Welcome to my Master Of Kung Fu issue by issue review blog. The ARCHIVE is down below. Shang Chi, the Master Of Kung Fu, was first published in the comic book 'Special Marvel Edition' #15 (Dec 1973) and was such a hit he took over the book with issue #17. The comic was retitled 'The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu', and ran until #125 (June 1983). In 1972 Marvel Comics had the rights to Sax Rohmer's Dr. Fu Manchu and seeing how popular David Carradines Kung Fu television program was Marvel chose to make a Kung Fu comic. First brought to life by Steve Englehart & Jim Starlin, long time writer Doug Moench took over on #20. The series had a number of wonderful artists following Starlin, beginning with Paul Gulacy on #18, followed later on by Mike Zeck and Gene Day. While Marvel owns Shang Chi and continues to publish him (in 2011 he had major roles in Spider-Man and the Secret Avengers comics), Marvel lost the rights to the some of the Sax Rohmer supporting cast so they have been unable to reprint these wonderful 70's/80's comics. My hope is at some point in the near future Marvel will regain the rights to at least reprint the series in it's Essential line, and since at the height of the early 70's Kung Fu craze Shang Chi was published in 3 regular series I put together a reading order that makes sense to me , and this blog explains my choices plus gives me an excuse to re-read this great comic. So this blog is me BEGGING that when Master Of Kung Fu is reprinted PLEASE reprint in a logical readable order! Here's my master list - ESSENTIAL MASTER OF KUNG FU Vol #1 524 pages Special Marvel Edition #15, 16 Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1 Master Of Kung Fu #17 Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #2, 3 Master Of Kung Fu #18 - 21 Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu #1 Giant-Size Spider-Man #2 Special Album Edition: The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1 Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #4 - 9, 11 Master of Kung Fu #22 Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu #2 Master of Kung Fu #23 - #25 ESSENTIAL MASTER OF KUNG FU Vol #2 530 pages Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu #3 Master of Kung Fu #26 - #28 Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu #4 Master of Kung Fu #29 - #35 Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #12 - #14, #16 - #18 Master of Kung Fu #36 - #41 Master of Kung Fu Annual #1 ESSENTIAL MASTER OF KUNG FU Vol #3 565 pages Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #29, #31 Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #32 (Shang Chi only appears on one story page) Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #33 Master of Kung Fu #42 - #52 Marvel Two-In-One #29 Master of Kung Fu #54, #56 - #58, #55, #59 - #63, #65 - #69 Note - Master of Kung Fu #53 is a reprint. MOKF #55 is a fill in & interrupts a 4 part story it should be printed afterwards. MOFK #64 is a fill in. Since it interrupts an 8 part story #64 should go in Essential #4 ESSENTIAL MASTER OF KUNG FU Vol #4 598 Pages Master of Kung Fu #64 Marvel Team-Up #84, #85 Master of Kung Fu #70 - #98 ESSENTIAL MASTER OF KUNG FU Vol #5 Master Of Kung Fu #99 - #120 ROM #38 - #39 Master Of Kung Fu #121 - #125 What If? (Vol 1) #16
Written by Gene Luen Yang. Art by Dike Ruan. Covers by various Shang Chi's current ongoing series is pretty enjoyable. The first story arc has Shang taking over his fathers criminal empire and trying to balance his new family's needs along with shutting down his family's criminal endeavors, while also navigating the doubts of his superhero buddies. Ya get a fair amount of MARMIS (Marvel Misunderstandings) going on - the art is solid and the storytelling is breezy fun.
W - Gene Luen Yang A - Marcus To C - Jim Cheung Variant C - Inhyuk Lee Shang Chi has a nice 8 page story in the anthology comic focusing on Asain characters.
I haven't read these - I'm an old guy who actually buys printed books - so I'll wait for the eventual collection I can hold in my hands.. For info check out https://www.marvel.com/mu-21shang-chi "Shang-Chi. White Fox. Marvel’s greatest fighter teams with Ami Han, spy and Super Hero, to combat a deadly poison that has been unleashed across the world. Can Shang-Chi and his partner in crimefighting stop this evil at its source before it’s too late? STAR WARS: DOCTOR APHRA writer Alyssa Wong pairs with artist Nathan Stockman on this breakneck run. The complete arc, issues #1-4, are available to read right now."
Saw the Shang Chi film today - good stuff! As expected there were a fair amount of changes from the comic, but I'm cool with that - they're 2 different mediums. Acting was good, fighting choreography was killer, story was fine, the mid-point background slow down was ok - except for yer usually "too much CG at the end of a Marvel movie" trope I left leaving the theater very happy. Took my wife too - it's our 16th wedding anniversary today - if you would have told young MOKF comic buying me that not only would Shang Chi get a movie - and a good one at that! - but I'd see it with my hot rocker wife on our 16th wedding anniversary I'd have called ya nuts. So yay nuts! And yay 'lil butt faced dragon thingy
I am not really a fan of Jason Aaron's Avengers - I like a lot of his other work, but his "everything and the kitchen sink" approach here is kinda bombastically boring to me. He has a run where the Phoenix force is available and looking for a host, so Shang Chi gets briefly drug into the silliness. He's primarily in issue #42 in a fight with Captain America, then he's gone again. Shang Chi was in - #40 - 1 panel #41 - 2 panels #42 - 4 pages
Well, this is kinda neat - A Shang Chi book for the youngest ones. It has a very simplified telling of his comic book history, it's fun and it cost me less than $6. If yer a fan pick it up!
Fun times - The first Shang-Chi movies trailer dropped along with some movie tie in toys. Here's a few links for ya - https://www.marvel.com/articles/movies/simu-liu-shang-chi-legend-ten-rings-products https://www.themarysue.com/marvel-shang-chi-trailer/
Written by Alyssa Wong Art by Andie Tong Cover by Andie Tong and Rachelle Rosenberg This one shot comic is slight, but ok. In this issue Leiko asks to meet Shang Chi in London where she needs his help stealing a magic sword. Lady Deathstrike also wants the blade so we get some fighting. There's a few moral questions raised that are not dealt with at all, so I wonder if this story is planting seeds that will sprout later?
(W) Gene Luen Yang (A) Dike Ruan, Philip Tan While there are a few continuity hiccups in this mini series I overall enjoyed it. It sets up a new status quo for Shang Chi that could be interesting. Shang is helping out at Grandma Wangs Bakery in San Francisco and in exchange the owner is providing him an apartment. Leiko Wu shows up (working for M-I6 again) and then a previously unknown brother and sister of his show up too so Shang Chis gets an extended family that are still running his fathers 5 houses. So there's some retconning of the Fu Manchu being his father thing (which is totally understood due to the rights issue) and more background building of the history of Shang Chis current continuity father Zheng Zu. I don't really wanna go through all the plot from these 5 issues but SPOLIER WARNING by the end of issue #5 Shang Chi is now the head of the houses of Zheng Zu with the purpose in mind of reforming their criminal ways into being a force for good. There's another Shang Chi series set to launch in 2021 continuing this story line. I'll be buying 'em! CONTINUITY POINTS - No mention is made either of Leiko Wus chopped off / mechanical hand, or of her being a goopy zombie bad guy we last saw in the 2014 Deadly Hands of Kung Fu (Vol 2) mini series. If that version of Leiko is erased from continuity I am fine with that. Also I think it's funny that Shang Chis is always shown living in different places in almost every modern appearance. it makes me worried about all the various cats and Fleetwood Mac albums he's left abandoned over the years. :) Here's a link for ya - https://pocculture.com/review-marvel-comics-shang-chi-5-establishes-a-new-era-for-the-master-of-kung-fu/
W - Greg Pak A- Ario Anindito More Agents of Atlas stuff - not much Shang Chi. He's very briefly in issues 1, 2 & 5. #1 - 2 panels #2 - 3-ish panels #5 - 6-ish panells. Shang gets sent on a scuba mission and isn't really in these comics. His exit from the team is just mentioned & happens off panel Color me underwhelmed. The first few issues were published pre-pandemic, and after a 6 month delay (or there abouts) the last issues were published.
So yeah, I have not gotten my copy yet, but wow, there’s like 11 variant covers!
Amazing!
I can’t wait to read it, but I am not going to event try to get all of these.
Holy shit, that's a lot
Marvel does a one shot revival of it's Bizarre Adventures anthology title and we get a solid 9 page story featuring Shang-Chi. The slight tale involves a yearly challenge from an unbeatable master, and is fine for what it is. Nice art, and some entertaining bits.
Once again - parts of this is mini are ok, but as a Shang Chi comic it's not that engaging. If Shang Chi wasn't a character here I would have bought these issues. Parts of this ties into the Sword Master series, but not that neatly. Shang Chi says he day trades crypto currency? Where did that come from? Its like Pak wanted someone to help explain a plot point and just put the words into SHang-Chis mouth. And yep, the end of this mini directly leads into the next mini/event comic - Atlantis Attacks.
Well, I do like the dragons, and some of the details concerning the mystery of the futuristic transporter city are unique. Nice artwork too.
I can see why some folks love these comics.
PS - It looks like the Shang Chi movie will bring the Agents Of Atlas to the big screen, so that could be interesting - link
Coming off the Agents Of Atlas series Sword Master gets his own series, and the first six issues feature a 10 page back story teaming him up with Shang Chi. Shang is once again a teacher here, but over all this is an enjoyable tale. The one weird thing is this series was running parallel with another Agents Of Atlas mini series, and parts of the story are supposed to crossover with each other, but the parts don't really fit. Pak is the writer on both series so it doesn't make much sense that he couldn't make the pieces fit, but so it goes.
I've stopped worrying too much about continuity years ago. For example - in the Donimo series Shang-Chi is said to live near Hong Kong, yet here he's once again living in New York City - hell, maybe he has multiple homes?
The story does end by jumping directly into the 3rd mini series Pak was writing using the Agents Of Atlas cast - the Atlantis Attacks 5 issue series, that's been delayed due to the pandemic. Sadly it looks like the Atlantis Attacks mini ties into the upcoming King In Black super duper Marvel event thingy.... yawn.... Yes, I suffer from Event Fatigue - get me a nurse, stat.
War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas #1 - #4 (July/Aug 2019)
Written by Greg Pak.
Art by Gang Hyuk Lim.
Springboarding off the 2017 "Protectors" story in Totally Awesome Hulk, Pak has Agents Of Atlas head Jimmy Woo gather a team of Asian superheroes together. There's some new characters introduced, a bunch of villains, so yeah, there's a million characters running around.
Ok, not that many, but it seems like it.
This is a tie in to one of those massive events Marvel likes to throw out, so while I can't really complain about the quality of the work here, I will say this comic was not made for my tastes. Shang-Chi is only used as someone to train the new heroes - when you have demons, gods and other types of super powered beings running around, a street fighter doesn't really fit in.
There are a few nice moments (spam!) & I will say I am happy Pak is using Shang Chi, it's better than nothing I guess.
Written by Gail Simone.
Art by David Baldeon, Anthony Piper, Jesue Aburtov and Michael Shelfer (#5) Cover by Greg Land
Shang Chi guests in 4 issues of Domino, as a trainer / teacher. Overall these are fine comics, but having Shang portrayed as a sex object for Domino to oggle and then in issue #5 there's a weird showdown with a bunch of Shang Chis villians which is kinda off. The main plot is Domino's having a big battle with the villain Topaz & her luck powers are not working right so Amadeus Cho suggests she get help from Shang Chi.
There's some training, some dancing, a ton of Shangs Villains showing up - Midnight, Razorfist, Shockwave, Shen Kuei The Cat and what looks like Black Jack Tarr (who one of Shang Chis allies) - they all get defeated when Domino gets her mojo back. Seems to be saying Shangs rogues gallery is fulla pushovers....
The story ends with Domino using what Shang taught her to kill her foe - it's played up like Shang Chi never kills, which isn't true. He's killed in the past, when there's no choice. It could be said Domino has a choice here, so I'm ok with the resolution.
Whee!
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