Master Of Kung Fu #83 Warriors of the Golden Dawn pt 1: The Phoenix and the Snake. Dec 79

Master of Kung Fu #83

Warriors of the Golden Dawn pt 1: The Phoenix and the Snake

Writer: Doug Moench
Pencils: Mike Zeck
Inks: Gene Day
Letters: Diana Albers
Colourist: Benjamin Sean

Shang-Chi is a character I have never really read before. And this issue barely features him.
Originally conceived as the "son of Fu Manchu", Shang-Chi seems to be part homage, part pastiche of a variety of pulp and martial arts sources.

Dr Fu Manchu is the starting point here. Sax Rohmer's deeply racist villain was a caricature of Orientalist tropes, embodying the cliche of the "yellow peril". When Marvel tried, and failed, to secure the rights to adapt David Carradine's Kung Fu tv series, they instead bought the rights to Rohmer's problematic supervillain. Reportedly Jim Starlin, who helped design and introduce the character of Shang-Chi left the book when he realised just how offensive Rohmer's books had been.

But at this point, all of that is long in the past. Shang-Chi made his debut in 1972, so by 79 he was a well established and much-loved Marvel hero. The supporting cast built up around the idea of him working with British Intelligence, with characters having implied connections to James Bond and Sherlock Holmes.

And here we get the opening of a multi-part story that seems set to re-establish the threat of Fu Manchu himself. The eponymous Warriors of the Golden Dawn are a collective made up of several villainous groups, brought together by Fu Manchu himself. Most of the issue simply shows us this army coming together, laying the scene and raising the stakes nicely.

Our hero, meanwhile, appears in just three panels of his own title. By giving the stage entirely to Fu Manchu, Moench and Zeck ramp up the threat. Having come to a moment of realisation, Fu Manchu declares that neither science nor sorcery can provide him with the power he desires, but that a synthesis of the two may yet be fruitful. He takes a hot bath, smokes some opium and experiences some dramatic visions.

There is not a great deal more to it. There is some business around Shang-Chi's sister, Fah Lo Suee, returning to serve their father, which seems portentious, as does Fu Manchu's offer to allow her companion Zaran, previously bested three times by Shang-Chi himself, the opportunity to train with his own warriors.

Mike Zeck's artwork feels ahead of its time here. While the subject matter is a bit hokey, Zeck's clean lines and uncluttered layouts help make some of the cliches pass off. The dynamism of the brief fight scene is a welcome change of pace, and there is a real sense of wonder to the sequence where the villain speaks with his "shock images".

I enjoyed how he uses light in these panels, Fu Manchu's lantern the brightest thing around until the shock images reveal themselves, and the subtle highlights on his face as they depart.

An intriguing introduction, we will see how the story unfolds.