‘Shang-Chi #1’ (review)

Written by Gene Luen Yang
Art by Dike Ruan
Published by Marvel Comics

And so we come to another Marvel series launch of an established character that comes after a shake-up of what they were before. Some big thing happen in another book, and now this character is learning a new status quo.

The recent U.S.Agent book had a John Walker losing his S.H.I.E.L.D. operative status. The Hulk series followed Jennifer Walters after Thanos killed her cousin Bruce and she nearly died. Ta-Nehisi Coates’ run on Black Panther started with a Wakanda fractured under invasions and crossover events.

And now, ahead of his major motion picture, Shang-Chi gets a new book after he was reunited with his long-lost siblings and named supreme commander of their wicked father’s Five Weapons Society.

It’s like, what if Ra’s Al Ghul had a son that turned out to be a good guy?

Shang-Chi even has his own Damian Wayne equivalent in his sister, Esme. She was raised in the Five Weapons Society, which made her precocious, imperious, occasionally cruel, but capable of growth and change.

I mean, she asks permission to kill a triad soldier, then tries to bargain it down to stabbing him in the hand to force an interrogation.

Meanwhile, Shang-Chi is just trying to close the deal on his date with Delilah Wang.

But no, the triad guy wouldn’t wait 10 minutes.

And so after Esme messes up that due something fierce, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man arrives just in time. He and Shang-Chi decide to jam on the triad case together.

Of course, they run into some capers and suped-up monster men, but not before the cat it let out of the bag that Shang-Chi now leads one of the most evil organizations on the planet. Even if he’s using the Society’s vast resources to shutter it and all its affiliate criminal businesses.

He’d kept that part secret from Spider-Man and others.

How long can Shang keep up this ruse? Or will he be seen as a villain and eventually have the Avengers arrive on his doorstep? Or might another big bad appear?

This was a fun read, though I hope for more Kung Fu in the next issue.