Hi everyone,
This post will be dedicated to the Master of Kung Fu one-shot issue. It was called Master of Kung Fu: Bleeding Black. This special issue was 80 pages of brand new content, featuring Shang-Chi, Leiko Wu, Black Jack Tarr, and Clive Reston. It had a publication date of February 1991.
It took place not long after the events of the Master of Kung Fu storyline from Marvel Comics Presents in 1988. Shang was dealing with the inevitability of his pending demise, thanks to being poisoned by a brand-new toxin that had been created by their previous foe, the arms dealer Argus. He was busy meditating to try to get some sense of his life.
Meanwhile, a man named Li Chun was being tended to by his female attendants. While Shang-Chi was meditating, Leiko was getting a tray for tea ready and still dealing with the newness of her artificial left hand. At the same time, Tarr and Reston were waiting for their contact.
Unfortunately, the meeting would not take place, at least not while their contact was alive, anyway. He was fatally stabbed by a knife that was thrown by their old opponent, Zaran, the weapons master. The villain soon delivered the reliquary that the contact had in his possession to Chun, who was also known as Shadow-Hand. Tarr and Reston later discovered the dead body and told Shang that the courier had information about a secret stash of the elixir that was often used to extend his father's life.
In Chapter II: The One-Eyed Guide, Shang talked with his friend about the elixir. It was something that he'd originally eschewed (last seen in the monumental Master of Kung Fu #100), but was willing to search for it, if it could possibly reverse the poison. Wu told him how much she'd missed him (since he left to become a fisherman in MOKF #125) and wasn't about to abandon him on his quest.
First, Shang needed to consult with a man called One-Eye. He ventured down to the Hong Kong wharf. After fighting off a few attackers, he met the old man who gave him an address. Chun and Zaran were occupied at the time with examining the reliquary, which was a model of an Oriental temple.
At his destination, Shang-Chi found a check that confirmed Zaran's involvement in the affair. The payment also gave him another location, which belonged to Chun himself. That was his next destination.
This began Chapter III: The Unfolding Puzzle. After dispatching the guard dogs outside, Shang made his way in the building. He soon found the reliquary. Lifting it from the base exposed a maze that also served as a floor plan. Shang-Chi also found several pieces of faded parchment that identified the location of the serum, as well as pictorial information about a few related items.
Upon hearing someone approach, he made quick work of returning the floor plan and reliquary to the state that he'd found them in, and departed before Chun entered the room. However, once he was outside, he found himself up close with Zaran once more.
Their rematch kicked off Chapter IV: The Floating Serpent. Although Shang abhorred weapons, he would use them defensively from time to time when necessary. A swift elbow to Zaran's jaw ended the scuffle, right before guards could approach. Shang hopped the fence and soon returned to his comrades.
Once inside, Shang told his friends what he'd seen. While Leiko bandaged his wounds, he asked for maps that could verify the location of the island that he'd seen on one of the pieces of parchment. While he was dong research, a group of masked assasins were on the island. One of them used the beam from a ring worn on his finger to open a hidden cache of items contained in a stone that bore the mark of the phoenix. The soldiers then went to meet Zaran and Chun.
In Chapter V: The Returning Stranger, we learned that the masked men were Si-Fan warriors, who had the same prior master as Chun, aka Shadow-Hand. Chun was a potential tyrant who used various weapons in place of his hands. As Tarr, Reston, Wu, and Shang were discussing their course of action, Zaran was bringing out the reliquary on the island, which would act as their guide.
A fight soon broke out between the Si-Fan and the island's new guests. After Chun and Zaran's victory, Shadow-Hand thought back to the time when a strange caged creature forcibly removed his hands from his body. That explained his use of weapons in the place of those lost appendages.
What they didn't know was that the heroes were traveling via submarine to the island at that very moment. After a while, they emerged, using scuba gear to swim to shore. They were still as committed to the cause as their foes were to theirs.
Chapter VI: The Crowning Darkness began with Reston making sure that there were no immediate threats in their vicinity. Their goal was to reach the volcano, which would be the main entrance to the lair. Zaran, Chun, and the remaining Si-Fan warriors who had since joined their cause were almost at that landmark by then.
Several Si-Fan warriors took the rear and eventually wound up fighting our heroes. Chun and Zaran proceeded inside the volcano. Zaran used the ring to gain access to an inner level, where they soon found the actual temple that the reliquary had been based on.
During the fracas, Shang-Chi and Wu found themselves separated from Reston and Tarr. As Tarr and Reston were being taken to their foes' leader, Shang and Leiko soon branched off on different paths, hoping to find the volcano at the end of one of them.
Shang encountered a strange, tall, white, hairy beast. His tussle with it continued on in Chapter VII: The Beasting Man. It looked somewhat similar to the Wendigo that battled the Hulk, Wolverine, X-Men, and other Marvel characters in different titles. An attack from above by Zaran was enough to gradually convince the beast and Shang-Chi that they were on the same side.
After dispatching their common enemy, Shang made a fire and used some leaves as a poultice for his injured leg. He then used the same remedy on the creature's back. The duo soon left the scene as friends instead of enemies.
Wu's path was chronicled in Chapter VIII: The Rising Bars. It didn't take her very long to find the cells where Reston and Tarr had been held. As she made short work of the female guards, Shang-Chi entered the temple. He followed the path that he'd remembered from the small-scale model. At one point, he ran into the creature, who soon gave him the ring that served as a key.
Chun's ritual began in Chapter IX: The Mirroring Darkness. He hadn't located the prize yet, but Shang was coming closer to him with each passing step. The two soon faced off for the first time. Shadow-Hand's ball and chain weapons were impressive, but they weren't enough for him to win the fight against either Shang or his old foe, the creature, who had broken into the room just before Chapter X: The Dying Elixir started.
Unfortunately, Shadow-Hand got his revenge on the beast by knocking him several stories below. He then renewed his attack on Shang, who quickly ripped the chained weapons from his foe's body. He then used the ring to open a compartment that bore treasure along with the serum. He drank from the vial right before the warriors proclaimed him their new leader.
Shang-Chi accepted the mantle long enough to issue two commands. First, he asked the soldiers to give up the way of assassins and forget his father. His second request was for their prisoners to be freed. Tarr, Reston, and Wu were then rejoined with their friend.
Afterward, the quartet sailed away from the island. Shang tossed the vial onto the rock, stating that one taste was enough. He was content to wait to see if the serum had worked to counteract the poison and allow him to go on living. If not, he was willing to accept his fate.
Obviously, the serum worked, and Shang-Chi would go on to face new challenges. His appearances were somewhat sporadic in Marveldom until his own movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was announced. All in all, this was a rather satisfying epic crafted by writer Doug Moench and artists Dan and David Day, who were brothers of the late Master of Kung Fu artist Gene Day.
I have one more Shang-Chi article to write, which will be from What If. The sixteenth issue of that bimonthly mag posed the question: What if Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, fought on the side of Fu Manchu? It's something that we'll dig into next time. Until then, have a great weekend and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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