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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DC's occasional statement that white American Hal Jordan is the greatest Green Lantern also smacks of the same thing.
A white woman who, however, describes Fu Manchu in exactly the same words as Sax Rohmer, minus "the yellow peril incarnate in one man" bit. In the end, there's really no way to include Sax Rohmer's characters without the attendant racism, in some form, turning up. I wish that 70s Marvel had made a better decision here, but Shang-Chi has evolved in the popular culture beyond the dubious origins with which he was burdened. I read the comic a little in the 70s and I found it fascinating, but aspects of it confused me and I have a better grasp now of why they did.
Did any of you catch (what I consider to be) a Richard Dragon and Ben Turner homage/parody in the Doug Moench / Paul Gulacy issues?
I assume that it was something of an inner joke from Doug Moench to Denny O'Neil (the main writer and creator of DC Comics' "Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter", which at the time was a very recent launch).
I, personally, did not, but the only Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter story I have ever read is "Claws of the Dragon!" from issue #3, reprinted in The Jack Kirby Omnibus Vol. 2 (2013). What was it?
Issue #29 has Shang Chi trying to infiltrate Carlton Velcro's fortress. Velcro is being distracted by Clive Reston under a false identity, and Velcro has a pair of oddly familiar bodyguards. Soon enough they are sent to stop Shang Chi's advance. They are not very effective...
Going by cover dates, #29 was published between RDKFM #1 and #2.
Ah. Thanks!
No, but it's been a long time since I've read those issues. (LIke, I forgot Shang-Chi's mother was in the first story!)
So give us the deets, please.
I gave them two posts above. But here are the relevant panels.
MASTER OF KUNG FU - (MAX, 2002):
Back in the '90s, I replied to an ad in the Comics Buyer's Guide placed by a seller offering complete series sets. I always wanted to read the Wolfman/Colan/Palmer Tomb of Dracula, so I sent off a check. By the time the seller received it, however, the set had been sold. the seller contacted me and offered to either return the check, or send me a replacement set of my choosing. I suggested Master of Kung Fu and he agreed. So I've had it for, like, 30 years but never read it (until the Epic Collections). In 2002 I bought the MAX series, but didn't read that for 23 years, either... until today. This is not one of those "Don't buy what you don't read" situations; I bought it with no intention of reading it... until I first read #15-125. Now that I have read #15-53, I feel well-versed enough in the lore to give it a shot.
Marvel's MAX imprint, as I'm sure all of you rerading this know, was Marvel's short-lived "mature readers" line. I don't think this line is very well-remembered or well-thought of, but I liked more of what I read of it than I disliked. I think Steve Gerber's MAX Howard the Duck, for example, was the best HtD he ever wrote (although Randy Jackson would, and did, disagree with me). Similarly, I think that the Moench/Gulacy MAX Master of Kung Fu was better than any MoKF in either volume of the Epic Collections. Both writer and artist had grown in their respective arts, and it shows. It is the final confrontation between father and son, the threat is based on one of Nicola Tesla's theories, and Moench has introduced a love triangle among three of the main characters. It also includes a framing device which defines the theme. I think the more familiar a given reader is with the lore the more he will get out of it, but I also believe anyone who loves a good spy/action thriller coming into this cold would enjoy it as well.
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