Shang-Chi [2021] #8 - Marvel Comics

SHANG-CHI No. 8, April 2022

Rather succinctly concluding both “the story of the true origin of Shang-Chi’s family”, as well as Lady Iron Fan’s ill-planned assault upon the House of the Deadly Hand, Gene Luen Yang’s penmanship for his finale to “Family Of Origin” surely must have pleased the majority of its audience. Indeed, the twenty-page periodical’s plot not only does a good job in rapidly explaining Zheng Zhilan’s shocking betrayal of her brother into the hands of the murderous Iron Eighty Eight. But also spends plenty of time depicting just why Jiang Li ended up in the Negative Zone, and how the Master of Kung Fu’s pitiless grandfather so badly wants revenge upon the Five Weapons Society.

In addition, the Alameda-born author manages to provide each of these scenarios with a shock twist, whether it be Sister Staff ultimately revealing she was working alongside Esme to protect her organisation’s supreme commander, or Zheng Zu’s admission to his wife that he first came to Qilin Island “all those years ago” to steal her technology so as to build his own dimensional gateway to Ta Lo. These revelations are marvellously disclosed and add some extra layers of complexity to all of the characters involved, especially Chieftain Xin – who clearly feels betrayed by his daughter and an infant Shang-Chi; “You’re the very image of your father, boy! The very image of evil!”

Perhaps therefore, this book’s sole disappointment comes with the mystery surrounding just why Hydra attacked “Fu Manchu”. According to Jiang Li this surprise assault by the Neo-Nazis is the single event which caused her husband to become such a truly despicable, deadly overlord and suddenly turn his back upon a family he clearly was taking joy in building. However, the Thule Society’s mysterious motivation for the attack is disappointingly just written off as having been something which occurred “before your father and I met.”

Nit-picking aside, Dike Ruan’s layouts should also be praised as they deliver plenty of punch to all of the blows being thrown. Zheng Zu’s fisticuffs against his aging father-in-law is an excellent example of this top tier pencilling, with magical energies pouring off of the two determined combatants. Plus, Sister Dagger’s fist-bump with her duplicitous older sibling once the pair have delivered the Iron Eighty-Eight into the custody of the Warriors of the Deadly Dagger is superbly sketched.

The regular cover art of "SHANG-CHI" #8 by Leinil Frances Yu & Sunny Gho