Hi everyone,
Today I'll summarize the events that happened in Marvel's The Hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu #32. The cover showed the title character embroiled in battle with four masked men on a boat. The story was called "Assault on an Angry Sea!"
The tale began with Clive Reston and Black Jack Tarr resting on a park bench in Marseilles, France, while Shang sat meditating in front of a fountain. The pair were appreciative of their comrade's ability to remain calm even while fighting off some of the toughest men on the face of the planet. The quiet reverie was soon broken up by the arrival of Doctor Petrie and Sir Dennis Nayland Smith. Smth informed his companions that they would be embarking upon another mission before returning to England.
As they piled into a waiting automobile, Smith went on to say that Reston and Petrie would be flying together back home. He, Tarr, and Shang-Chi would head for the docks to protect a British courier carrying important papers and ensure that those papers arrived home safely.
The group arrived shortly before boarding was to be completed. Shang met a young blind woman and helped her while Tarr and Smith conversed with the ship's captain. The captain was not pleased with the fact that strings were pulled to grant their accommodations, or that others were bumped from the trip as a result. Smith persuaded Tarr to walk away before drawing further attention to them.
As the trio headed toward their staterooms, Tarr made several assumptions about fellow passengers who may or may not be secret agents. Smith informed them that they would not know the identity of their agent. He added that since the original agent was instructed to travel by ship that the route information had probably been passed on along with the documents. They would be protecting someone whose identity was as yet unknown to them.
Smith, Tarr, and Shang-Chi agreed to meet up at eight o'clock that evening. They joined for dinner. Shang-Chi spotted the woman he'd met earlier and asked her to join them. She introduced herself as Therese Berwick before the conversation was interrupted by a cry for help outside the dining room.
Shang ran to help. In the fog, he fought off several masked men. Their victim explained to the ship's officers that Shang-Chi had saved him from his attackers, who had asked him about documents that he had no information about. Smith and Tarr had joined the group before returning inside. They were then stunned to see their table smashed and learning that Miss Berwick had disappeared. A waiter explained that masked men had captured her and taken her away.
The next morning, Shang-Chi and Tarr stood talking, neither having had much of a restful night's sleep. Smith arrived and informed them that Therese was still missing. He wondered why the captain had not informed the passengers of the storm warning, and found that Shang had gone off on his own again.
Shang-Chi had heard something that caught his attention. He soon found a quartet of new foes. Shang defeated three of them, and Tarr punched out the fourth man. The trio then made their way to the captain's quarters, where they found him lying dead, having been cut several times by long daggers.
Smith, Shang, and Tarr returned to the men they'd just defeated. One of them confessed that the real captain and crew were still alive and held captive ten kilometers outside Marseilles. Smith and Tarr were headed for the radio room to inform the office in Marseilles, while Shang-Chi went to find the girl.
Meanwhile, four more people in hoods were about to enter another cabin. They burst through the door and demanded that the passenger tell them where the papers were. The occupant had no clue and told them so moments before Shang arrived. He defeated three of the assailants before the fourth got away. Outside the cabin, Shang-Chi realized that this opponent was a woman, one who carried long daggers that had already dealt death that evening.
During their duel, Shang removed the mask, revealing the face of Therese Berwick. She wasn't blind after all. Her eyes filled with rage as she lunged at Shang-Chi before falling overboard. Shang tossed a life preserver to bring her back on board the ship.
Later, once the suspects had been rounded up, Smith confessed that there was no additional agent that they would be meeting. He added that the papers were concealed in the life preserver that Shang-Chi had tossed to Berwick. Tarr took a knife to the preserver and found nothing but papers whose ink had run in the rain. Smith noted that they contained nothing more but Lewis Carroll lines.
Smith went on to say that the home office had intentionally leaked the fake papers story to draw out foreign agents. Tarr was angered by the ruse, but realized it did serve its purpose. He then asked who among them could pilot the boat. Berwick told Shang that her actions didn't reflect her personal feelings and that she still wanted to talk with him again eventually. Shang-Chi walked away without responding, thinking about how he'd missed something in his concentration as the storm went on.
I thought that this was a fun little single-issue story. Longtime readers of my blog know that I'm a big Sal Buscema fan, and have been ever since he penciled the monthly Incredible Hulk and ROM: Spaceknight comics back in the 1970s and 1980s. He penciled or inked almost every Marvel color comic during those decades, so I enjoyed his take on Shang-Chi and his companions. Writer Doug Moench, as always, delivered a script that was easy to follow and admire.
Well, that's all for now. Next time, I'll recap the thirty-third issue of Master of Kung Fu. Paul Gulacy returns to combine with Moench on another multi-part epic. This one introduces a couple of new threats, as well as another supporting character that was featured prominently for the rest of this title's run. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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