Good morning,
Today's topic is the ninety-ninth issue of The Hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. The cover showed Shang and Rufus "Midnight" Carter battling several identical-looking opponents on a boat. In the bottom left, we see ten sticks of dynamite tied together with a lit fuse. The story was called "Bitter Harvest." The issue had a cover date of April 1981.
The tale began with a man moving away from another man. The person who left was soon shot at by the man on the left. The man who'd been shot escaped, and at the bottom of the page, we saw the shooter musing as his victim fled into the London shadows and wondered why he chose to leave.
The focus then turned to Shang-Chi, who was mediating during a rare Scottish thunderstorm in the grounds of the castle known as Stormhaven. Minutes later, there's a pounding at the front door. The castle's proprietor, Sir Dennis Nayland Smith, opened the door to find Carter asking for help. He'd just been shot and refused to seek medical attention.
Carter hinted that he wanted Smith's Freelance Restorations Limited to assist him with an operation. He noted that a weapons shipment that he'd first become aware of while working for the CIA didn't seem quite right. The shipment was supposed to go from Israel through the Strait of Gibraltar to the British east coast and then on to Scotland's Port of Aberdeen. From there, the weapons would be transported down into England.
The unusual route aroused his suspicion. He added that Americans were involved and that they didn't want it known. The shipment was being disguised as trade items bound for Scotland, but Carter thought that it might be time for both terrorism and sabotage might be utilized by Libyans who had learned the secret.
While he was still working for the CIA, Carter had been dispatched to Jerusalem to talk with one of their Palestinian informers. An open-air mosque was their meeting spot, but unfortunately, an assassin arrived there before he did. Carter took out the stranger, who transmitted an update to his colleague via wrist radio moments before expiring. Carter then returned to his contact, who told him that there was sabotage from within before the docks of Aberdeen, before he too passed away.
Carter then left the bodies where they were and returned to London to meet with his boss, Nicholas Blair. As we saw the two of them talking, we soon recognized that Blair was the gunman from the first page of this story. During the conversation, Blair said that he'd pass along what Carter had shared with him to his higher-ups and complimented Carter on his work. Carter then told Smith about the Samisdat affair (from a few issues ago) that caused him to end his association with the CIA.
Wanting to tie up loose ends, Carter called Blair earlier that evening and asked him to meet up. Blair was already on his way to rendezvous with the ship. They talked together in a car. Blair told Carter that the shipment had to continue on its route so that a traitor in their own agency could be brought into the light. He added that scaring a large terrorist group could hinder their chances of damaging their organization. Carter didn't agree and left, wanting to take action himself. As he fled, Blair shot and injured him.
Carter arrived at Freelance Restoration's doors in the hopes of securing one associate's assistance. The person in question, Shang-Chi, then stepped inside from the rain and welcomed his friend. Carter filled him in on his plans, and Shang agreed to join them. The duo left quickly, with Leiko Wu saying goodbye from afar, noting that she'd be fine on her own.
Meanwhile, Blair had arrived in Aberdeen. He confided in his associate Franklin that things were not well at all. He presumed that Carter would still interfere, but that their plans would still proceed.
Back at Stormhaven, Wu resumed work on her stained glass artwork. Smith asked her how things were going. She noted how Shang-Chi had changed for the better. Leiko mentioned how he'd relied on her, and recently things had shifted to the point where she relied on him more. She was starting to question what her own identity was. Wu wanted to work again, and the newspaper that Smith held out, with the front headline about a woman who had been slain in Whitechapel, gave her that opportunity once more.
On the car ride, Shang observed how Carter seemed to be different. Carter wasn't as flippant as he'd been during their first mission together. He knew that his partner had shot and wounded him to stop him, but he wasn't about to give up. Smith had bandaged his wound, but he was feeling better and would be in a wetsuit for part of their mission anyway.
At the same time, Wu was taking a relaxing bath and felt quite calm and content, until she heard the news on the radio that two more women's mutilated bodies had been found. The three crimes were similar to those committed by the legendary Jack the Ripper in the late 1800s. Wu calmly finished her bath and got dressed before beginning to pack. She met Smith in the kitchen, affirmed that she'd heard the news bulletin, and announced that she was going to London.
Shang-Chi and Carter soon arrived at their destination. They got out of the vehicle and put on scuba gear before swimming a couple of miles to the boat. Shang tossed a grappling hook, which allowed them to board the vessel. As the heroes crept along, they avoided gunshots from a smaller boat, which announced that they were the authorities and would be boarding.
The authorities who boarded the freighter were Franklin and Blair. Franklin went to find the fuses in the hold. Carter was surprised by his boss's arrival until he remembered what his slain contact had told him earlier. He was convinced that Blair was the saboteur and leaped at him. Shang-Chi soon joined the conflict.
After a while, it became apparent that the explosives couldn't be defused in time to save everyone. Shang-Chi ordered everyone off the boat while he went to spin the wheel, pointing the vessel in the opposite direction of the docks.
Shang leapt from the boat moments before the explosion and soon swam to the dock to rejoin his friend. Carter had Blair and Franklin in custody. As the local authorities arrived to settle affairs, Carter and Shang-Chi sat together. Carter appreciated Blair's friendship, but he knew that life wasn't easy, especially when, after so many years, he still couldn't always determine the good from the bad.
I would liken this issue to one of those buddy cop TV episodes that were common during the early 1980s. It was a fun story, but not one that couldn't be resolved fairly quickly. Carter proved to be a valuable ally of Shang's, and I was happy to see Leiko come out of her shell after hearing about the tragedies in London.
That's all for today. Tomorrow, I'll recap the one hundredth issue of Master of Kung Fu. That issue has three stories: two from the past, and one that revolves around the mysterious London murders and what Shang-Chi and crew learned from them, and what they planned to do to prevent further incidents. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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