Essential Master Of Kung Fu

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 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

Writer :Sebastian Girner

Penciler: Francesco Manna

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.

And big fight pages - whee!

Written by Greg Pak

Art by Nico Leon

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

https://thedisinsider.com/2020/02/12/marvel-studios-reportedly-adapting-agents-of-atlas/

Written by Greg Pak (w/ Fonda Lee #4-#6) 

Art by Ario Anindito

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.

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!