Zheng Zu (Earth-616)

History

Origins

Fu Manchu learned martial arts, the various scientific disciplines, and esoteric knowledge at a monastery. He later attempted to take over the United States and the world on numerous occasions. One of his earlier attempts global domination by controlling the minds of the League of Nations' representatives in 1933 was stopped by Denis Nayland Smith.^[6] His first attempt to conquer the United States by dispersing a mind control chemical in the atmosphere via aircraft was defeated by his son Shang-Chi.^[7] Later Spider-Man and Shang-Chi stopped his attempt to brainwash the citizens of the United States via television using a transmitter installed on the Empire State Building. Fu Manchu then attempted to manipulate China and the United States into a war against each other, but was foiled by Iron Fist, Spider-Man and the Sons of the Tiger.^[8]

Shang-Chi and MI6 later stopped Fu Manchu from knocking the Moon out of orbit, thereby bringing chaos to Earth and giving him the opportunity to conquer it.^[9] Fu Manchu then brought together several shadowy and criminal secret societies (Thugees, Leopard Cult, Three-Cornered Sight, Hashishin, Twenty-Third Sect, Light-Seekers, Templars, Phansigars, Followers of the Left-Hand Path, and his own Celestial Order of the Si-Fan) under an umbrella secret society, the Order of the Golden Dawn.^[10] Using these new assets he attempted to sow chaos and a World War 3 via using mind control on UN representatives, creating "UFO" incidents, and attempting to detonate a nuclear weapon in New York before being stopped by Shang-Chi.^[10][11][12] For almost two decades he was inactive and believed dead, and upon his return built a lightning ray weapon "Hellfire" which could destroy cities, before being foiled once again by Shang-Chi and MI6.^[13]

Seeking alliance with Black Panther

As the Black Panther was touring in the United States, looking for a wife, Fu Manchu had him followed by his ninjas to Luke Cage's flat.^[14] Those attacked the two heroes but were forced to retreat, allowing the pair to infiltrate their ship and then Fu Manchu's Fortress.

Going now by the name of "Han", he offered his daughter Kwai Far to T'Challa, hoping to unite their kingdoms. But as the Panther refused the offer, feeling he was bound to someone else, Han got mad, rejecting his daughter and unleashing his ninjas over the two heroes, soon rejoined by his son Shang-Chi. Cage, T'Challa, and Shang-Shi managed to defeat the ninjas and dodge the Dragon, and all left the fortress along with Kwai Far.^[2]

Powers and Abilities

Abilities

Genius-Level Intellect: Fu Manchu invented the mind control mimosa which could be dispersed in the atmosphere,^[7] developed a transmitter to brainwash people via television,^[15] built a huge subterranean mountain fortress, made plans to knock the moon from its orbit, built the Hellfire lighting ray weapon which could destroy cities,^[13] genetically engineered "aliens",^[12] created giant arthropods (spiders, praying mantis, scorpions),^[16][17] and mutate human-animal hybrids.^[18]

Unarmed Combat

Master of Disguise

Hypnotism

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Elixir of Life, cybernetics^[19]

Transportation

Jump packs, space shuttle, UFO-like vehicles, space station, and stealth bombers (similar to the F-117 Nighthawk).^{[20][12][9][13]}

Weapons

Directed energy cannons^[21], lightning weapon,^[13] giant mutated creatures (arthropods, reptiles, and mammals), human-animal hybrid mutates

Notes

• Fu Manchu was originally created by British pulp novelist Sax Rohmer (real name Arthur Sarsfield Ward) and was the eponymous antagonist in several novels and anthologies published between 1913 and 1917. Fu Manchu's greatest adversaries were Sir Denis Nayland Smith and Doctor Petrie (also creations of Sax Rohmer). Fu's infamous son, Shang-Chi, is a character unique to the Marvel Universe and has no pulp era counterpart. As Marvel Comics Entertainment no longer maintains the license to use Fu Manchu as a character; he is seldom referenced in comics but does occasionally appear under an assumed name. The Marvel Comics version of Fu Manchu was first developed by Roy Thomas and Steve Englehart.
• on Earth-616, Fu Manchu is a real person, but most people believe him to be a fictional character:
  • A poster seen in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4 (1967) depicts this character with the text "Fu Manchu for mayor" in the Coffee Bean. This is apparently a joke.
  • In Giant-Size Spider-Man #2 (1974), Spider-Man believed that Fu Manchu was a fictional character until they met one another - and even then, Spider-Man was still skeptical.

Links and References

• 74 Appearances of Zheng Zu (Earth-616)
• 9 Minor Appearances of Zheng Zu (Earth-616)
• Media Zheng Zu (Earth-616) was Mentioned in
• 19 Images featuring Zheng Zu (Earth-616)
• 2 Quotations by or about Zheng Zu (Earth-616)
• Character Gallery: Zheng Zu (Earth-616)

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Footnotes