This is my second (or third depending on how you count) attempt to make my way through all of Master of Kung Fu. MoKF is one of several Marvel series I did not read in the seventies, but has attained nigh-legendary status among its fans, two of the others being Tomb of Dracula and Howard the Duck. I have long since made good on my intention to read ToD and HtD, but I just can't seem to push my way through MoKU. I first tried in 2018 when the first "Epic Collection" was released. Although I did make it all the way through, it didn't make much of an impression on me and I didn't remember much of it at all when it came time to read the second Epic Collection. It just didn't "click" with me. So I set out to read the first a second time as a lead-in to reading the second, but I didn't get very far into it at all. I don't even remember where I left off. No matter. From what I understand, the best issues of the entire 125-issue run (plus Annuals and Giant-Size and whatnot) are to be found in the second volume.
Finally I am in the mood to read it, so I just finished reading the first Epic Collection for a second time. Here's what I thought of it. It still didn't make that big of an impression on me, but at least I was into it this time through. The issues written by Doug Moench and drawn by Paul Gulacy are generally considered the best, but there's little of that here. The series began (in Special Marvel Edition #15 and became Master of Kung Fu with #17) by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin, but they remained paired for only three issues. Paul Gulacy joined Englehart for the three issues immediately after Starlin, but he did not become the regular penciler at this time. Doug Moench became the series' regular writer with #21, but was paired with Paul Gulacy only on issues #22 and #25. Although they also worked together on Giant-Size #1-3, their "classic" run together did not begin until #29, and the first Epic volume goes only through #28.
Here is what Steve Englehart has to say about the series:
"Jim Starlin and I loved the television show Kung Fu and wanted to play with its Eastern philosophy. Nobody else at Marvel believed in it, but we got a slot in a previously-reprint title called SPECIAL MARVEL EDITION, and we co-created SHANG CHI. I meditated for a long time on the I Ching to create his name, which means "The Rising and Advancing of a Spirit," and I envisioned the title as a companion book to DR. STRANGE.
"After just two issues, the series was such a sensation that the the book officially became MASTER OF KUNG FU - and - Marvel added a second book, the black-and-white DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU! Shang Chi became Marvel's most popular character for years thereafter.
"Unfortunately, doubling my work load was something I couldn't do with such a philosophical book, and rather than crank it out, I left it. This was too bad for me, but fortunately it was taken over by Doug Moench, who went on to work with a series of great artists like Paul Gulacy and Gene Day to make it one of Marvel's truly memorable series."
I may not get through the entire series, but now that I'm in the mood, I plan to get through at least the second Epic Collection.
If anyone here has any thoughts on this series, I'd be interested in hearing them.
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I've only read some of it (though I was a huge fan of Howard the Duck, being a smartass adolescent when it came out). It's an odd mix: a bit of Bruce Lee, a bit of the Kung-Fu TV series, and a very awkward helping of the acquired Sax Rohmer characters. The inclusion of Fu Manchu, looking like, well, Fu Manchu, became an entire sub-discussion of a panel I was once on. As a kid, however, I didn't realize the full implications of what I was reading. There were some interesting storylines.
The MCU version, on the other hand, was a different thing altogether.
I have the two Epic Collections as well and I have no real connection with the character as I seldom saw him. Growing up I had two or three beat up copies of his book and never had any of the magazines!
I did have Master of Kung Fu Annual #1 with Iron Fist and liked that one a lot!
While popular enough with a lot of buzz, I doubt that he was Marvel's "most popular".
What baffles me was having Shang-Chi be Fu Manchu's son! Why link the character to one they have to license? That's why they didn't reprint MoKF for decades! Not only that but we are supposed to believe that Fu Manchu raised his son to be a martial arts master but not teach him to share his viewpoints? To not be, for lack of a better word, evil?
And the way we are introduced to Shang! Having him kill Doctor Petrie, now an old man. It would be like if they did a "Son or Moriarty" book and had him kill Doctor Watson and still be the hero!
Then they give us Black Jack Tarr, a blatant racist and we're supposed to find him endearing.
The Midnight issue interested me because he was in the Legion of the Unliving in Avengers and I vaguely remembered his solo story from Iron Man Annual. Heck, Englehart brought him back in Silver Surfer.
It did seem like Black Jack existed to show his gradual development away from racism, but that's based on reading the character in fragments. Even if that is the case, many aspects of the comic and even this character remain.... problematic.
I read some of MoKF - about a third to a half of it - in monthly installments in the mid 1970s to mid 1980s.
It was always a bit more adult than usual for Marvel's output. First because there was so much conflict and mistrust among the main characters, then because Shang Chi became disillusioned with Nayland Smith and the MI-6 while also struggling to make sense of his inner conflicts about Shen Kuei the Cat, Fu Manchu himself, and even Leiko Wu.
It also had more hints of sexuality than most other books, and the very first story I read (about Carlton Velcro) had a a main plot point an attempt at trafficking heroin.
It did not take too long for Shang Chi and the others to meet other denizens of the Marvel Universe, firmly establishing them as inhabitants of what would later be called Earth-616. But I feel that this may not have been a decision that played to the strengths of the character and its concept. The apparent absence of the likes of SHIELD and the Avengers in the fist few months of the book helped in making the cast feel burdened by a difficult world with no significant help.
Later on, IMO during the Doug Moench/Mike Zeck period, the series would run into a bit of a rut, trying and consistently failing to leave the shadow of its previous heights. Everything after #50 (the last Gulacy story) is either repetitive, derivative or just forgettable. It does not help that the main penciler after Gulacy was Mike Zeck, who is not a good fit for the character. But most of the from the Carlton Velcro issues up to #50 was great.
The most interesting thing about #51-125 is how Fu Manchu ends up revising his goals after each confrontation. The second most interesting thing, alas, is how transparently we are shown the existential dilemma of the book's continued existence. It began as an alternate perspective of the Sax Rohmer stories, told some interesting and innovative tangential stories, but never quite managed to find a viable reason for being that did not involve the need to oppose Fu Manchu. Sometimes it tried and failed. Other times it threw its figurative hands up and accepted that it could do no better than to revisit yesterday's greatest hits.
It was also, except for the very early issues, very much a Doug Moench book. As I pointed out elsewhere, that is not really possible these days - and certainly not for over six years over its high point.
In any case, that Shang Chi is just not very similar to the currently published character by the same name. Somewhere along the way he was gently rebooted and reinvented.
And the way we are introduced to Shang! Having him kill Doctor Petrie, now an old man.
Having never read any of the Sax Rohmer originals, Petrie didn't mean anything to me per se, but I had a hard time getting past the fact the Shang-Chi's origin involved murder. They later "retconned" that as a Fu-Manchu mind game, but still the intent was there.
I vaguely remembered his solo story from Iron Man Annual.
That's included in the first Epic collection.
It does not help that the main penciler after Gulacy was Mike Zeck, who is not a good fit for the character.
I first became aware of Mike Zeck during his run on Captain America with J.M. DeMatties, and I really liked his work there. I didn't become aware of his work on MoKF until later, and I still haven't read any of it.
It was also, except for the very early issues, very much a Doug Moench book.
I generally like "Doug Moench books."
I had stopped reading comics in the mid-Seventies so I missed the early MOKF entirely. By 1977 I was reading again and it was around that time that a house ad for MOKF by Mike Zeck caught my eye and started me reading and collecting the series. It wasn't until I started picking up back issues that I read the Gulacy illustrated books. While I agree the Gulacy run is the peak of the series, I have a great fondness for the Zeck run as well. And if not for that Zeck illustrated ad I might have never read Master of Kung Fu
This one?
Yep! That's the one. Doesn't that make you want to check out the series?
Actually, yes... it certainly does (did)... it just took me a couple of decades to get around to it. :)
When I saw the ad for the Giant-Size Marvel omnibus, Giant-Size Spider-Man #2 with Shang Chi is not included because of the Fu Manchu connection.
Neither is GS-SM #3 with Doc Savage!
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