Shang-Chi: Appreciation 2020

[Tien Long]

Nice. Is this after Cretton's quarantine? Digging Tony Leung with the 90s Asian bangs .

[Blind Wedjat]

It was before production shut down, according to the director.

[WinterSoldier76]

I recently re-read Amazing Spider-Man FCBD 2011 where Spidey loses his Spider-Sense and Shang Chi is recruited to teach him how to fight w/o it! It’s awesome! Fans of TMoKF check it if you already haven’t!?

70E3A24B-EFD1-4A45-9C0F-C394FD026E9D.jpg

...Now I’m about to dig into Ed Brubaker’s second arc of Secret Avengers which is heavily focused on Shang Chi and the retcon of his origin. Good stuff!

[Tien Long]

I recently re-read Amazing Spider-Man FCBD 2011 where Spidey loses his Spider-Sense and Shang Chi is recruited to teach him how to fight w/o it! It’s awesome! Fans of TMoKF check it if you already haven’t!?

70E3A24B-EFD1-4A45-9C0F-C394FD026E9D.jpg

...Now I’m about to dig into Ed Brubaker’s second arc of Secret Avengers which is heavily focused on Shang Chi and the retcon of his origin. Good stuff!

Cool bro. Yeah, it's great to know that Shang taught Spider-Man. Seen scans here and there with him. Moreover, during Slott's run, Spidey referenced many times that he had learned with Shang. Certainly something that can be acknowleged more or at the very least revisted.

As for that Secret Avengers arc, it was good. Shang and his father played a big role there. It was a great run.

[Tien Long]

Just starting to really appreciate this fight between Shang and Wolverine from Wolverine: First Class. In any case, I like this contrast here. Shang is facing Wolverine and his adamantium bones, healing factor, and savage nature. He isn't intimidated though. Even when Wolverine disables a weapon, Shang turns it into two. Instead he fights Wolverine head on. Goes to show that with the right weapons, Shang could match Wolverine:

[Hypestyle]

^^^ I guess it's just comics, but it's odd to see sometimes when artists draw Logan's claws longer than his forearms.

[Tien Long]

^^^ I guess it's just comics, but it's odd to see sometimes when artists draw Logan's claws longer than his forearms.

Ha, yes, Wolverine's claws were just a tad bit too long in those panels.

At the same time, I like that narration. Shang-Chi talks about using a "diamond sword." It's reminiscent in Buddhism of the "Diamond Sutra." Again, with a diamond, one cuts through deception, fear, ignorance, all of that stuff, to see things as they really are. In this scene, that's Shang. A broken weapon? Shang sees two broken weapons. Facing off against big, bad, Weapon X Wolverine, with indestructible adamantium claws? Shang sees a wild, cluttered mind that can't land a single hit.

Awesome stuff.

[Tien Long]

Some favorite moments from Hickman's run:

Shang using Stark tech against the bad guy. That was the theme throughout this run, Shang's already this martial arts master. So how do we make him better? That's a Stark challenge right there:



Another favorite scene when Shang just pops that Aleph's knee. That's real Kung Fu right there:

[Tien Long]

Just wanted to share an interesting Twitter post that CBR gave a copy of days ago. Apparently it features Simu Liu and Akwafina coming outside of a "secret" building where a bunch of high class people are leaving:

https://twitter.com/charlesbassf/sta...040000/video/1

Perhaps it leads credence to the rumor that there could be some type of "Enter the Dragon" tournament in this movie? Maybe. If that's the case, I'm crossing the Deadly Hands of Kung Fu here that there are some awesome fights. I'm not talking some quick two, three move fight sequences here, but well done action pieces. Nice to see Shang looking pretty casual in the clip as well. Being down to Earth, low key, that's what Shang should be.

Some other Shang-Chi thoughts:

Heard that of some individuals frustrated over the production of Shang, that it's encounter these production problems like fires in Australia or Covid 19 shutting down production. Again, the release date has moved from the relatively safe February opening to a risky May release. That's when all of the big summer movies are starting to premiere. Could a relatively unknown minority actor with a relatively unknown minority director deliver a movie based on a relatively unknown Marvel character? That's a challenge.

Still looking at Simu Liu's IG feed, he seems to be in high spirits. It's great to see Cretton got out of the Covid 19 scare well. And I said before, May is Asian-American heritage month. Marvel could play that angle for marketing. Still hoping that the Master of Kung Fu could pull this off!

[Tien Long]

Fun little article featuring Shang and his connection to Fleetwood Mac:

https://www.cbr.com/shang-chi-fleetw...rs-soundtrack/

[taozen]

One of my favorite Master of Kung Fu covers. I wander if we will the Cat (Shen Kuei) in the movie. I hope they continue the comics trend and have them not defeat each other. I also hope they have The Cat be a complicated character and not just a henchman.

[taozen]

The Cat is also one of the characters that many writer to not show him as skilled as he should be. In some books he taken out too easily as in one of his Wolverine appearances. He rival Shang in skill and should be one of the best combatants in the marvel universe. This is probably my favorite match up with Shang. This was drawn so cinematic.

[taozen]

[Tien Long]

The Cat is also one of the characters that many writer to not show him as skilled as he should be. In some books he taken out too easily as in one of his Wolverine appearances. He rival Shang in skill and should be one of the best combatants in the marvel universe. This is probably my favorite match up with Shang. This was drawn so cinematic.

Rereading all of the Master of Kung Fu issues, I've come to appreciate artist's works. Now, Gulacy is great, no doubt about it. He has really awesome fight scenes like these. For my money though, I like Mike Zeck's run:



I feel it's a cleaner look. Some really notable villains are showing up during his run on the series, like Zaran The Weapons Master.

[MichaelC]

https://www.theilluminerdi.com/2020/...lers-mandarin/

Well this is disapointing. Not really a fan of Shang being retconned into Jamie Madrox. Feels like a step down. I prefer him as a master of martial arts and chi mysticism, not someone who can zerg an enemy because most of his clones can die without really killing him. The one fun aspect of such a power, watching Shang die to multiple Mortal Kombat fatalities before finally winning, would be ruined by the need to keep things PG-13.