Here's to the Losers continues with Shang-Chi, one of two series to garner 25% of the vote - the wonderfully titled The Hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. Over a year ago, I talked about his first appearance and subsequent fight with a flaming gorilla. That's HERE. Today, I'll just move on to his second in Marvel Special Edition #16. No flaming primates though. Instead, the issue introduces that old stand-by of Kung Fu comics to the Shang-Chiniverse, the Kung Fu Supervillain(TM).Warm-Up Round!
Ambiguously gay racist duo Ripper and Mr. Clean:
Oh, they really deserve it too. They get first blow. Take note that this is how Shang-Chi reacts to getting hit. He dodges TOO LATE.
The riposte:
Shang-Chi has proven himself worthy of...The Main Event!
The "man-menace" called Midnight:
He's Shang-Chi's only boyhood friend, a scarred African orphan raised and trained by Fu Manchu. Fu's solution to that scarred face? Throw a bag over it. Cultivate the hate. And it comes in handy. Fu Manchu has sent him to kill Shang-Chi for last issue's betrayal. Can two friends - nay, brothers! - fight each other to the death? Answer: They have to.
Midnight pulls a knife, so Shang-Chi grabs nunchaku out of thin air. The better weapon is, of course...
Midnight's next move is to take out a bo staff. Shang-Chi heads for a construction site where he finds... pipes!
Then it's up, up, up the crane... ooh, dangerous! And this time, Shang-Chi does manage to dodge a killing blow in time, and Midnight, losing his balance...
...takes a Gwen Stacy off the crane. That'll teach him to tie his cape so tightly around his neck... PERMANENTLY. So it's Shang-Chi for the win.
Comments
He re-appeared in Great Size Avengers, I think. And even later in Silver Sulfer, turned into a cosmic villain.
Weird death, uh?
Roger
And for the Surfer, the Kree put his "re-animated" brain into an "enhanced clone body."
Even after death, Steve Englehart will leave no character behind...when Mantis fought Midnight it must have been a tremendous nerdgasm for him.