Games of Death & Deceit-Master of Kung Fu
Jun 30, 2019 20:06:50 GMT -5
shaxper, Roquefort Raider, and 7 more like this
Post by codystarbuck on Jun 30, 2019 20:06:50 GMT -5
For my money, the best comic of the 70s was Master of Kung Fu, especially the run of Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy. It was everything you could want, with mystery, intrigue, sexy women, well choreographed fights, moody atmosphere, great visuals, and complex characters. It was also James Bond-meets-Bruce Lee, melding the spy-fi thrills of the Connery Bonds (more than Roger Moore, who was mostly getting started in the role). However, it didn't start out that way and it didn't originally have Fu Manchu in mind, as the villain.
Marvel attempted to acquire comic book rights for the new tv series, Kung Fu, starring David Carradine. They were unable to secure them; but, wanted to still do a martial arts comic. So, instead, they licensed Fu Manchu, Nayland Smith and Dr Petrie, from the Fu Manchu pulp novel series, first begun in 1912. Fu Manchu was the creation of Arthur Henry Ward, aka Sax Rohmer, a civil servant turned-writer. He was also a bit of a con man, claiming connections to the Rosicrucians and Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (an occult group that was an off-shoot of Masonic societies). No evidence exists supporting those claims. He claimed to have conjured up Fu Manchu after asking a ouija board what the most dangerous competition of the white man and it spelled out CHINAMAN. Riiiiggggghhht. He also claimed to have seen a notorious Chinese crime lord in London's Limehouse district, who would then be the physical basis of Fu Manchu. Uh-hunh. The Yellow Peril was in full swing, as political unrest in China was rife, with events such as the Boxer Rebellion, fighting against Western Imperial powers who sought to exploit China and carve up its lands for themselves. The character, himself, blends the already established Moriarty and newly created Fantomas into a yellow Peril villain. Fu Manchu is a master of ancient and modern sciences and secretly controls a society of assassins, the Si-Fan (he is introduced as an agent of the group, though he is the obvious master through the series). He seeks to conquer and control mankind, and especially China and the East, which brings him in conflict with Police Commissioner Dennis Nayland Smith, of Burma, and his friend and associate Dr Petrie. Nayland Smith is Sherlock Holmes to Fu's Moriarty, and Petrie is his Watson and the narrator of the first 3 novels. Later, Nayland Smith is knighted and serves the British government and the British Secret Service. The Holmes model had also been appropriated by Fantomas, with his chief opponents being the journalist Fandor and police inspector Juve. Fantomas carried out diabolical crimes, much of which provided a template for Fu Manchu, with poisonings and grisly murders. Where the Fu Manchu series took them further was in adding nightmare horrors of scientifically modified animals and insects, with giant poisonous spiders, rats, serpents and other creatures that suggested death and terror.
It is this world that sets the stage for our new martial arts hero, as Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin introduce us to the son of Fu Manchu: Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung Fu.
Special Marvel Edition #15
Cover is by Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom, under the name Gemini
Creative Team: Steve Englehart-writer/colors, Jim Starlin-pencils, Al Milgrom-inks, Tom Orzechowski-letters, Roy Thomas-edits
Synopsis: Our story opens, as a one-man army invades a fortress.....
It is Shang-Chi and the defenders seek to prevent him finding his father, Fu Manchu. Chi reflects back on their last meeting, as Fu summons his 19 year-old son before him, at his Honan retreat. he has been trained by the best teachers, under Fu's supervision, to turn his son into a living weapon, of great intellect, melding mind and body into single force. he tells Chi that one man, the world's most evil man, stops Fu in his pursuit of the betterment of mankind: Dt Petrie. He sends Shang-Chio to slay him, that humanity may prosper.
For the first time, Shang-Chi leaves the Honan retreat and goes to Mayfair, in London, to confront Petrie, his father's enemy. He silently enters Petrie's home, via an upper floor window. Inside he finds his target...
an old, enfeebled man. He strikes and is halted by Sir Dennis Nayland Smith, who is confined to a wheelchair; but, holds steady aim with a Colt 1911 automatic. Chi calmly and switly aims a kick which knocks aside the weapon, stunning Smith. Smith weeps for his friend as he chastises Chi. Chi asks how he can weep for one so evil and Smith loses his s@#$ and goes off about Fu and the Si-Fan, his evil organization of dacoits, thuggee, hashishin and other nasties....
Smith describes how he, with the help of a man named McKay, discovered a list of Si-Fan lodges and ran them to ground. However, Fu captured them, murdered McKay and had a Sumo, named Tak destroy Smith's legs. Chi, already torn by the idea of killing, despite his honorable father telling him that Petrie was evil, finding only an old man. Smith's revelations and the evidence of his crippled legs convince Chi that his father lied. he goes to confront him.
However, he first has a word with mommy....
mom was an American, chosen to breed the perfect son (Um, I'll get to that one, in a minute). So, he goes off to find pop and give him a piece of his mind. So, we are back to the fortress, with Shag-Chi busting heads and kicking booty. Then he runs into Tak and it is time for some payback, for Smith...
Chi cheats and pulls Tak's hair to throw him through a door. Bad enough he uses those sissy kicks. He is violating the Code of the Playground (no pulling hair, no sissy kicks, an no luggies after drinking milk). He then runs into a crazed gorilla, one of Fu's experiments.
He then comes face to face with pops and gets ready to tiger claw his face.
Except Pa talks him to death, with tales of restoring China to its former glory, getting rid of the Communists and bringing the West to its knees, so that China can stand supreme. Shag-Chi says pops is nuts and walks away. Fu says you're on your own buddy, and my men will get you (and your little dog Toto, too). Fue walks out of the fortress, which is actually a warehouse in NYC.
Thoughts: So, bang up debut, as we meet Shang-Chi, immediately see that he is a human whoop-ass can opener, and that Fu is nuts, though he his a focused vision of insanity. Nayland Smith and Petrie are tied to the past of the novels and we are given a Cliffs Notes version of their history, with Fu's Elixir Vitae and assassins, monstrous creatures, and Smith and Petrie trying to bring him down. We also meet Shang-Chi's mother, a blond American woman. The Fu of the novels is pretty much as racist as his enemies (and Nayland Smith is pretty racist in the early novels, with the whole series pretty damn insulting to Asians) and the Chinese were just as known for looking upon outsiders as barbarians and gwailo. Since Shang-Chi is a new character, she is, too. The idea is probably cribbed from Kung Fu, as Kwai Chang Caine is the son of a white man and a Chinese woman. Englehart (and Roy, who had a big hand in this) swaps it and gives Shang-Chi a white mother and Chinese madman father. This is about it for Moms Manchu for many years to come.
We also see the rather unfortunate continuation of an insulting practice, as Fu and Shang-Chi are depicted with different skin colors than the other characters. Fu is given a pale yellow, much as the Yellow Claw had, in the 50s, and Ming the Merciless had in Flash Gordon, in the earliest days (they abandoned it within a few years of the strip). Chi is given a more orange look, much like Adam Warlock. That will vary a bit, though Marvel will stick with the orange look for several years.
The martial arts is hardly Chinese, as most of the moves are basically judo, plus some generic kicks and punches. This also continues the myth that sumo were martial artists. Sumo is not as much a combat art as Western Greco-Roman, freestyle and catch-as-catch-can wrestling. The object in sumo is to push or throw your opponent out of the circle or to the mat, and involves more massive size and brute strength than combat technique. The fact that Shang Chi tooks so long to take out a sumo suggests he isn't all that. Let me put it this way, 2 sumo have fought in the Ultimate Fighting Championship: Teila Tuli and Emmanuel Yarborough. Tuli fought in UFC 1, losing to savatte and kickboxing fighter Gerard Gordeau (who he outweighed by a high margin). Gordeau landed a kick to the mouth that sent Tuli's tooth flying under the announce table and then proceeded to pummel Tuli until the ref stopped the fight. Yarborough fought in UFC 3, against Kieth Hackney, a kenpo karate practitioner. Hackney landed a shot to the face that staggered Yarborough, who dropped to his knees and Hackney proceeded to repeatedly punch Yarborough in the side of the head, until he tapped the mat. So, don't use sumo wrestlers for bodyguards! It may look cool with some big guys in diapers standing on either side; but, when they throw down, they tend to go down (Race Banon kicked one's butt, too).
Really memorable debut, though we are firmly in the novel world of Rohmer, moved up a few decades. it will be a while before we get to the spy-fi -meets- chop-sockey.
Shang-Chi is inspired by Kwai Chang Caine and there is a superficial resemblance to Caine, though his features are fairly generic. The hairstyle is the same and he looks much as Caine did, when he was in his robes, at the end of the pilot film (fighting fight choreographer David Chow). Fu is a mix of the novel illustrations and Christopher Lee, who played Fu in a series of films, in the 60s, beginning with the excellent Face of Fu Manchu and ending with the terrible Castle of Fu Manchu (spoofed on MST3K). Boris Karloff was the other notable cinematic Fu, playing him in The Mask of Fu Manchu, with Myrna Loy as a very sexy Fah lo See (instead of Fah lo Suee). These films will also have a lot of influence on how these stories are done, as they were supposed to be set in the 1920s and earlier, yet looked purely 1960s, when they were shot. They will influence Fu's plots, until moench takes over and mixes in the Bond villain stuff (which drew from Fu, especially Dr No).
Next, Fu meets Midnight Sun, his adopted brother!
Marvel attempted to acquire comic book rights for the new tv series, Kung Fu, starring David Carradine. They were unable to secure them; but, wanted to still do a martial arts comic. So, instead, they licensed Fu Manchu, Nayland Smith and Dr Petrie, from the Fu Manchu pulp novel series, first begun in 1912. Fu Manchu was the creation of Arthur Henry Ward, aka Sax Rohmer, a civil servant turned-writer. He was also a bit of a con man, claiming connections to the Rosicrucians and Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (an occult group that was an off-shoot of Masonic societies). No evidence exists supporting those claims. He claimed to have conjured up Fu Manchu after asking a ouija board what the most dangerous competition of the white man and it spelled out CHINAMAN. Riiiiggggghhht. He also claimed to have seen a notorious Chinese crime lord in London's Limehouse district, who would then be the physical basis of Fu Manchu. Uh-hunh. The Yellow Peril was in full swing, as political unrest in China was rife, with events such as the Boxer Rebellion, fighting against Western Imperial powers who sought to exploit China and carve up its lands for themselves. The character, himself, blends the already established Moriarty and newly created Fantomas into a yellow Peril villain. Fu Manchu is a master of ancient and modern sciences and secretly controls a society of assassins, the Si-Fan (he is introduced as an agent of the group, though he is the obvious master through the series). He seeks to conquer and control mankind, and especially China and the East, which brings him in conflict with Police Commissioner Dennis Nayland Smith, of Burma, and his friend and associate Dr Petrie. Nayland Smith is Sherlock Holmes to Fu's Moriarty, and Petrie is his Watson and the narrator of the first 3 novels. Later, Nayland Smith is knighted and serves the British government and the British Secret Service. The Holmes model had also been appropriated by Fantomas, with his chief opponents being the journalist Fandor and police inspector Juve. Fantomas carried out diabolical crimes, much of which provided a template for Fu Manchu, with poisonings and grisly murders. Where the Fu Manchu series took them further was in adding nightmare horrors of scientifically modified animals and insects, with giant poisonous spiders, rats, serpents and other creatures that suggested death and terror.
It is this world that sets the stage for our new martial arts hero, as Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin introduce us to the son of Fu Manchu: Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung Fu.
Special Marvel Edition #15
Cover is by Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom, under the name Gemini
Creative Team: Steve Englehart-writer/colors, Jim Starlin-pencils, Al Milgrom-inks, Tom Orzechowski-letters, Roy Thomas-edits
Synopsis: Our story opens, as a one-man army invades a fortress.....
It is Shang-Chi and the defenders seek to prevent him finding his father, Fu Manchu. Chi reflects back on their last meeting, as Fu summons his 19 year-old son before him, at his Honan retreat. he has been trained by the best teachers, under Fu's supervision, to turn his son into a living weapon, of great intellect, melding mind and body into single force. he tells Chi that one man, the world's most evil man, stops Fu in his pursuit of the betterment of mankind: Dt Petrie. He sends Shang-Chio to slay him, that humanity may prosper.
For the first time, Shang-Chi leaves the Honan retreat and goes to Mayfair, in London, to confront Petrie, his father's enemy. He silently enters Petrie's home, via an upper floor window. Inside he finds his target...
an old, enfeebled man. He strikes and is halted by Sir Dennis Nayland Smith, who is confined to a wheelchair; but, holds steady aim with a Colt 1911 automatic. Chi calmly and switly aims a kick which knocks aside the weapon, stunning Smith. Smith weeps for his friend as he chastises Chi. Chi asks how he can weep for one so evil and Smith loses his s@#$ and goes off about Fu and the Si-Fan, his evil organization of dacoits, thuggee, hashishin and other nasties....
Smith describes how he, with the help of a man named McKay, discovered a list of Si-Fan lodges and ran them to ground. However, Fu captured them, murdered McKay and had a Sumo, named Tak destroy Smith's legs. Chi, already torn by the idea of killing, despite his honorable father telling him that Petrie was evil, finding only an old man. Smith's revelations and the evidence of his crippled legs convince Chi that his father lied. he goes to confront him.
However, he first has a word with mommy....
mom was an American, chosen to breed the perfect son (Um, I'll get to that one, in a minute). So, he goes off to find pop and give him a piece of his mind. So, we are back to the fortress, with Shag-Chi busting heads and kicking booty. Then he runs into Tak and it is time for some payback, for Smith...
Chi cheats and pulls Tak's hair to throw him through a door. Bad enough he uses those sissy kicks. He is violating the Code of the Playground (no pulling hair, no sissy kicks, an no luggies after drinking milk). He then runs into a crazed gorilla, one of Fu's experiments.
He then comes face to face with pops and gets ready to tiger claw his face.
Except Pa talks him to death, with tales of restoring China to its former glory, getting rid of the Communists and bringing the West to its knees, so that China can stand supreme. Shag-Chi says pops is nuts and walks away. Fu says you're on your own buddy, and my men will get you (and your little dog Toto, too). Fue walks out of the fortress, which is actually a warehouse in NYC.
Thoughts: So, bang up debut, as we meet Shang-Chi, immediately see that he is a human whoop-ass can opener, and that Fu is nuts, though he his a focused vision of insanity. Nayland Smith and Petrie are tied to the past of the novels and we are given a Cliffs Notes version of their history, with Fu's Elixir Vitae and assassins, monstrous creatures, and Smith and Petrie trying to bring him down. We also meet Shang-Chi's mother, a blond American woman. The Fu of the novels is pretty much as racist as his enemies (and Nayland Smith is pretty racist in the early novels, with the whole series pretty damn insulting to Asians) and the Chinese were just as known for looking upon outsiders as barbarians and gwailo. Since Shang-Chi is a new character, she is, too. The idea is probably cribbed from Kung Fu, as Kwai Chang Caine is the son of a white man and a Chinese woman. Englehart (and Roy, who had a big hand in this) swaps it and gives Shang-Chi a white mother and Chinese madman father. This is about it for Moms Manchu for many years to come.
We also see the rather unfortunate continuation of an insulting practice, as Fu and Shang-Chi are depicted with different skin colors than the other characters. Fu is given a pale yellow, much as the Yellow Claw had, in the 50s, and Ming the Merciless had in Flash Gordon, in the earliest days (they abandoned it within a few years of the strip). Chi is given a more orange look, much like Adam Warlock. That will vary a bit, though Marvel will stick with the orange look for several years.
The martial arts is hardly Chinese, as most of the moves are basically judo, plus some generic kicks and punches. This also continues the myth that sumo were martial artists. Sumo is not as much a combat art as Western Greco-Roman, freestyle and catch-as-catch-can wrestling. The object in sumo is to push or throw your opponent out of the circle or to the mat, and involves more massive size and brute strength than combat technique. The fact that Shang Chi tooks so long to take out a sumo suggests he isn't all that. Let me put it this way, 2 sumo have fought in the Ultimate Fighting Championship: Teila Tuli and Emmanuel Yarborough. Tuli fought in UFC 1, losing to savatte and kickboxing fighter Gerard Gordeau (who he outweighed by a high margin). Gordeau landed a kick to the mouth that sent Tuli's tooth flying under the announce table and then proceeded to pummel Tuli until the ref stopped the fight. Yarborough fought in UFC 3, against Kieth Hackney, a kenpo karate practitioner. Hackney landed a shot to the face that staggered Yarborough, who dropped to his knees and Hackney proceeded to repeatedly punch Yarborough in the side of the head, until he tapped the mat. So, don't use sumo wrestlers for bodyguards! It may look cool with some big guys in diapers standing on either side; but, when they throw down, they tend to go down (Race Banon kicked one's butt, too).
Really memorable debut, though we are firmly in the novel world of Rohmer, moved up a few decades. it will be a while before we get to the spy-fi -meets- chop-sockey.
Shang-Chi is inspired by Kwai Chang Caine and there is a superficial resemblance to Caine, though his features are fairly generic. The hairstyle is the same and he looks much as Caine did, when he was in his robes, at the end of the pilot film (fighting fight choreographer David Chow). Fu is a mix of the novel illustrations and Christopher Lee, who played Fu in a series of films, in the 60s, beginning with the excellent Face of Fu Manchu and ending with the terrible Castle of Fu Manchu (spoofed on MST3K). Boris Karloff was the other notable cinematic Fu, playing him in The Mask of Fu Manchu, with Myrna Loy as a very sexy Fah lo See (instead of Fah lo Suee). These films will also have a lot of influence on how these stories are done, as they were supposed to be set in the 1920s and earlier, yet looked purely 1960s, when they were shot. They will influence Fu's plots, until moench takes over and mixes in the Bond villain stuff (which drew from Fu, especially Dr No).
Next, Fu meets Midnight Sun, his adopted brother!