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Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu
Shang-Chi is a Copyright of Marvel Comics. Used without permission for information purpose only.
Comments by D. Brigo, first published on february 2000.


Image: Shang-Chi from "The hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu", art from Paul Gulacy, Copyright (1974) Marvel Comics.

At first sight, one might think this character from Marvel Comics to be one more rip-off of Bruce Lee and of the martial arts shows. In fact, Shang-Chi comes out in 1971 as the Marvel-universe attempt to cash in from the marial arts mania spreading out in those years. Yet, it becomes clear soon enough that this series is not going to be trivial.


Shang Chi with Lu "Kwai Chang Caine" Sung, from a story of Steve Englehart, art by Paul Gulacy.
Copyright 1973 Marvel Comics. Used without permission for information purpose only.

"K'uei meng never came back to my classroom, but I have never suspected my father for that evil. I have never thought of suspecting him"
"Shang-Chi... a man who is not at peace with himself will never be at peace with anyone else"
"But my father seems at peace with his evil..." "I am not talking about your father, Shang-Chi"



The series moves from the figure of Dr. Fu Manchu, the well known protagonist of Sax Rhomer's stories, appeared for the first time in 1913.  Shang-Chi is the son of Fu Manchu, one of the most dangerous "global villains" on earth, and has been trained both physically and spiritually in the Honan fortress of his father in China, immediately after being born from an American woman and Fu Manchu himself. This woman was genetically selected in order to procreate a "perfect human being". Shang-Chi is raised from wise masters at the service of his father, while ignoring Fu Manchu's evil schemes for maintaining and conquering further power on earth. Fu Manchu's true purposes and plans for his young son consist in enlisting him in his evil schemes, mainly as his personal assassin. When Shang-Chi is still very young but trained to the right point, Shang-Chi is told from his father Fu Manchu that there is an evil man that persecutes him, in order to stop his work and plans for the benign progress of humanity. Fu Manchu convinces his son that his persecutor, called Sir Denis Nayland Smith, has to be stopped and sets this as Shang-Chi's first mission. However, during this mission Shang-Chi learns of his father's evil nature and monstruous deeds from Nayland Smith himself, who turns out to be the nemesis of his old father.


Fu Manchu and Shang-Chi from the first issue, art by Jim Starlin (Marvel Comics, 1973).
Used without permission for information purpose only.

Shang-Chi's life turns upside down as he finally learns this bitter truth, and he soon joins Smith as an agent of the British secret service and vows to fight the evil plans of his father.

These are the bases on which the series has been built, and as the narration proceeds Shang-Chi struggles with fundamental issues of ethics, morality and identity.

Writer Doug Moench and penciller Paul Gulacy distinguish themselves in producing a sequence of issues that has become a classic of serial comic-book history. There is some kind of magic melancholy in some of those stories, coming from a fortunate blending of art and narration. The art of Gulacy is cinematic and lucid at the same time, with a particularly dynamic and spectacular story telling,

while Moench has Shang-Chi narrating events and impressions in first person, thus contributing to the introspective and thoughtful side of the series. Character evolution is also present, as Shang-Chi progressively matures during the series, finally finding internal peace and accepting his painful past.
The main series ends in 1983. Some appearances and mini-series follow, among which a sequence in "Marvel Comics Presents" featuring Shang-Chi, in 1988. Shang-Chi is back when, after a few years of meditative life as a fisherman, his former love Leiko Wu is abducted by a terrorist. This adventure is characterized by a grim atmosphere, resulting in Leiko losing one hand and Shang-Chi ending under contagion of a deadly toxin. However, in this sequence there is also a line of dialogue (I am quoting approximatively by heart) that could be read as a confirmation that the Shang-Chi's character is meant to go beyond the purely spectacular side of martial arts:

Clive Reston [to Leiko regarding Shang-Chi's new look]: "Let him be, Leiko, that new costume is cool. He looks like Bruce Lee."
Shang-Chi: "Who is Bruce Lee?"

In 1997 Shang-Chi appears in the X-men books, in a story where he helps the X-men against the Kingpin, the classical nemesis of Spiderman and Daredevil,  who is messing up with the late Fu Manchu's secret serum as a possible means for raising funds from the mutant community. In this sequence Shang-Chi wears a tattoo and is surpassed in martial-art skills by the X-man Wolverine, both features sounding rather out of character.

In 2000 some interest in the character has been brought back by the Marvel Knights line, although the story has no close focus on Shang-Chi, consisting instead in a unusual team-up of several Marvel heroes.

Links:

For a chronology of Shang-Chi see this excellent
Wold Newton universe Shang-Chi page.

For some fan-fiction on the Master of Kung Fu check
Bob Gansler's page.

For Paul Gulacy's excellent web site maintained by a fan in Paris
click here.
 

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