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scans_dailyControversial is an overused term in comics fandom, usually meaning a story that everyone thinks fucking blows except for the jackass writer. The Hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung-Fu, is a case where I feel the term is warranted.
On the one hand, it's a genuine and deserved smash hit, created by a murderers' row of talent that resulted in an iconic work of seventies counterculture.
On the other hand, it's dated, of its time, and arguably behind the times, as antagonist Fu Manchu was becoming a subject of parody and condemnation after several cheapie Bond-wannabes produced in the previous decade (starring Christopher Lee (!) as the good doctor). These days, 'Master of Kung-Fu' is looked back on seemingly little. Heavily retconned to bring Shang-Chi up to snuff as a presentable modern character and largely dismissed when the time came to "adapt" it to the MCU, it seems destined to fall between the cracks.
So let's take a look at it, warts and all, and see what all the fuss is about, no?
In the seventies, you could introduce a character and immediately have them break someone's spine. Second page of their existence and somebody's getting Bane'd.
Shang flashes back to his last talk with dear old dad, where in a fit of irony, F.M. declares that his opponents from the Sax Rohmer books were the real bad guys.
You can see the moral ambiguity of the period, as our hero is reintroduced killing an innocent, feeble, and even courageous old man. Shades of Cassandra Cain's origin story, where she realizes her father's villainy only after damning herself by carrying out his wishes. The core of Shang's character being one fateful mistake he must continuously take responsibility for is, of course, very Marvel.
Goddamn, that's a splash page.
Shang does some soul-searching, including a visit to his white mother (who F.M. seduced for eugenic reasons; that's getting retconned out), before going to confront his father. He fights his way through various guards, including the sumo wrestler who crippled Nayland Smith and...
AN APE THAT FU MANCHU GAVE HUMAN INTELLIGENCE JUST TO DRIVE INSANE. Comics, hell yeah.
After pushing through to his father, Fu Manchu deploys talk no jutsu on him.
Well, there it is, Shang-Chi's first appearance. He would rapidly grow popular enough to take over this particular magazine, which became Deadly Hands of Shang-Chi starting with issue 18. Fu Manchu would go on to be played by Peter Sellers and Nicolas Cage, which not many literary characters can claim.
On the one hand, it's a genuine and deserved smash hit, created by a murderers' row of talent that resulted in an iconic work of seventies counterculture.
On the other hand, it's dated, of its time, and arguably behind the times, as antagonist Fu Manchu was becoming a subject of parody and condemnation after several cheapie Bond-wannabes produced in the previous decade (starring Christopher Lee (!) as the good doctor). These days, 'Master of Kung-Fu' is looked back on seemingly little. Heavily retconned to bring Shang-Chi up to snuff as a presentable modern character and largely dismissed when the time came to "adapt" it to the MCU, it seems destined to fall between the cracks.
So let's take a look at it, warts and all, and see what all the fuss is about, no?
In the seventies, you could introduce a character and immediately have them break someone's spine. Second page of their existence and somebody's getting Bane'd.
Shang flashes back to his last talk with dear old dad, where in a fit of irony, F.M. declares that his opponents from the Sax Rohmer books were the real bad guys.
You can see the moral ambiguity of the period, as our hero is reintroduced killing an innocent, feeble, and even courageous old man. Shades of Cassandra Cain's origin story, where she realizes her father's villainy only after damning herself by carrying out his wishes. The core of Shang's character being one fateful mistake he must continuously take responsibility for is, of course, very Marvel.
Goddamn, that's a splash page.
Shang does some soul-searching, including a visit to his white mother (who F.M. seduced for eugenic reasons; that's getting retconned out), before going to confront his father. He fights his way through various guards, including the sumo wrestler who crippled Nayland Smith and...
AN APE THAT FU MANCHU GAVE HUMAN INTELLIGENCE JUST TO DRIVE INSANE. Comics, hell yeah.
After pushing through to his father, Fu Manchu deploys talk no jutsu on him.
Well, there it is, Shang-Chi's first appearance. He would rapidly grow popular enough to take over this particular magazine, which became Deadly Hands of Shang-Chi starting with issue 18. Fu Manchu would go on to be played by Peter Sellers and Nicolas Cage, which not many literary characters can claim.
