My father has often said to me: 'A man may not be too careful in his choice of enemies, for once he has chosen ... he has forfeited a friend.' These are words my father has lived by, for he is Fu Manchu, and his life is his word. 
Appearing in ""Fires of Rebirth""
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Sir Denis Nayland Smith
- Black Jack Tarr
- Clive Reston (First appearance)
- Doctor Petrie (First appearance)
Villains:
- Fu Manchu
- Shadow Stalker (First appearance)
- Si-Fan assassins
Other Characters:
- English policeman (name not given)
Locations:
- New York
- London
Items:
- elixir vitae
Synopsis for ""Fires of Rebirth""
Shang-Chi (Earth-616) looks into a toy-store window on Park Avenue, well aware that someone has followed him there. He confronts the man, who shows him an identity card from the British Secret Service and says that Sir Denis Nayland Smith sent him. Shang-Chi follows him to a sedan and gets into the back seat. Gas begins to fill the compartment. He punches through the roof, climbs atop the car, breaks the passenger-side window, and grabs the man by his tie. The car veers off the street and into a wall. Shang-Chi examines the man's effects and finds a dragon amulet—the sign of the Phansigars, an eastern Indian cult that handles Fu Manchu's most important jobs.
first appearance of Clive Reston
At Smith's Central Park West townhouse, the butler informs Shang-Chi that Smith has left. He introduces Clive Reston, a British agent, who takes a sudden interest in the amulet. Just as suddenly, three Phansigars burst through the windows. Shang-Chi defeats two of them quickly, worried about Reston. Even without his gun, though, Reston is still dangerous; he pulls a curtain over his opponent and knocks him over a railing. In the process he knocks an elephant statue off a stand. With the fight over, Reston tells Shang-Chi that their destination is ....
Chapter 2: London
Shang-Chi and Reston find Smith in the Orientology Hall at the British Museum of Natural History. He and Black Jack Tarr are combing through the debris from a break-in. Smith says that the Phansigars have recently ransacked several such places, searching for something that they have not yet found. He draws this conclusion because they have taken nothing. No clues turn up, so they head out of the museum. Shang-Chi asks why Smith has focused his efforts on England; Smith says that a policemen found a note reading, "I am alive ~ Petrie" (Shang-Chi apparently killed him in Special Marvel Edition #15).
like father, like son
They pass an exhibit of cavemen, who come to life and attack. Reston looks for some deeper meaning behind this sort of attacker, but Smith assures him that Fu Manchu is simply showing off.
Chapter 3: Crucible of Deceit
shut up and fight!
An English bobby guards a curio shop, following mysterious orders from Scotland Yard. Out of the fog flies a bola that wraps around his neck. Three Phansigars break into the shop to search it. The door swings open, surprising them. A muffled figures says only, "Stop," but then punches through the opened door, stunning the Phansigar hiding behind it. Shang-Chi drops his disguise and goes after the other two. He pins one to the wall with two swords, because Smith wants someone to interrogate, and sends the other through a window. On his way out, he finds the bobby's wallet lying on the steps; he had a wife, a son, a daughter. Shang-Chi puts the wallet with the bobby's body and drags the surviving Phansigar away.
Chapter 4: Test of Loyalty
At Scotland Yard, the Phansigar has been given truth serum. Smith asks what Fu Manchu wants so badly. "Vengeance .. for the theft of life ...." Where will he go next? "Buckingham ... Palace ...."
Fu meets with Shadow Stalker, his most trusted assassin, and sends him on an unspecified mission. Shang-Chi, Smith, Tarr, and Reston race toward the palace. A Phansigar flattens one of their tires with a blowgun. Shang-Chi gives chase, but while he is gone, Shadow Stalker knocks out Tarr and Reston and kidnaps Smith. When Shang-Chi returns, he finds Tarr being loaded into an ambulance; he and Reston continue on to the palace. There they guard the queen's collection of antiquities.
Two Phansigars burst in. Reston shoots, dropping one and wounding the other. Shang-Chi chases the wounded assassin through the halls to the queen's throne room. The Phansigar goes through a secret door behind the throne. Shang-Chi realizes that stealth is paramount, so he pinches Reston's neck to knock him out and follows the secret passageway.
the depth of betrayal
At the end of the trail Shang-Chi finds Fu Manchu ... and the real Petrie! Only then does he realize how duplicitous his father can be and how thoroughly he has been used. He is angry enough to kill ... but Fu claps once and a panel opens. Smith is strapped to a table, with two Phansigars ready to stab him if Shang-Chi attacks Fu. Shang-Chi reluctantly agrees to a bargain: if he can beat Shadow Stalker, Smith will die quickly, but if he loses, Smith dies slowly. To make the fight interesting, Shadow Stalker has two spiked balls on chains at the ends of a bar run through his topknot, and both fighters are chained to a pole. Shang-Chi uses one of the spiked balls to break his chain and breaks the pole to knock out Shadow Stalker.
Fu orders a Phansigar to kill Smith. Reston appears and shoots the assassin. Fu presses a button that drops him through a trap door, escaping yet again. Smith releases Petrie, who tells him that Fu's object was an elephant statue filled with elixir vitae, his potion of immortality, because his supply is low. Smith recalls that he took such a statue from one of Fu's bases years ago. Shang-Chi recalls that this statue broke during the fight in Smith's townhouse, which means that Fu Manchu is desperate ... and more dangerous than ever ....
Appearing in ""Concentrate on Chaos!""
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Suwan
Villains:
Other Characters:
- six mutants (names not given)
Locations:
- Mojave Desert
Synopsis for ""Concentrate on Chaos!""
reprints first story from The Yellow Claw #2 (December 1956)
Appearing in ""The Trap!""
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Suwan
Villains:
- Yellow Claw
- Fritz von Voltzmann
- Hamud
Locations:
- San Francisco
- unnamed aeronautics laboratory
Vehicles:
- glass bubble
Synopsis for ""The Trap!""
reprints third story from The Yellow Claw #2 (December 1956)
Notes
- Although the real Petrie makes his first appearance in this story, a doppelganger appeared in Special Marvel Edition #15. Until now, Shang-Chi (and the authorities) believed that he had assassinated Doctor Petrie by order of Fu Manchu. This issue reveals that the Petrie killed by Shang was in fact a duplicate of some sort created by Fu to cover his kidnapping of the real Doctor Petrie.
- Clive Reston (who first appears in this story) became a regular supporting character throughout the remainder of the Master of Kung Fu series. He appears next in Master of Kung Fu #28.
- Shang-Chi appeared last in Man-Thing (Volume 1) #20. He appears next in Master of Kung Fu #28.
Trivia
- Alert readers may infer that the character of Clive Reston is the son of James Bond, although for copyright reasons that name is never explicitly given.
See Also
- 5 image(s) from Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu Vol 1 3
- 6 reprint(s) of Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu Vol 1 3
Recommended Reading
- Daughters of the Dragon #1-6
- Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1-33
- Iron Fist (Volume 1) #1-15
- Iron Fist (Volume 2) #1-2
- Iron Fist (Volume 3) #1-3
- Iron Fist (Volume 4) #1-6
- Master of Kung Fu #17-125
- Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #11
- Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #15
- Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu #1-6
- White Tiger #1-6
- Yellow Claw #1-4