Shang-Chi
Zheng Shang-Chi, also known as the Master of Kung Fu and Brother Hand, is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Steve Englehart and artist Jim Starlin, debuting in Special Marvel Edition #15 in the Bronze Age of Comic Books, and starring in his own solo title until 1983. Described as the greatest martial artist alive, Shang-Chi has been trained since birth to be the ultimate fighter with a specialization in various unarmed and weaponry-based wushu styles, including the use of the gùn, nunchaku, and jian. Shang-Chi later assumes leadership of the Five Weapons Society and acquires the Ten Rings weapons.
Shang-Chi was spun off from novelist Sax Rohmer's licensed property as the unknown son of fictional villain Dr. Fu Manchu. In later editions, his connection to Manchu was underplayed after Marvel lost the comic book rights to the latter's character; to get around this problem, the publisher eventually renamed Shang-Chi's father Zheng Zu.
Shang-Chi made his live-action debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, where he is portrayed by Simu Liu.
Publication history
In the early 1970s, writer Steve Englehart and artist Jim Starlin approached DC Comics to adapt the television series Kung Fu into a comic book, as DC's parent company, Warner Communications, owned the rights to the series. DC Comics, however, was not interested in their pitch, believing the show's and the martial arts genre's popularity would fade quickly. The duo then approached Marvel Comics with the idea to create a kung fu-focused original comic. Editor-in-chief Roy Thomas agreed, but only if they would include the Sax Rohmer's pulp villain Dr. Fu Manchu, as Marvel had previously acquired the comic book rights to the character, and made their protagonist half-white. Englehart and Starlin agreed. They developed Shang-Chi, a master of kung fu, who was introduced as a previously unknown son of Manchu. Though an original character himself, many of Shang-Chi's supporting characters were Rohmer creations. Starlin left the series after #17 and Englehart after #19. No characters from the Kung Fu television series were officially included in the comic series, though in the #19 issue the character Lu Sun bore such a strong resemblance to Kwai Chang Caine that to avoid copyright issues, the character was given a mustache throughout the issue. With artist Paul Gulacy, Shang-Chi's visual appearance was modeled after that of Bruce Lee.Shang-Chi first appeared in Special Marvel Edition #15. He appeared again in issue #16, and with issue #17 the publication was retitled The Hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. Amidst the martial arts craze in the United States in the 1970s, the book became very popular, surviving until issue #125, a solid run that included four Giant-Size issues and one Annual. Special Collector's Edition #1 cover-titled as "Savage Fists of Kung Fu" reprinted stories from The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1–2; The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu Special #1; and Special Marvel Edition #15. The character did several crossovers with other Marvel martial artists, including the White Tiger, Iron Fist and the Daughters of the Dragon. He appeared regularly in The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu.
Shang-Chi had two more short series: the Master of Kung Fu: Bleeding Black one-shot issue and the MAX miniseries Master of Kung Fu: Hellfire Apocalypse with artist Paul Gulacy on art again. The character had two stories in the comics anthology series Marvel Comics Presents, including one by Moench that ran in the series' first eight issues in 1988, and co-starred in the Moon Knight Special.
In 1995, Shang-Chi would be one of the revival titles produced by Milestone Media, according to writer Dwayne McDuffie, the title would show Shang-Chi using firearms, inspired by gun fu style by Hong Kong filmmaker John Woo; however, according to McDuffie, the proposal was cancelled after the departure of editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco and the death of Mark Gruenwald the following year.
In 1997 a story arc starring Shang-Chi ran in Journey into Mystery #514–516, and was intended to lead into a miniseries for the character in 1998.
Although spun out of licensed properties, Shang-Chi is a Marvel-owned character and has been firmly established as a part of the Marvel Universe with guest appearances in numerous other titles, such as Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-in-One, Marvel Knights and X-Men. Most of the original licensed characters in the supporting cast have been either phased out or renamed in the more recent series and stories.
In some of his modern appearances, mention is made of his villainous father either in cryptic terms or using a variety of new names, due to Marvel no longer having the rights to Dr. Fu Manchu. In 2010's Secret Avengers #6–10, writer Ed Brubaker officially sidestepped the entire issue via a storyline where the Shadow Council resurrects a zombified version of Manchu, only to discover that "Fu Manchu" was only an alias and that Shang-Chi's father's real name was Zheng Zu, an ancient Chinese sorcerer who discovered the secret to immortality. Similarly, Shang-Chi's half sister Fah Lo Suee was later renamed Zheng Bao Yu in 2013's The Fearless Defenders #8, written by Cullen Bunn, while Smith and Petrie have not appeared in any Marvel properties since the end of the Master of Kung Fu series in 1983.
Shang-Chi returned as a main character in the 2007 Heroes for Hire comic book. In 2009, the black and white one-shot Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu was released, with stories written by Jonathan Hickman, Mike Benson, Charlie Huston and Robin Furth and illustrated by Tomm Coker, C.P. Smith, Enrique Romero and Paul Gulacy.
In 2014, the miniseries Deadly Hands of Kung Fu was released with Shang-Chi in appearance, written by Mike Benson and illustrated by Tan Eng Huat.
In 2015, Shang-Chi starred in the Master of Kung Fu revival in the Secret Wars storyline. Written by Haden Blackman and illustrated by Taljic, the four-issue series is a wuxia-inspired story that takes place in the Battleworld domain of K'un-L'un and centered around Shang-Chi in his fight to overthrow his despotic father, Emperor Zheng Zu.
In 2017, after a 34-year gap, Shang-Chi once again starred in Master of Kung Fu's 126th issue as part of the Marvel Legacy relaunch, written by mixed martial artist CM Punk and illustrated by Dalibor Talajic.
In 2020, Shang-Chi starred in a self-titled five issue miniseries written by American Born Chinese author Gene Luen Yang with art by Dike Ruan and Philip Tan. Initially set for a June 2020 release, the first issue was delayed to September due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Shang-Chi starred in a new ongoing series by Yang and Ruan in 2021, with Marcus To replacing Ruan by the 9th issue. Following the release of the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Yang incorporated several concepts introduced in the film into the comics, including the character Jiang Li as Shang-Chi's real mother, who was based on Shang-Chi's mother Ying Li, retconning Shang-Chi's white American mother and his mixed-race heritage; the heavenly realm Ta-Lo, which was previously introduced by writers Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio and artist Keith Pollard in Thor #310 ; and the Ten Rings weapons.
In March 2021, the one-shot The Legend of Shang-Chi was published, by Alyssa Wong and Andie Tong.
In September 2021, Shang-Chi starred in a miniseries made available by the Marvel Unlimited app, the miniseries was written by Alyssa Wong and illustrated by Nathan Stockman.
In July 2022, the ongoing Shang-Chi series was succeeded by a new ongoing series titled Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings, with the previously solicited Shang-Chi #13 being retitled Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings #1.
Yang's 24-issue run concluded with the one-shot Shang-Chi: Master of the Ten Rings, with Michael YG replacing To on art, in January 2023. In October, he starred in the graphic novel Shang-Chi and the Quest for Immortality, which was written and illustrated by Victoria Ying and colored by Ian Herring.
In December 2023, Shang-Chi starred in a Deadly Hands of Kung Fu revival titled Deadly Hands of Kung Fu: Gang War, a three issue miniseries written by Greg Pak and illustrated by Caio Majado which was part of the "Gang War" crossover event. In February 2024, Shang-Chi was added to the team lineup for a new Thunderbolts series, written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing and illustrated by Geraldo Borges. Lanzing explained that Shang-Chi's inclusion to the title was due to the character's spy thriller roots from the Master of Kung Fu series.
In September 2024, Shang-Chi was featured as a main character in the limited series Avengers Assemble, which was written by Steve Orlando and drawn by Cory Smith.
In May 2025, it was announced that there will be a new version of Shang-Chi in the new Ultimate Universe.
Name
The name Shang-Chi was conceived by co-creator Steve Englehart through his study of the I-Ching, combining 升 witch 氣 to represent "the rising and advancing of the spirit".In 2019, American actor Ronny Chieng, of Malaysian Chinese descent, opined that Marvel should not use 上氣 as the characters for Shang-Chi, as it literally means "upper air" and seemed strange to Chieng. He proposed 神奇 instead, or 昇華的靈氣 to preserve Englehart's original intent. In The Ultimates #15, the Ultimate Universe version of Shang-Chi is called Shen Qi, which translates as miraculous.