Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics, Review | Tagged: comic book reviews, five weapons society, shang chi, spider-man

Shang-Chi #1 Review: Family Business

Published Fri, 21 May 2021 14:02:11 -0500

With a movie on the horizon and communities hungry for representation, one of Marvel's most skilled hand-to-hand combatants has a new job and new responsibilities in Shang-Chi #1. These new circumstances are not easy for the title character to manage and could put him at odds with many people who would normally be allies.

Shang-Chi #1 Review: Family Business — Shang-Chi #1 Cover. Credit: Marvel

Shang-Chi's father ran a secret organization called The Five Weapons Society (which has nothing to do with the brilliant Five Weapons by Jimmie Robinson — they're not even the same five weapons), based on five disciplines of martial combat. Shang-Chi has inherited the leadership of this group as "Brother Hand" (using only his body as a weapon) and leading the four half-siblings who lead the other disciplines (the Damian Wayne-ish Sister Dagger, stick-using Brother Staff, the gigantic Sister Hammer, and the swashbuckling Brother Sabre). Shang-Chi honestly has little interest in running an army of assassins; instead, he wants to date an attractive lawyer he knows. Unfortunately, as he tries to turn his "family business" from crime to crime-fighting (shades of Agents of Atlas), the natural inclinations of his siblings (especially Sister "Deadly Dagger") lean more towards Fiona from Burn Notice or Mouse from A Devil In A Blue Dress. That creates wonderful creative tension between the "subordinate" and apparent leader.

Spider-Man pops up as a complication here and leads to Shang-Chi dropping a very effective line ("What does your Spider-Sense tell you?") that is a fantastic thematic element. This leads Shang-Chi to make a very difficult decision and lead his character in an unexpected direction.

This script by Gene Luen Yang is really, very good, developing the disparate elements of Shang-Chi's life, pulling him in every direction as he aims to stay true to himself. The artwork from Dike Ruan, Triona Farrell, and Travis Lanham deliver some big surprises and fast cut-styled action sequences as well as an intimate dinner, and the Spider-Man depiction here does a lot of acting with body language and without the benefits of facial expressions. This is rock-solid adventure storytelling set in a familiar superheroic world. RATING: BUY.

Shang-Chi #1
By Gene Luen Yang, Dike Ruan
SHANG-CHI VS. THE MARVEL UNIVERSE! Shang-Chi and his family are back! And this time, they're colliding head-to-head with the Marvel Universe's biggest heroes! Shang-Chi has finally taken his place as the leader of the Five Weapons Society. But using an evil secret organization as a force for good won't be easy. And it's about to get a lot harder when Shang-Chi's fellow super heroes, like the Amazing Spider-Man, start to see him as the bad guy! Gene Luen Yang and Dike Ruan return to bring you the next chapter of this Marvel legend!

Shang-Chi #1