While he first appeared in Ant Man and the Wasp, WandaVision has officially made Jimmy
Woo a major part of the MCU. This is his history in the comics, from his 1950s origins to his
time leading the Agents of Atlas.
Woo's first comic book appearance came in 1956's four-part miniseries Yellow Claw, which
was published by Marvel when they were known as Atlas Comics. In the comic, Woo is a Chinese-American
FBI agent tasked with hunting down the Yellow Claw, an ancient Chinese mystic who seeks
to conquer the world. Unsurprisingly, this comic features many racist depictions of Asian
people, with the Yellow Claw himself being a "yellow peril" caricature. However, Jimmy
Woo, is a "positive exception" to the "largely negative" depictions of Asian characters in
comics of the era, according to columnist Jeff Yang. The first issue features a fairly
clear-cut espionage story, but Yellow Claw goes to some wild places in the next few issues.
Each story sees Woo foil the Claw's plan before he escapes. The Claw's grand-niece Suwan,
who he recruited to aid him in his quest for world domination, secretly helps Woo throughout
the miniseries.
Woo went dormant for 10 years following his debut. Then, he returned to Marvel Comics,
which had successfully rebranded itself away from its Atlas days.
In 1967's Strange Tales #160, Captain America brings Woo to Nick Fury at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters,
because he might have a lead on an ongoing case called Project Blackout. Fury then tells
the duo about how he and Cap investigated a mysterious force inside the Statue of Liberty.
This enigmatic enemy planned on turning everyone on America's East Coast into obedient zombies.
Woo reveals in the following issue that the mastermind behind this thwarted plan is the
Yellow Claw, who was long thought to be dead.
As for Woo, he officially joins S.H.I.E.L.D. in 1968's Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
#2. He even helps the agency fight Godzilla when the giant lizard attacks North America
in the 24-issue Godzilla series, released between 1977 and 1979.
Woo appears in a six-part miniseries from 1988, entitled Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D.
– or does he?
The first issue begins with an Advanced Idea Mechanics ship filled with HYDRA agents attacking
Fury's squad. They manage to steal a power core from a downed helicarrier. Fury tracks
the core to the Roxxon Industrial Research Complex in New Jersey through a sleeper agent
named Jack Rollins. Fury reports his findings to the S.H.I.E.L.D. executive board ... and
they respond by sending Woo to kill Rollins. Woo and the board are actually advanced versions
of S.H.I.E.L.D. androids called Life Model Decoys, or LMDs. As the S.H.I.E.L.D. satellite
explodes near the end of the miniseries, the Woo LMD decides to stay behind and die like
a human.
Although the real Jimmy Woo was thought to be dead at this time, 1993's Nick Fury, Agent
of S.H.I.E.L.D. #43 and #44 reveal that he was one of four agents put in stasis and brainwashed
by HYDRA. Fortunately, they are all deprogrammed a few issues later.
With the Agents of Atlas series that started in 2006, Woo led his first comic in almost
50 years.
"Authority looks good on you, Jimmy."
The first issue of this series reveals that an elderly Woo went rogue and commanded a
team of disenfranchised S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on a raid of the San Francisco branch of the
fiendish Altas Foundation. They travelled into a secret room where the whole team was
killed except Woo, who was put on life support. The only clues S.H.I.E.L.D. can gather link
Woo's mission to a short-lived crime fighting group from the late 1950s called the G-Men.
The agency's subdirector, Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan, brings in Gorilla Man, a member of
the G-Men, for questioning, as he's the only G-Men member they can get a hold of.
Looking for answers, Gorilla Man secretly contacts two other G-Men members: A robot
named M-11 and a super-powered human with genetically engineered Uranian physiology
named Marvel Boy. They help break Woo out of the hidden S.H.I.E.L.D. facility. Using
his last mental impression of Woo, Marvel Boy restructures him, which restores Woo to
his 1950s self ... at the expense of his memories from the last 50 years.
With his youth regained, Woo reforms the Agents of Atlas to find more leads on the Atlas Foundation.
Derek Khanata, a Wakandan S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and investigator of Woo's case, travels to
Woo's house in order to search for more clues, but the G-Men are already there. They initially
intend to leave Khanata behind, until he says he knows the location of G-Men member Venus,
who can affect men with her singing. The team travels to Africa where they meet Venus and
fight a Yellow Claw robot. They later travel to Antarctica to find Namora, cousin of the
Atlantean king Namor, who initially refused to join the G-Men and was long thought to
be dead. Fortunately, she's very much alive, and joins the team this time after M-11 unfreezes
her from her icy coffin.
Woo and his team subsequently raid several shady organizations with the name "Atlas."
They finally take a break in Fiji in Agents of Atlas #4, where they encounter the Yellow
Claw, now known as the Golden Claw. The team discovers that M-11 is a double agent, and
after a fight breaks out between them, Woo asks M-11 to cut his connection to the Golden
Claw.
The final issue of the 2006 Agents of Atlas series offers a major reveal for Jimmy Woo.
The team enters the Atlas Foundation's secret room in San Francisco, where they confront
a giant talking dragon named Mr. Lao, advisor to the Atlas Foundation's leader. He reveals
the organization's origins in the Mongol Empire, and the Golden Claw's real name. Even more
dramatically, it turns out that Woo, whose Chinese name is Woo Yen Jet, was chosen to
be the Golden Claw's successor shortly after he was born. Woo's parents, however, wanted
no involvement. They moved to America and urged their son to pursue law enforcement.
Mr. Lao believed that if Woo could rise up through the ranks of government, his reputation
would grow exponentially. Thus, when Woo was an FBI agent during the 1950s, Atlas positioned
the Yellow Claw as his nemesis, so that the American government would trust him and his
profile would grow.
After learning the truth about who he really is, Woo finally takes his place as the C.E.O
of the Atlas Foundation. The Golden Claw then enters Mr. Lao's mouth, sacrificing himself
so that the rest of the organization will not question Woo's rule. With Khanata concealing
the team's continued existence to S.H.I.E.L.D., Woo and the Agents of Atlas enter a strange
new future.
In Issues #8-11 of the 2009 Agents of Atlas series, Woo decides to search for his long-lost
love, Suwan.
Mr. Lao tells Woo that after Atlas lost track of him, Suwan threw herself into the work
of the organization — and was quite good at it, too. The Golden Claw eventually let
her run her own group, called the Great Wall. But after he asked Suwan to step down, her
loyalists rebelled, causing a rift in the empire. Woo travels to China through the Dragon's
Corridor, an alternate dimension controlled by the Atlas Foundation, to speak with Suwan,
who now goes by the moniker Jade Claw.
Since Woo has violated the Atlas-Great Wall treaty, the Jade Claw attempts to hold him
hostage. But, of course, Woo and his team fight back. The Jade Claw continues to attack
the Atlas Foundation's operations until Woo's team once again attacks the Great Wall's home
base. With her force defeated, the Jade Claw surrenders, and Woo lets her live, to represent
her people. Woo leaves his second-in-command to oversee the Great Wall and bring it in
line with the new Atlas Foundation.
In 2013's Infinity: The Hunt #1, it is revealed that Woo has co-created a superhero school
with a former supervillain, called the Pan-Asian School for the Unusually Gifted. This school
is located in Mumbai, and recruits students from all over Asia.
This institution is one of many superhero schools chosen to compete in the Contest of
Champions, a competition created by Hank Pym as a sort of Marvel Youth Olympics. The three
students selected to compete on behalf of the Pan-Asian School are the tech genius known
as Gang, the tendril-generating being known as Pom Pom, and a modern incarnation of the
Hindu god Durga, known as Shri. This initial meeting between schools is interrupted when
Thanos' forces attack Earth. In the end, the students from each school work together to
defend Wakanda.
Issues #15-18 of 2016's The Totally Awesome Hulk see Woo team up with a variety of other
Asian superheroes.
Here, the head of Atlas appears alongside Amadeus Cho's Hulk, Shang-Chi, Ms. Marvel,
Silk, and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jake Oh at a charity event in Manhattan to raise awareness
for Asian-American bone marrow donation. They then hang out in Koreatown and quickly become
friends. Unfortunately, the group's evening is interrupted when the extraterrestrial Imperial
Guard of the planet Seknarf Seven arrive in New York. Although these heroes initially
beat the alien invaders, they, and the nearby civilians, are transported across the universe
to Seknarf Seven. The team officially becomes the Protectors in order to keep the civilians
safe from alien threats until Alpha Flight arrives to pick them up.
The Protectors eventually fuse with another superhero team. During 2019's "War of the
Realms" event, Woo invites the Protectors to become the new Agents of Atlas, along with
a few other heroes. While the team has grown and changed over time, Woo's role as a heroic,
intelligent leader has remained consistent.
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