Hm... should we be singing Kung Fu Fighting or Eye of the Tiger?
So, I was chatting with a coworker
the other day and I asked if he was going to see Shang Chi, only to discover
that he is but has no idea what Shang’s whole thing is about. And I also
realized that I only know the very basic of the basics, that he’s a martial
artist modeled off of Bruce Lee and he’s considered to be the best martial
artist in the Marvel Universe. I’ve had stupider reasons to do one of these
character profiles, so let’s get to it, shall we? Oh, and one more thing.
Shang-Chi and his father were both thought of and created in the 60s and 70s.
His father’s name in particular comes across as mildly racist by today’s
standards, Fu Manchu is the kind of name I’d have advised against had I been
able to give input. Because of this, while a lot of material refer to him by
that name, I’ll stick with the name he was given after Marvel lost the rights
to his original name, Zheng Zu. Will that be a bit confusing as it’s only years
after the fact that Fu Manchu is revealed to be Zheng Zu? Yes, but I’d rather
be confusing than constantly repeating a name that makes me cringe. Okay, NOW
let’s get to it.
Is the dragon there, or is it like a
visual metaphor?
Shang-Chi was born in China’s Honan
province, son of Zheng Zu. Zheng was an ancient Chinese Sorcerer and Marvel
supervillain, whom wanted a powerful heir and minion for his evil deeds.
Shang-Chi’s mother was genetically selected by Zheng to optimize his son’s
genetic potential, which had to have sucked for Shang-Chi when he realized he
was basically a show dog in his father’s eyes. Shang-Chi began training almost
as soon as he could walk by his father and other tutors. Shang-Chi was a
prodigy and quickly mastered the techniques he was shown. Shang-Chi grew up in
utter ignorance of his father’s villainous nature, believing that his father
was a benevolent humanitarian that only had the best interest of the world in
mind. See, weapon plus program, this is how you instill loyalty in a minion for
over a decade, lying. That’s where you guys screwed up with X-23. Personally,
I’d be questioning the humanitarian stance the moment he sent me to London to
kill a man, but that’s just me. In London, Shang-Chi was sent to murder a man
named Dr. James Petrie. Shang-Chi completed his mission with relative ease, but
encountered his father’s arch nemesis Sir Denis Nayland Smith as he tried to
flee. Smith informed Shang-Chi of Zheng Zu’s true nature, and I assume this
coupled with having just been sent to kill a man caused some tumblers to line
up in his head. After, Shang-Chi tracked down his mother in NYC and confronted
her about his father. He finally accepted that Zheng Zu is evil after hearing
it from her. He fled his father’s Manhattan base, telling Zheng Zu that they’re
now enemies and that Shang-Chi will put an end to his evil schemes.
Zheng Zu, being an evil mastermind
and a jilted father, sent his adopted son M’Nai aka Midnight to hunt down
Shang-Chi to kill him for his treachery. Shang-Chi fought off his brother and
also stayed out of the grasp of Smith and his assistant Black Jack Tarr. He
eventually allied himself with Smith and MI-6 to stop Zheng Zu. He worked with
other MI-6 agents Clive Reston and Leiko Wu to stop his father’s plans as well.
He would also occasionally cross paths with and battle his half-sister Fah Lo
Suee, who also opposed their father, but in a less noble, “I’m taking over when
Daddy is dead,” sense. Eventually, Shang-Chi formed a spy agency he called
Freelance Restorations in his goal to stop Zheng. He faced off against Zheng Zu
for several more years, but eventually witnessed his father’s death. With Zheng
Zu gone, a grief ridden Shang-Chi quit his agency, cut ties with his allies and
went into seclusion to live as a fisherman in Yang-Tin, China.
Shang going full Kaiju.
He eventually came out of his
retirement/exile to battle a terrorist group called Argus and eventually
learned that Zheng Zu was still alive. He went on to join a new version of
Heroes for Hire, joined the Avengers, and actually went on to train other
heroes, like Spider-Man and Captain America to improve their hand-to-hand
combat skills. He was brought onto the Secret Avengers by Rogers to help battle
the villainous Shadow Council, a group that resurrected his father after
another death, and used an assassin squad called the Hai-Dai to hunt down
Shang-Chi. It’s at this point where Beast revealed that Shang-Chi’s father was
Zheng Zu, remember he was still going by Manchu. Shang-Chi is eventually
captured and is put into a ritual in order to completely resurrect Zheng Zu who
is sort of in an in-between state. The Secret Avengers and Moon Knight arrived
to save him. They defeat Zheng again, and Shang-Chi remained on the team’s
roster. It’s at this point where Shang-Chi focused on training Spider-Man, and
helped Peter develop his own fighting style, the Way of the Spider. He’s gone
on to be one of the greatest martial artists of the Marvel universe. And that’s
not just boasting, Marvel’s Ares has said that Shang-Chi’s skills are so great
the God of War believes that he can beat even gods provided that magic or
enhanced abilities are removed.
Later, Shang-Chi was one of many
people in Manhattan that was infected by a spider virus that temporarily gave
him the same powers and abilities as Spider-Man. This infection spread,
intensified, and later turned humans into human-spider monsters, turning
Manhattan into Spider-Island. Things start getting out of hand as people
started transforming into Spider creatures, and others pretended to be
Spider-Man. Shang-Chi, who knew Peter’s real identity, and confirmed him to
Iron Fist and other heroes. Eventually a creature called the Bride of Nine
Spiders started abducting Immortal Weapons, a group that Iron Fist is apart of.
Shang-Chi tries to protect Iron Fist but isn’t able to keep his friend from
being taken. With help from Silver Sable, he was able to find the locations the
Bride of Nine Spider’s is hiding. He’s able to beat the Bride in round 2, but
then discovers the real culprit behind Spider Island is Ai Apaec, a chimeric
Moche God, with the upper body of a man but lower body of a Spider. Ai Apaec is
absorbing energy from the Immortal Weapons. Shang-Chi made sure that the
Immortal Weapons escaped, and then collapsed the mansion of Ai Apeac’s mansion,
burying him until the other Avengers arrive. They join the other heroes to
battle the final-final boss, the Spider Queen.
Shang-Chi remains an active part of
the Avengers after this point, battling along side the heroes and training the
others in combat. He would go on to open his own martial arts school and
continue to battle the forces of evil and his often-resurrected father and
other villainous family members.
Shang-Chi is a master martial
artist, often said to be the Greatest fighter in the Marvel Universe. His
father Zheng Zi ensured that Shang-Chi was trained almost from the moment he
could walk to fight. While his preference is for kung fu and empty-hand
fighting, he is also a highly skilled fighter in swords, staff, nunchaku, kali
sticks and shuriken. His skills are so great that he’s trained or sparred again
some of the Marvel heavy weights like Captain America, Spider-Man and
Wolverine. Shang-Chi has a greater control of his nervous system than most
humans, allowing him to deaden his sense of pain, resist the effects of drugs
or poison and can even slow how fast he bleeds. So he’s kind of like Wolverine,
if Logan had to work for his superpowers. Either by birth or by extensive
training, Shang-Chi is deeply connected to chi, being able to sense life energy
with such precision that he could find Jean Grey even while she was masking her
presence. Shang-Chi actually identifies himself as a bodhisattva, a person that
is on the path to achieving Buddhahood but has not yet achieved it. He’s also a
master of Eastern Philosophy and is multilingual.
Dysfunctional family
at it's finest.
Unlike most of the characters I’ve
covered on my posts, Shang-Chi has (at the time of writing) not been used
outside the comics until now. Barring unlockable characters in video games,
that is. There was an attempt to give him a film back in 2004, but it never
really got off the ground. But, Shang-Chi was included in the deal that Marvel
Studios made with Paramount pictures to reclaim the rights to use Marvel
Characters; Captain America, Nick Fury, Doctor Strange, Hawkeye, Power Pack,
Black Panther and Cloak and Dagger being the others.
Shang-Chi will appear in the film
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on September 3. He’ll be portrayed by
actor Simu Liu. In this version, Shang-Chi’s father Zhang Zu is combined with
aspects of the Iron Man villain The Mandarin into a character named Wenwu whom
uses the Mandarin name. They changed the titular and main weapons of the
Mandarin the Ten Rings from ten finger rings into Iron Rings. These Rings are
worn on the forearms for training purposes. Summaries indicate that Shang-Chi
like in the comics is attempting to run from his father’s villainous legacy but
will ultimately have to face off against him. Oh, and it’s implied that Wenwu
has in the years since Iron Man 3 tracked down Trevor, the actor playing the
Mandarin character for Aldritch Killian and has… shown his displeasure. I’ll be
posting a summary sometime soon.
Shang-Chi is a character that,
while I haven’t seen him in much, I enjoy for the simple fact that he’s a
really cool concept. A man that has reached the pinnacle of Martial Arts and is
so good that people with superpowers seek him out to improve their own fighting
skills. He’s skilled, driven, and always ready to battle to protect others. I’m
also rather excited for the film do in no small part to Simu Liu’s enthusiasm
to play the character. The man has been flooding social media with tweets about
Shang-Chi, how excited he is for playing the character, all the work he and the
other actors have put into it, and how angry he was when a Marvel executive
claimed that Shang-Chi was an experiment. I think this is going to be an
amazing Marvel film based on Liu’s enthusiasm alone. I’m hopeful that this film
will help boost Shang-Chi’s popularity and get him some more roles in other
non-comic projects. Here’s hoping, anyway. Have a good night, everybody.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/55505736
Twitter:@BasicsSuperhero
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