Shang-Chi began to make a comeback in the 2000’s, escaping from the shadowy realms of C-tier superhero of the distant past and into increasing relevance. His look was all over the place as creators tried to pin down a more contemporary outfit than the old red-and-yellow Gi. A big reason for this was the revelatory success of The Matrix in 1999, a movie that tapped into Hong Kong action films and brought the action choreography of Woo Pin Yuen to mainstream audiences. Suddenly the corny old kung fu man was Cool again!
The Master of Kung Fu had a minor role in the Marvel Knights series, a comic that threw him in with a very loose affiliation of street-level heroes like Daredevil and Black Widow. He had a costume more in line with his contemporary appearances in Heroes for Hire; sleeveless, but now with more black in the outfit. I can’t say there’s a lot of great use of the character and its perhaps telling he only showed up in the background of the cover for issue #2. He’s on the periphery but rarely the focus of any of the stories.
Here's Shang-Chi looking very Matrix in sunglasses and black trench coat on the cover of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu, a 2002 MAX limited series from Moench and Gulacy. Don’t get too excited by the Parental Advisory notice – the adventure is pretty boiler plate Spies Vs. Fu Manchu villainy, though it was nice to see the Master of Kung Fu come back.
There were also apparently some plans to have Shang-Chi pick up firearms as an implement in his arsenal. This is apparently thanks to the early 2000’s fascination with Gun Fu and every hero in multiple universes suddenly deciding lethal force was Cool. I’m personally very glad they didn’t go this direction, but it is interesting to consider as an artifact of the era.
Its fitting that Shang-Chi was a featured guest in Black Panther in 2006; black American audiences were big fans of the kung fu films of the Shaw Brothers and other Hong Kong studios in the ‘70s, and there’s a lot of overlap with the Blaxploitation era with martial arts cinema. That spirit of drive-in movie fun is captured in this cover of Black Panther #11 by Mike Deodato Jr. and Dean White.
Pretty awesome! I also think this period was around when they stopped using the name Fu Manchu for Shang-Chi’s nefarious father – it’s just the start of a long wrangle with the racist history of the character and the last vestiges of the Sax Rohmer elements of Shang-Chi’s backstory.
One of the better uses of Shang-Chi in this era was his role in Heroes for Hire from 2006-2007. This iteration of the mercenary team was led by the Daughters of the Dragon, Coleen Wing and Misty Knight, two female martial artists associated with Iron Fist and Power Man. While he was teamed up with the HFH, Shang-Chi got into a complicated romantic entanglement with Maria Valasquez (Tarantula) and later killed the sometime B-tier villain Humbug after he betrayed the team. Evidence of romance here:
It’s not a whole Hell of a lot but it’s still more character development than Shang-Chi had gotten in the entire ‘90s era. He had some agency, he had some issues to work through, and he impacted the world in a way he usually didn’t get to when popping up in guest roles. His look varied throughout the run, mostly sticking to no-shirt and bloused pants.
In 2009, Jonathan Hickman and Kody Chamberlain presented a one-shot team up between Deadpool and Shang-Chi. Its pretty wacky stuff but the Merc With the Mouth does give props to the Master of Kung Fu, who is presented as a more down-to-earth kind of guy, what with the sneakers and affection for hot dogs.
Hickman’s pretty key to Shang-Chi’s future, as we’ll see as we enter the 2010’s….
