and possesses “the collective abilities of all five men or all the people of China”, according to the comic lore.

Even the appearance of Inhuman superhero Quake in Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013 to 2020), played by Chinese-American actress Chloe Bennet, introduced the character as a computer hacker skilled enough to break into S.H.I.E.L.D. systems.

Whether Jitter will become a stereotype of Singaporean culture remains to be seen.

In her Facebook post, Simone says: “Of course, we could mess it up. That’s a legitimate concern. All I can promise is to do our best and listen to the advice of experts. I hope people give her a chance. She’s a great deal of fun.”

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