The Five Weapons Society is an organization of martial artists and assassins comprising of five Houses, each dedicated to one weapon. Originally created by Zheng Zu, Zheng Yi, and the Deadly Warriors to protect China, the Society later devolved into a cult-like criminal organization with the aim of world domination, but now serves for the good of mankind under the leadership of Shang-Chi.
History
Origins[]
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Zheng Zu leading the Society alone
Although the exact date is unknown, the Five Weapons Society was founded by the sorcerers Zheng Zu and Zheng Yi and their five disciples, the Deadly Warriors. The Society was active during the 1700s, where it protected the Tianjin Prefecture from Fin Fang Foom after its governor built his mansion on the land's dragon lines. Due to the longevity spells cast upon them, the Sorcerer Brothers outlived their disciples and established five Houses in their honor.[1]
In 1860, the Society protected China from the British Army during the Opium Wars. During a battle in Shanghai, a sorcerer in service to the British Army, Baron Harkness, summoned Dormammu's Mindless Ones from the Dark Dimension, resulting in the deaths of the Deadly Warriors and the mortal wounding of Yi. With the Eyes of the Dragon Zu attempted to restore his younger brother's power and youth at the cost of his own life, but not wanting to lead the Society alone, Yi turned the spell on Zu while sacrificing himself in the process, rejuvenating Zu's youth and strength, giving him enough power to destroy Harkness and the Mindless Ones. From that point forward, Zu led the Society alone.[2]
In 1900, the Society aided the Boxers during the Boxer Rebellion but failed to prevent the destruction of the House of the Deadly Sabre by the Eight Nation Alliance. Having became bitter and corrupt without his brother's guidance and disillusioned with the Qing Empire, Zu renounced his country and allies, dismissing them as weak. Zu subsequently relocated four of the five Houses into countries that had aggressed against the Society, with the Deadly Sabre relocated to Japan, the House of the Deadly Staff to England, the House of the Deadly Hammer to Russia, and the House of the Deadly Dagger to France. Only the House of the Deadly Hand remained in China, which also served as his main base of operations.[3]
Restructuring[]
In the following years, each of the five Houses became supplemented with scores of Warriors, with the best ones being named the Champion of their house. Several of Zu's children would be raised in each of the Houses, with five of them each emerging as Champion. Zu would shift the Society's goals from protecting China to destroying the Western world, adopting the moniker "Fu Manchu" to strike fear into his enemies. He would also change the Society's name several times, including the Si-Fan, Order of the Golden Dawn, and Order of the Hai-Dai.[4] Despite the changing times, the Society retained the image it had during the Qing Dynasty, with all of its members still wearing clothing of the era well into the 21st century. Members who were raised within the confines of the Society had little to no exposure to modern culture, including Zu's children.
Master of Kung Fu[]
Zu's son Shang-Chi was raised from infancy to be the Society's ultimate warrior. During his upbringing, Shang-Chi was unaware of the Society's true name or goals, nor the fact that he was the designated Champion of the House of the Deadly Hand. After discovering his father's evil nature, Shang-Chi defected from the organization, sparking a years long conflict with his father's criminal empire that resulted in Zu's death and the destruction of the House of the Deadly Hand.[1]
Struggle for Leadership[]
Following Zu's death, leadership of the Society was passed onto his son, Brother Staff, who shifted the Society's goals to monetary gain, including drug dealing. Dissatisfied with this direction, Zu's daughter Sister Hammer usurped control of the Society from Staff. Despite Zheng Zu's spirit naming Shang-Chi as his successor, Hammer named herself Supreme Commander of the Society. While the Warriors of the Deadly Staff and Hammer pledged their loyalty to her, the remaining Champions of the Five Weapons Society Brother Sabre and Sister Dagger sought out Shang-Chi for him to reclaim his rightful place as the legitimate ruler. To bolster her forces, Hammer revived her father's experiments with jiangshi, eventually raising an undead army to attack London. With the combined efforts of Shang-Chi, Sabre, Dagger, Master Ling, the Warriors of the Deadly Dagger, and Leiko Wu, the jiangshi army was destroyed and Hammer fled from the Society. Shang-Chi was subsequently named Supreme Commander with the four remaining Houses swearing fealty to him. Embracing his role as leader, Shang-Chi vowed to return the Society to its nobler roots.[5]
Supreme Commander Shang-Chi[]
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Shang-Chi becomes Supreme Commander
As the new Supreme Commander, Shang-Chi worked diligently to undo Zheng Zu's evil influence over the Society, including shutting down a rogue drug ring still loyal to his father in New York City.[6] When a Cosmic Cube was up for bid in Macau, Shang-Chi and Brother Sabre attended the auction as representatives of the Society to prevent the Cube from being purchased by the other attending criminal organizations.[7] Due to the disappearance of the original House of the Deadly Hand following Zheng Zu's death, Shang-Chi had a new House built in New York City's Chinatown, which also served as the main headquarters for the Society. Shang-Chi was able to convince his exiled half-sister Zheng Zhilan to rejoin the Society as its new Sister Staff.[8] Despite Shang-Chi's efforts to reform the Society, several of his superhero allies became wary of his involvement with his father's criminal empire. After the Cosmic Cube Shang-Chi acquired from Macau and gave to Captain America was revealed to be a fake, the Avengers became convinced that Shang-Chi had embraced his father's evil ways. The Avengers, Spider-Man and Mister Fantastic confronted Shang-Chi and the Society at the House of the Deadly Sabre, leading to a brawl. When it was revealed that Brother Sabre had stolen the Cube without Shang-Chi's knowledge, Shang-Chi handed him to the Avengers and returned the Cube.[9]
Unbeknownst to Shang-Chi, several enemies Shang-Chi made under the reformed Five Weapons Society were recruited by Chieftain Xin, who held a grudge against Zheng Zu and his bloodline ever since Zu attempted to steal sacred weapons from Ta-Lo to bolster the Society in the past.[10] Believing Shang-Chi to be just as corrupt as his father, Xin dispatched his allies to assassinate his grandson at the House of the Deadly Hand, but were thwarted by the Society. However, the would-be assassins were able to escape by taking Xin's daughter and Shang-Chi's mother Jiang Li hostage.[10] When Xin created several Taotie to destroy anyone who carried the blood of Zheng Zu, Shang-Chi rescued and reinstated Brother Sabre and Sister Hammer back into the Society. With the reestablished Warriors of the Deadly Hand, the Society was able to build a gateway connecting the New House of the Deadly Hand to Ta-Lo, which Shang-Chi and the Champions of the Five Weapons Society took to rescue Jiang Li and to stop Xin.[11] Jiang Li was able to escape her imprisonment and fled to the House of the Deadly Hand to warn the Society of an attack from the Qilin Riders, who were equipped with Taotie Masks. The Society then engaged in battle with the Riders to defend their headquarters.[12] The Riders were eventually joined by Xin, who possessed six of the Ten Rings. Shang-Chi and his siblings arrived with the remaining four Rings, but Xin was able to claim them from Shang-Chi and ordered his men to attack New York City. Shang-Chi was forced to give in to his dark desires to reclaim the Ten Rings, which unlocked their full potential but also gave him the appearance and personality of Zheng Zu. Shang-Chi was able to easily defeat Xin and the Qilin Riders with the Ten Rings but nearly executed Xin until his family intervened, which brought him back to his senses. The Five Weapons Society repaired the damage done to the city and tended to wounded civilians, which revealed their existence and Shang-Chi's leadership to the public but their actions lauded them as heroes, repairing Shang-Chi's relationship with the Avengers.[13]
Gang War[]
After Tombstone fell into a coma following Shotgun's attempt on his life at his daughter's wedding, the heads of New York's crime families held a meeting to discuss Tombstone's and the recently deceased Madame Masque's vacant territories; Shang-Chi represented the Five Weapons Society, claiming that they were looking for opportunities in the city. At the time of the meeting, the Society had Chinatown and Two Bridges as its territories. When tensions between the rival superpowered gangs fractured into a city-wide war, the Five Weapons Society became caught in the turf war between Mister Negative and Lady Yulan due the close proximities of their territories.[14] Shang-Chi initially had the Society stand down while Chinatown remained unscathed during the early stages of the war, but ordered them into battle when provoked by Yulan. Yulan revealed that her vampires had previously infiltrated Chinatown and deceived the Society into thinking they still controlled it while secretly wrestling it away from them, but Shang-Chi defeated the ambushers with the Ten Rings. When Spider-Man confronted Shang-Chi over the Society's involvement with the other crime families, Shang-Chi explained that he only did so to protect Chinatown's citizens and reassured him that the Society would not move beyond its borders; Shang-Chi was wary that his response was also closely listened to by the several of the Society's battle-hungry warriors. After Shang-Chi is injured and bedridden following from a skirmish with Mister Negative and the Inner Demons, Captain Feng used the opportunity to stage a coup by having his sorcerers seal away the Ten Rings and attempted to assassinate him, but Shang-Chi easily thwarted the coup, having anticipated Feng's treachery. Feng and the turncoat sorcerers escaped, but the Rings remained trapped in their magic seal, which Master Ling warned that by the time they could be released, the rival gangs and other heroes would come for the Society.[15] Throughout the rest of the Gang War, Shang-Chi kept the Society's activities confined to Chinatown and had is warriors continue protecting citizens while he manipulated the Society's biggest enemies in the city (the Inner Demons, Clan Yulan and Diamondback and his allies from Hydra) into fighting each other and later had them be defeated by Spider-Man and his allies when both groups tried to confront Shang-Chi at the House of the Deadly Hand. Captain Feng and his sorcerers took advantage of the chaos at the House to claim the Ten Rings and attempted another coup to take over the Society, but was once again thwarted by Shang-Chi, who also anticipated Feng's actions and was able to reclaim the Ten Rings after Feng's sorceress released them, which he used to defeat Feng and the villains. After Chinatown was secured, Shang-Chi decided to help the other heroes himself rather than sending the Society.[16] Despite Shang-Chi's victories, the Society somehow lost their territories to the resurfaced Madame Masque [17] and eventually to Tombstone, who was able to gain control of all of New York's criminal underworld after the Gang War ended.[18]
Operation: Worldstrike[]
When American Kaiju was sent on a rampage throughout Hong Kong by Red Skull, Shang-Chi ordered the Five Weapons Society to protect citizens from the rampage.[19]Paraphernalia
Weapons
Transportation
Trivia
- The structure and naming system of the Five Weapons Society was inspired by the legend of Ta-Lo's Five Sets of Heavenly Weapons, which consisted of the One Hammer (Hammer), Two Swords (Sabre), Nine Daggers (Dagger), Three Staffs (Staff) and Ten Rings (Hand).[12]
- According to Gene Luen Yang, the inspiration for the Five Weapons Society was the five elements of Eastern culture: Fire (Hand), Water (Dagger), Wood (Staff), Metal (Sabre) and Earth (Hammer).[20]
See Also
- 35 appearance(s) of Five Weapons Society (Earth-616)
- 4 mention(s) of Five Weapons Society (Earth-616)
- 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Five Weapons Society (Earth-616)
- 10 image(s) of Five Weapons Society (Earth-616)
- 12 member(s) of Five Weapons Society (Earth-616)
- 1 item(s) used/owned by Five Weapons Society (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Shang-Chi #1
- ↑ Shang-Chi #4
- ↑ Shang-Chi #3
- ↑ Shang-Chi #2
- ↑ Shang-Chi #5
- ↑ Shang-Chi (Vol. 2) #1
- ↑ Shang-Chi (Vol. 2) #2
- ↑ Shang-Chi (Vol. 2) #3
- ↑ Shang-Chi (Vol. 2) #6
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Shang-Chi (Vol. 2) #8
- ↑ Shang-Chi (Vol. 2) #10
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Shang-Chi (Vol. 2) #11
- ↑ Shang-Chi (Vol. 2) #12
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man Gang War: First Strike #1
- ↑ Deadly Hands of Kung Fu: Gang War #1
- ↑ Deadly Hands of Kung Fu: Gang War #2–3
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 6) #43
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 6) #44
- ↑ Thunderbolts (Vol. 5) #3
- ↑ Seoul-Oh, Ron (29 September 2020) INTERVIEW (Part 2) – Gene Luen Yang Talks Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, the Origins of The Five Weapons Society and More! Pop Culture.