Shang-Chi And The Ten Rings #2 - Marvel Comics

SHANG-CHI AND THE TEN RINGS No. 2, October 2022

Absolutely steeped in both nostalgia and treachery, this continuation of “the epic new era of Shang-Chi” most probably mesmerised the vast majority of its audience with the return of Leiko Wu and riveting re-tread of the Master of Kung Fu’s “early days as an MI-6 agent." Indeed, Gene Luen Yang’s penmanship of “Old Friends” is so highly evocative of the martial artist’s adventures during the Bronze Age of Comics, that it’s arguably a shame this twenty-page periodical’s battle against Carlton Velcro and his gun-toting goons isn’t somewhat longer.

Foremost of this narrative’s ‘hooks’ has to be the way the American Author wastes very little time getting his cast to assemble inside the professional criminal’s formidably-sized grotto at the gulf of Lions in southern France. This sequence contains a plethora of “James Bond” type tropes which really help maintain the plot’s old school atmosphere, whether it be a scuba-swim down a secret underwater tunnel, a dash across a single-tracked rock-bridge where one wrong step will send the protagonists plummeting into a panther-packed ravine, or a lavishly furnished living quarters crammed full of ornately-armed minions.

In addition, the tense, action-packed fight scenes arguably help distract the audience from the burglary taking place in the Appalachians by a group of red-costumed ninjas. This attempt to capture the Ten Rings isn’t given anywhere near the limelight thrust upon Shang-Chi’s rescue mission. So when it's brought to a truly shocking conclusion at the very end of the publication, it’s perfidious revelation is debatably all the more startling; “Agent Black Jack Tarr to MI-6. I have the rings. These bloody things better be worth the trouble.” 

Of course, such successful storytelling would not be possible without the engrossing layouts of Marcus To, whose pencilling of a certain former Freelance Restorations operative against some truly-demonic looking guardian statues is flesh-crawlingly disconcerting to say the least. The Canadian artist also does a first-rate job in portraying the angry anguish felt by “The Chi-Meister” when he realises he’s been played for a total fool by his old friends, and the determined look in the hero’s eyes now he realises they disappointingly regard the new Commander of the Five Weapons Society as an enemy.

The regular cover art of "SHANG-CHI AND THE TEN RINGS" #2 by Dike Ruan & Matthew Wilson