Father... you speak with absolute assurance, completely convinced that your vision is the only proper way... and, like all men who speak thus... You are mad! When next we meet, it will be as implacable enemies! 
Appearing in "Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu!"
Featured Characters:
- Shang-Chi (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- Dr. Petrie (Robot) (First appearance; dies)
- Denis Nayland Smith (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
Antagonists:
- Si-Fan (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Tony McKay (First appearance; dies) (Only in flashback)
- Shang-Chi's Mother (First appearance)
- Satan (Invoked)
Races and Species:
- Humans (Main story and flashback)
- Robots
- Spiders (Vision or hallucination)
- Bats (Only in flashback)
- Cobras (Mentioned)
- Rats
- Gorillas
- Demons (Mentioned)
Locations:
- Earth (Main story and flashback)
- Asia (Main story and flashback)
- Europe
- North America
- United States of America
- New York
- New York City
- Fu Manchu's New York Fortress (First appearance)
- New York City
- New York
- United States of America
Items:
- Elixir Vitae (Behind the scenes) (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
Synopsis for "Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu!"
Shang-Chi confronts five fighters on his way to Fu Manchu's inner sanctum, while Fu Manchu watches on a video monitor.
He remembers: his father, Fu Manchu, sent him on his first mission at 19 years old. He would assassinate Doctor Petrie, a Westerner who opposed Fu's plans, "the most evil man alive." Once in Mayfair, he found Petrie asleep and wondered how such an old man could contain such malice. Petrie awoke; Shang-Chi struck. He turned to go.
Denis Nayland Smith, in a wheelchair, faced him with gun drawn. Shang-Chi slapped the gun out of his hand. He turned to go.
Smith began to weep for Petrie. Shang-Chi was stunned. Smith explained the true nature of evil: Fu Manchu, a megalomaniac with a global network of assassins, a genius with a rejuvenating potion, a dreamer with the goal of bringing the glory of China's imperial age to the whole world. Fu captured Smith in Burma and gave him to Tak, a sumo wrestler who mangled him. Smith pulls up his trouser leg....
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Shang-Chi fights Tak
Shang-Chi visited his mother, an American, at their home in Honan. She knew he would eventually learn the truth about his father but hoped it would not come so soon. Shang-Chi went to his father's international headquarters.
In the present, Shang-Chi faces the last of the five fighters: Tak. To end the grueling battle, he seizes Tak's topknot and heaves him through a door. He finds a laboratory and hints of the monstrosities his father has created. One of them, an enhanced gorilla, almost ambushes him. He knocks it down a flight of stairs. "Excellent, Shang-Chi," says Fu Manchu. He lays out his vision for Shang-Chi and invites him to join the great work.
"Father ... you speak with absolute assurance, completely convinced that your vision is the only proper way ... and, like all men who speak thus, you are mad." He turns to go. "When next we meet, it will be as implacable enemies."
He steps out of his father's China and into a New York City street. "I have lost a father," he thinks, "and in all the world, I can never find another."
Notes
Publication Notes[]
- This issue is reprinted in black and white in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #2 and in the Savage Fists of Kung Fu tabloid edition.
- With issue Master of Kung Fu #17 of this series, the title changes to Master of Kung Fu.
- Gaspar Saladino provides the lettering for the splash page of this issue.
Continuity Notes[]
- This issue is the first appearance of martial arts master Shang-Chi. It is also the first Marvel Comics appearance of Shang's evil father, Fu Manchu. Fu Manchu was originally created in 1913 by crime-pulp novelist Sax Rohmer and debuted in the novel, The Insidious Fu Manchu. However, Fu's son, Shang-Chi, is a character unique to the continuity of Marvel Comics.
- Shang-Chi and Fu Manchu make chronologically earlier appearances in Special Marvel Edition #16.
- British agent Denis Nayland Smith is also a creation of novelist Sax Rohmer. He first appeared in The Insidious Fu Manchu. This issue is Denis' first Marvel Comics appearance.
- It is believed that Shang-Chi kills Doctor Petrie in this issue. However this is later revealed to be a robot. The real Doctor Petrie makes his first canonical appearance in Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu #3.
- First appearance of Tak.
Trivia
- Shang-Chi also makes appearances in vignettes featured in the Marvel magazine title, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu.
