This morning's topic is the one hundred and fourteenth issue of Marvel's The Hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. The cover featured a man dressed in samurai armor, gazing out over a woman seated beside a green dragon statue, with an image of Shang in the background. The tale was titled "A Fantasy of the Autumn Moon." The issue had a cover date of July 1982.
On another day at Stormhaven Castle in Scotland, Shang-Chi is once more immersed in the music of the Rolling Stones when Leiko Wu asks him to come downstairs. The castle's owner, Sir Dennis Nayland Smith, had some news to share. He'd received word that MI-6's Hong Kong division had recently been contacted by a woman named Mei Ling. She feared for her life and that of her husband, claiming that they had been the target of an assassin for decades.
Smith thought that this might be something more suited for his agency, Freelance Restorations. He wanted Shang to hear because the alleged assassin was a Si-Fan warrior. Just hearing that brought Shang-Chi back to the same warriors that his father, the evil Fu Manchu, employed at various times.
Shang agreed to take on the task. Wu arranged for a chartered plane to take him to his destination and promised that the music would still be there when he returned. Shang-Chi took a taxi after landing and learned that he'd arrived during the city's festival of the autumn moon celebration.
The festivities provided perfect cover for the assassin, who we soon saw stalking his targets, the blind archer and his wife. The sound of an arrow hitting its target caught Shang-Chi's attention. He'd been walking around after leaving the taxi, and soon engaged in a battle with the armored warrior.
Shang eventually ended up saving the woman, Mara Ling, from being kidnapped. The attacker escaped and the trio went inside to rest and talk. While the old man slept, Ling shared the legend of the ancient Chinese princess who'd fallen in love with a blind archer. The princess's family forbade them to marry, so they ran off together one night.
During their journey, a dragon approached them and offered the princess a drink. She drank deeply from the pool and retained her youth. Her mate did not, and continued to age, until one day he passed away, leaving his grieving young wife behind. She continued to grieve until the evening that she willfully gave up her own life to rejoin her husband in the afterlife.
Elixir vitae was what kept this woman looking young. It was the same substance that sustained Fu Manchu's longevity. She admitted that she'd obtained the elixir from the evil tyrant, after initially refusing his offering. She was promised that she could leave his compound with enough of the elixir to last forever.
Ling offered some of the elixir to her husband, who quickly refused. Not long afterward, they were attacked by the Si-Fan warrior for the first time. Forty years after they fled, the same assassin was still after them. Her conversation with Shang-Chi was then interrupted by a noise outside.
Shng rushed out to investigate. The first thing that he saw was a leaf, which had fallen from the old man's headdress. He looked up to find the elderly gentleman hanging from the tree. The armored warrior had returned and claimed his first victim.
Shang-Chi was determined that there would be no more victims. He defeated his foe, only to find that Ling had taken poison. She wanted to join her husband in the next life. Shang was saddened, but set the body of her husband next to hers so that they could accomplish just that.
This was a sad story. I appreciated how reality and legend were almost equivocal in this issue. In all fairness, I don't think the outcome would have been much different, no matter what Shang-Chi had done or didn't do. A well-crafted tale by writer Doug Moench and artist Gene Day.
I'm going to take a break for a few hours and return this afternoon to write about the one hundred and fifteenth issue of Master of Kung Fu. In that issue, we'll learn about what the future has in store for Freelance Restorations Limited. Shang will encounter a new menace and find out that an old threat may return. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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