Retro Omnibus Review: Master of Kung Fu Vol. 3 by Moench, Zeck, Day and others

Contains Master of Kung Fu #71-101, What If? #16 (December 1978 – June 1981)

Written by Doug Moench (#71-101, What If? #16)

Penciled by Mike Zeck (#71-101), Gene Day (#100), Rick Hoberg (What If? #16)

Inked by Bruce Patterson (#71-75), Gene Day (#76-77, 79-101), Al Gordon (#78), Mike Zeck (#100), Bob McLeod (#100), John Beatty (#100), Bill Wray (What If? #16), Dave Stevens (What If? #16)

Coloured by Petra Goldberg (#71, 74), Glynis Wein (#72), Carl Gafford (#73), Michele Wolfman (#75), Bob Sharen (#76, 78-79, 82, 88-101), George Bell (#77), Nelson Yomtov (#80), George Roussos (#81, 84), Ben Sean (#83, 86-87), Steve Oliff (#85), Roger Slifer (What If? #16)

Spoilers from forty-five to forty-eight years ago

NOTE: I started reading this book and writing this column over a year and a half ago, but life got too busy to keep up with my former practice of reading one comic a day for this column. I’ve wanted to get back to it for a while, and finally carved out some time to dive back in, only to discover I only had two issues left in this volume! I’m hoping to be more intentional about this, but imagine it will still be a challenge going forward.

I’ve really been enjoying my trip through the history of Shang-Chi, and am excited to get right into this third omnibus, which mostly features art by Mike Zeck. Zeck is one of my favourite artists from the 80s, and I’m excited to see his earlier work and development on this book. He’s a fantastic action artist, and in his first issue he showed a strong ability to make fight scenes flow.

When we left Shang-Chi, he’d had his heart (inexplicably, to me) broken by Juliette, and it looked like things were over with Leiko. His connection with Sir Denis Nayland Smith was rocky, but he had solid friendships with Black Jack Tarr and Clive Reston. It seemed that most of their enemies had been defeated, so I’m not all that sure what Doug Moench had planned for the last third of his run.

Either way, I’m ready to dive in and see what else happened.

This book features the following characters:

Villains:

The Skullcrusher (#71)
Pavane (#71)
Kogar (#71)
Cat (Shen Kuei; #71)
Shockwave (Lancaster Sneed; #72-74)
Brynocki (Master of Kung Fu #72-75)
Ward Sarsfield (#74-75, 77-78)
Zaran (#77-79, 83-84, 86-88)
Fah Lo Suee (#78, 83-88)
Maru (Si-Fan; #80, 83-84, 88)
Fu Manchu (#83-86, 88-89, 100, What If? #16)
Ducharme (#83, What If? #16)
Chen (Joy Boys; #90-91)
Dweller in Darkness (Si-Fan; #92)
Mandy Greville (The Dawning Light; #93-94)
Agent Syn (Agent Synergon; #94)
Samisdat (#95)
The Syn Variants (#95)
Oryx (Jeremiah Winston; #96)
Major Pendleton Asquith (#97)
The Shadow-Slasher (#98)
Nicholas Blair (#99)
Phillip the Ripper (#100)
The Dragon (Yakuza boss; #101)
The Dacoits of Death (What If? #16)

Guest Stars

Richard Blaine (#85-87)
Uatu The Watcher (What If? #16)

Supporting Characters:

Leiko Wu (#71-101, What If? #16)
Clive Reston (#71-75, 77-88, 90, 94-98, 100-101, What If? #16)
Melissa Greville (#71-75, 77-84, 94-96, 98, 100-101)
Black Jack Tarr (#71-90, 93-97, What If? #16)
Sir Denis Nayland Smith (#71-75, 77-90, 94-100, What If? #16)
James Larner (#72)
Shockwave (Lancaster Sneed; #75)
Lyman Leeks (#80-84, 94-95, 97, 100)
Mrs. Haversham (Reston’s landlady or servant; #81-82, 84, 94-95)
Karamenah (#83-85, 87)
Dee (servant, Hong Kong embassy; #90, 92-93)
David Wu (Leiko’s brother; #90-93)
Dr. Petrie (#94-95, 97, 100, What If? #16)
Mandy Greville (#95-96, 98)
Rufus ‘One-Eyed’ Carter (#96, 99)
Christine Markham (#98)
Fah Lo Suee (#100)
Ho (Shang-Chi’s teacher; #100)

Let’s see what happened in the comics, with some commentary as I go:

Once again, the omnibus opens with an introduction by Moench that presupposes that the reader has already read all of these stories; I skipped it, but it reminded me to go back and read the one in the volume I just finished.

The first comic in this omnibus is issue seventy-one, which serves as a great bridge to the volume that just finished. Shang-Chi is in London, and it’s been a month since he was in Hong Kong. He sits and thinks while Leiko works on a puzzle, which provides the motif for the cover and the flashback that opens the issue. We see his struggles in Hong Kong, against Skullcrusher, Pavane, Kogar, and Cat, and also see how he fell for Juliette, but was then betrayed by her when she chose Skullcrusher over him. We see him at the dock when he reunited with his friends, and how Leiko whispered something to him and then walked away. Shang-Chi didn’t let her leave though, and they reconciled and returned to London, where he wondered if he was just relying on the familiar for comfort. After the incident in New York with Black Jack Tarr, Shang-Chi returned and now he and Leiko are building a life together, based on routine. Leiko ordered pizza, so they sit and eat it while listening to Fleetwood Mac. Eating pizza reminds Shang-Chi of the woman Sandy who gave him his first slice (and first kiss); Shang-Chi is brought out of his thoughts by Leiko, and they start to make out, and as they sink out of our view on the couch, probably do a lot more than that. Later, they head out for their nightly routine, which involves them working out at a kung fu school. Shang-Chi’s narration comments on how the school is not as busy as it once was, which feels like a comment Moench is making about kung fu and karate passing as a fad. They practice individually, then spar together, with everyone else watching their skill. They leave and go watch Close Encounters of the Third Kind in a theatre; the movie affects them both and they talk about it over dinner and as they take a horse-drawn carriage through a park. They return home, feed the cat, and start to settle into a comfortable night when the door opens, and a battered Sir Denis Nayland Smith collapses on their floor. He explains that he was sick of the corruption at MI-6, so he resigned.
Leiko catches Nayland Smith as he falls, and she and Shang-Chi ask him what happened. At the same time, Clive Reston and Melissa Greville are walking down the street, approaching Leiko’s apartment planning on surprising her with some booze. A man walks up to them just as Nayland Smith explains that his attacker was his nephew, Lancaster Sneed, also known as Shockwave. Shockwave attacks Clive. Shang-Chi remembers being told by Larner and Reston about Sneed, an agent who was badly injured, covered his body in metal plates, and then was let go by MI-6 for being mentally unstable. He went to Asia to learn martial arts and created his electrical armor. From there, we get a quick recap of the Oriental Expeditors/Fah Lo Suee/Fu Manchu storyline, and remember that Shang-Chi dumped him in the water. Smith says that Shockwave works with MI-6 now. Shockwave continues to beat on Reston, and he yells for Melissa to go get Leiko or Shang; he holds on to Shockwave, despite the pain it causes him. Upstairs, Smith explains that MI-6 has become more corrupt than he thought, and that they are using Shockwave because he’s easy to deny and disavow. Greville reaches the apartment and yells for help. Shang-Chi jumps through the window and confronts Shockwave. They start to fight, even though each hit causes Shang to be shocked (which tears his shirt). He finds a wooden sign and uses its pieces to insulate Shockwave’s blows. Melissa wants to call the cops but Smith and Leiko explain that they would take Shockwave’s side. Shang-Chi is left with only a small piece of wood, but in a cool scene, he tosses it and kicks it, knocking Shockwave down. Leiko starts shooting at him from above, so he flees. Shang-Chi goes to Reston, who makes bad jokes. At his hotel, Black Jack Tarr enjoys his Frank Frazetta art and gets a call from Leiko warning him that Shockwave might be coming after him next. Smith adds that Shockwave has access to all of MI-6’s resources. Black Jack is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Brynocki, the weird robot that belonged to Mordillo; he’s there to kill Tarr.

Shang-Chi and Leiko parachute onto Mordillo’s island, which has become overgrown with lush and strange plants in the time since they were last there. Leiko suspects that Mordillo’s ‘solar chute’ device mutated the seeds of plants buried in the soil. They are attacked by three beings riding fast snails, which are joined by a dragon that half-emerges from the ground. They quickly realize these are more of Mordillo’s robots that survived Mordillo’s death and the takeover of the island by MI-6. Shang-Chi uses the dragon head to destroy the others. A flashback shows us that Leiko listened as Brynocki attacked and gassed Black Jack Tarr before kidnapping him. They figure that Shockwave is using Mordillo’s assets, and that’s why they’ve come here. At the same time, Shockwave and Brynocki approach the island, bringing Black Jack with them. We learn that Shockwave wants to learn who Black Jack has given MI-6 secrets to before killing him, and we learn that he finds Brynocki, the cartoonish robot, as annoying as we do. Leiko and Shang-Chi hear the villains fly overhead and put down in the water off the island. A large centipede-robot offers to take them where they’re going. At the same time, back in England, Reston drives Nayland Smith and Miss Greville to the remote estate that his great-uncle once owned. They plan on hiding out there, figuring that no one in MI-6 would expect them to go there as it’s too obvious a place to hide. As they enter the house, we see four faces wearing drama masks hiding behind a tree. Brynocki takes Shockwave and Tarr to a giant skull structure that was built on the island; they enter. Soon Leiko and Shang-Chi arrive at the same place, figuring that it was built by MI-6. Before they enter, Leiko reaffirms that she is committed to being with Shang-Chi. Reston gives Melissa a gun. Two big giant cyclopean ogre robots emerge from the skull and start to fight Shang-Chi and Leiko. Two of the figures in black wearing white drama masks emerge from a painting in Melissa’s bedroom, and she is unable to bring herself to shoot them. Shang-Chi and Leiko get the ogres to destroy each other. Brynocki lets Shockwave know that our heroes have arrived. Reston goes to check on Melissa. The top of the skull opens and a giant dragonfly-shaped vehicle, piloted by Shockwave and Brynocki, emerges. Reston finds that Greville has been taken. Brynocki prepares to attack our heroes in the dragonfly.
Leiko and Shang-Chi run from the dragonfly, which is firing beams at them from its mouth. Black Jack is in the skull structure, and sees a giant gun called a Cannon Zapper. He pushes it to the window and manages to shoot the dragonfly with it, bringing it down. Brynocki drags the unconscious Shockwave from the craft and runs off when he sees our heroes approaching. They realize they can’t disable Shockwave’s costume without electrocuting themselves. In Scotland, Reston finds the hole in the wall that Melissa was taken through, and goes to look for her. Nayland Smith is approached from behind by two of the men in drama masks. Leiko’s brought Tarr, and while he prepares to disconnect Shockwave’s suit, we learn that the villain is awake. He starts to explain that he has to kill them so he can return to MI-6 and kill the people responsible for him killing them. Brynocki watches this from the trees, and decides to take control of the situation, calling out the rest of Mordillo’s robots to help him. Tarr wants to kill Shockwave, but Leiko refuses to shoot him. When the robots attack, Shockwave starts to help the heroes. They destroy many, but more keep coming. They start to run from them, and Shockwave suggests that they use the ‘overload shockwave generator’ he planned on killing them with. Shockwave and Tarr go inside a bunker to calibrate it while Shang-Chi and Leiko stay outside. Nayland Smith is brought to the room where Miss Greville is tied up, and is surprised to learn who has moved against him. Shockwave fires his powerful weapon, and it destroys all of the robots in front of it, and clears a path through the jungle to the edge of the island. Brynocki flies overhead as more robots come after them, and the four spies basically run a gauntlet of robots until they get to the edge of the island. They prepare to jump into the ocean, but first Shang-Chi disables Shockwave’s suit so he isn’t electrocuted. Reston finds Smith and Greville, and learns that the person who has taken them is Ward Sarsfield, last seen about twenty-five issues before. He says he’s in charge of something called Project: Sinking Ship, and wants to get rid of the ‘rats’ in MI-6, starting with all of them. Shang-Chi figures they can stay in the water until their plane returns to pick them up in a few hours, but when they dive, they find Brynocki waiting for them with a giant sea monster robot.

The sea monster grabs Shang-Chi as they all try to swim away from it. It knocks Shockwave, shattering his faceplate. He swims to the surface while Shang-Chi gets out of the robot’s hand and smashes its eye. Brynocki realizes that things are going badly and flees again. Shang-Chi, almost out of breath, pulls the voice box out of the robot and heads to the surface, where he joins Shockwave, Leiko, and Black Jack. Shockwave is protective of his disfigured face, and acts erratically. Brynocki consults with his other robots. Tarr notices that their pickup plane is late, and worries about Nayland Smith, whom we see is still tied up in Scotland alongside Miss Greville and Reston. Shockwave mentions that he has a plane on the other side of the island, and they decide to go get it. They are stopped by two giant robotic crabs. Brynocki decides to send every remaining robot on the island after Shang-Chi and his group. Tarr suggests tossing Shockwave at the crabs, and this sets him off. He narrates his life story, telling them how he was an unhappy kid who valued his uncle, Nayland Smith, and his stories about spycraft. This spurred Sneed to become a spy himself, but he had his face blown off on his first mission. He traveled the ‘Orient’, learned martial arts, and built his faceplate and suit. He ended up working for Fu Manchu after a stint at a carnival, but he failed when Shang-Chi defeated him. After that, MI-6 reprogrammed his brain, and this is why he’s so confused and lost now. Shang-Chi tries to comfort him as Brynocki sends his robots to look for them. We see that Shang-Chi has been using the robot voice box for something, and then he decides to go get the seaplane on his own. He gets past the crabs and takes off. Tarr worries that Sneed’s confession is part of a new trap. In Scotland, Sarsfield explains that he doesn’t trust Nayland Smith, Reston, or the others since they left MI-6, and he wants them to confess to whatever crimes they’ve committed. Shang-Chi finds the seaplane. The robots attack Tarr and the others but Shang-Chi has managed to pilot the craft to them. Sneed tells him how to fire missiles, and he collapses the rocky pass into the island, destroying the robots and protecting his friends. They gather on the plane and head out. Shang-Chi asks Tarr how they can fix Sneed and protect their own lives. He suggests only the Prime Minister can help them, but that he wouldn’t believe them. As Brynocki apologizes to Mordillo’s skeleton for failing, Shang-Chi reveals that he recorded Sneed’s confession on the robot voice thing.
Issue seventy-six has Gene Day joining Mike Zeck as inker. Shang-Chi is deep in his feelings, wishing he had a father in his life. This leads to him sitting at a table in a bar on the docks in London, talking to an older Chinese man. He talks about how he wants harmony in life, but keeps getting involved in conflicts and fights. The old man asks Shang-Chi to come with him so he can show him something. Black Jack Tarr is in Scotland, and he realizes that something is wrong at Nayland Smith’s castle when he sees how quiet it is. The old man leads Shang-Chi to a quiet room, and talks to him about how money has more value than spirit in the modern world. They are interrupted by the arrival of a few men, one with a gun, who are there to take Shang-Chi outside; Shang-Chi is upset to learn he’s been betrayed, but it’s clear that the old man is upset too. Tarr finds more cars around the back of Smith’s castle and knows that he can’t face whatever is going on alone. As the men walk Shang-Chi out onto the dock, he distracts the one with a gun and kicks it out of his hand. He starts to fight the others, drawing the attention of other guys in the bar, one of whom uses an anti-Asian slur on his way to join the fight. The fight sequence is impressive, and you can see how Day added a sleekness to Zeck’s pencils. After Shang-Chi has taken out at least seven guys, he learns from the guy who had the gun that they were supposed to take him to someone named Zaran. Shang-Chi runs their pockets and goes back into the bar, where he finds the old man weeping. He gives him the money and leaves. Tarr has been driving around the Scottish village, and finally finds a telephone. Shang-Chi returns to Leiko, and talks about how they had an almost perfect two weeks together before violence found them. He is worried that his life will always be marred by violence, and as they talk, Black Jack calls. He tells Leiko where he is, and asks to speak to Shang-Chi. He’s not happy to learn that violence is calling for him once again.

Leiko and Shang-Chi plan to go help Black Jack. Leiko explains that the tape they have, holding Shockwave’s information about MI-6, is only safe with them until they can get it to the Prime Minister. They head out, and Leiko acknowledges how tired Shang-Chi is of the violence that fills his life. Black Jack is too impatient to wait for backup, so he sneaks into the house where Sir Denis Nayland Smith and the others are. He questions if he was wrong about them being in danger when he sees them sitting at the breakfast table. He finds them tied up. A truck blocks the road in front of Leiko’s car, blocking a bridge over some train tracks. Two men in disguises approach Black Jack and start shooting at him. Three gunmen pour out of the truck, and its driver introduces himself as Zaran, a name Shang-Chi remembers hearing the night before on the docks. Zaran demands the tape. Leiko tosses it to Shang-Chi, telling him to run, but Zaran tosses a knife at it, and it falls onto a passing train. Zaran goes after it, and Shang-Chi goes after him while Leiko takes out the other three men. She drives her car alongside the train, hoping to catch up, while Shang-Chi and Zaran fight. Black Jack manages to shoot his two assailants, but one of them shoots him in the chest. Shang-Chi manages to get close to the tape. Sarsfield reveals himself to Black Jack, while Zaran stops Shang-Chi from getting the tape. Sarsfield explains that he thinks Fu Manchu is still alive and for some reason, that’s why he wants to kill Shang-Chi and his friends. Leiko shoots at Zaran from her moving car, and turns his hollow staff/pike weapon towards her and fires a blowdart that takes out her tire. As Shang-Chi watches her crash, Zaran grabs the tape and jumps from the train into water below. Shang-Chi reaches Leiko as her car burns; she passes out in his arms.
Shang-Chi carries Leiko into a local pub, where they call for a doctor to come. The barkeeper knows who Zaran is, and points Shang-Chi to a nearby lake, where Zaran lives in a lodge. Shang-Chi leaves Leiko to get a cab to drive him there. He sits under some trees to surveil the place from across the lake and waits for night to fall. Black Jack talks to Sarsfield, who believes that the people he’s captured know where Fu Manchu is. As Black Jack works on freeing his hands, which are tied behind a chair, he reveals that he’s called for MI-6 reinforcements. The doctor says that Leiko has a concussion. Shang-Chi sees someone, likely a woman, come to Zaran’s, and she is familiar, but he can’t see well enough to ID her from across the lake. As night falls, Shang-Chi swims across the lake. Sarsfield hits Black Jack. The woman leaves Zaran’s, and Shang-Chi still can’t identify her because of the dark. She refers to someone’s plan revolving around receiving an object, and Zaran reassures her before she leaves. Shang-Chi tosses some fish on a chain through Zaran’s window, and when he prepares to shoot an arrow at whoever is outside, he busts through the door. As they fight, Leiko wakes up and rushes out of the pub to go help Shang-Chi. The fight goes on for pages, as Zaran uses the numerous weapons he has around his lodge, and Shang-Chi fights back as best he can. Finally, he lands a good blow on Zaran’s face, and the villain takes off, piloting his boat at full speed across the lake. Shang-Chi picks up an object that Zaran dropped; a glass eye. Sarsfield explains that MI-6 thinks Fu Manchu has set himself up as a king in South America; while he says this, we see a podium with a number of people arrayed in front of it, as if waiting for someone to speak to them. Energy crackles around it, and a body begins to materialize. Shang-Chi finds the tape in the mounted head of a moose that was missing its eye. As he leaves the lodge, a car approaches, and he attacks the driver, who is Leiko. Sarsfield hears a car outside the castle, and leaves Tarr to see who it is. It’s Zaran, which surprises Sarsfield, as he was supposed to be starting the next step of his plan. Zaran stabs Sarsfield, explaining that he has a new employer. Leiko and Shang-Chi approach the castle (I’m not sure whose car they’re driving). Zaran holds his knife against Tarr’s neck, explaining that he doesn’t need any of them anymore; we see that Tarr has freed his hands at last.

Shang-Chi is exhausted and starting to feel sick. As he and Leiko drive to Nayland Smith’s castle, they discuss how long he’s gone without rest, and how her concussion is making her tired as well. At the castle, Zaran has a knife to Black Jack’s neck as he talks about how he has a new employer, but won’t reveal who it is or what his plans are. Tarr mentions that Sarsfield called for reinforcements, just as Leiko and Shang-Chi knock on the door. They enter, and Tarr uses this distraction to make his move, clocking Zaran with a strong punch to the chin. Tarr’s injuries start to bleed again, and when Leiko and Shang-Chi register the shock of seeing Zaran, they also freeze up. Shang-Ci is stuck in a fugue, as he thinks about sleep, and Leiko collapses. Zaran throws a shi at Shang-Chi, and he barely manages to deflect it, and doing so in such a way that its hilt hits Leiko in the head. Shang-Chi is not even sure he can see Zaran properly, or if he sees an avatar of sleep, as the masked villain starts beating on him. Tarr’s yelling breaks through to Shang-Chi, and he finally starts to fight back. He knocks Zaran into a wall and starts hitting him repeatedly. Zaran throws an exploding blade into the ceiling, and Shang-Chi stares as it collapses. Zaran runs away while Nayland Smith manages to knock Shang-Chi away from the collapsing ceiling. Just then Sarsfield’s men arrive, but with their boss dead, fall in line, taking orders from Nayland Smith. Shang-Chi is put to bed, while Sarsfield’s men take away his dead body. Smith tells the others that he’s sent the men to gather their things and bring them to the castle. As Reston and Tarr go looking for something to eat, Nayland Smith sits down to listen to the Shockwave tape. He’s surprised to hear a different voice that’s been recorded over the original tape. Nayland Smith recognizes the voice, just as Shang-Chi thinks about who he saw with Zaran – Fah Lo Suee!
Shang-Chi has recovered after sixteen hours of sleep, and meditates while listening to loud music that Black Jack doesn’t like. He and Reston collect Shang-Chi for a meeting. They discuss the possibility that Fu Manchu is still alive, and Smith refers to receiving some other information before these latest troubles began. He plays the tape and Shang-Chi recognizes his sister’s voice, although she doesn’t say much. The group (including Leiko and Ms. Greville) discuss whether or not Fah Lo Suee might be working with MI-6, and how much of MI-6 can be trusted. Shang-Chi is a little cryptic. Smith tells them about his old friend, Lyman Leeks, who usually works in the South American bureau, who let him know that Fu Manchu is in that region. He shows a picture of his friend, and they plan on meeting him to get the rest of his information. At the same time, Shang-Chi remembers one of his talks with his father, while somewhere else six men put on leopard-inspired suits and prepare for something. Smith knows that MI-6 knows about his contact meeting with Leeks, and believes that Fu Manchu might have people there too. Soon, Leeks arrives outside Victoria Railway Station and speaks half of a code phrase. A man looking through a garbage can responds with the other half of the phrase, and Leeks tells him his information is hidden nearby. A car pulls a drive-by shooting, and Tarr chases them in his own car. Reston, who was playing with the trash, rushes to Leek and learns that even though the gunmen missed, someone else managed to stab him in the back. Another person chases after that guy. Somewhere, presumably in South America, a guy in shadows (it’s clearly Fu Manchu) watches two leopard-dressed guys fight, and orders Maru, his attendant, to kill them both. Shang-Chi chases the knife guy onto the train tracks, and the rest of the leopard cult guys show up. The car Tarr is chasing leads him into an ambush and dozens of gunmen shoot at him. He slams his car into reverse and barely gets away (I’m not sure why he’s driving a left-side drive car in London). Shang-Chi fights while Reston gets Leek to tell him where the info he has is. A train interrupts Shang-Chi’s fight, after which the leopard guys are gone. Leeks shares some verbal information with Reston, but it sounds like a code phrase or riddle. Tarr and Shang-Chi arrive at the same time, and they take the badly injured Leeks with them, as they puzzle over his words. After they’ve driven off, we see the real Leeks arrive at the garbage can and speak the same code phrase.

Our heroes are pursued by the MI-6 agents, and they end up flipping their car. Tarr and Reston cause their pursuers to crash, while Shang-Chi rights the car. They narrowly miss being hit by a leopard cult throwing knife as they drive off. They can’t figure out Leeks’s riddle, so they decide they need to stop and call Sir Nayland Smith in Scotland (a story element that could never happen today). Reston talks to Smith on the phone, and he starts to figure out that the riddle is about Petrie’s wife, and a mission they were on in 1933. As they talk, the MI-6 agents find them, and start shooting at them. Tarr holds them off while Shang-Chi flanks them and attacks. Smith finishes his analysis of the riddle, and guesses that the information they are looking for is hidden in the London Museum by a peacock statue. He tells Leiko to head to London to back them up. Having taken out their attackers, our heroes decide, since they have to wait until dawn for Leeks’s package to reveal itself, they should head to Reston’s place to water his orchids and reload their guns. They decide to drop Leeks’s body off at MI-6 first. They leave the fake Leeks’s body in the car and go to break into Whitechapel. Just then, the real Leeks arrives on the scene, having given up on waiting for Nayland Smith at the train station. He’s shocked to basically see his body in the back of a beaten up car, and decides to pull a prank, replacing himself for it. When the men return to the car, he scares them, and then points out that the body they had belongs to an imposter. He sees this as proof that Fu Manchu is active. The MI-6 agents catch up to them again and start shooting again, so they flee; the fake Leeks’s body ends up flying out of the trunk and onto the hood of their pursuers’ car, causing it to crash. At Reston’s, he’s upset to see that his orchids aren’t doing well. People start shooting into his flat, so Tarr, Reston, and Shang-Chi return to their badly damaged car and take off, leaving Leeks with Mrs. Haversham, Reston’s landlady. They head to the museum, where they see that the dawn light is reflected off the peacock statue and against a tapestry. They are about to get the information they need from behind it when a guard comes through. The guard is killed by a number of leopard-cultists who appear out of nowhere. They fight again, but Shang-Chi notices one of them stealing the packet of information, and he gives chase. He fights two of them on the roof, and holds the one with the info against a ledge. MI-6 agents turn up on the street and start shooting. Just then, Leiko arrives with a helicopter and tosses him a ladder. She drops a gas bomb on the MI-6 agents, and soon the heroes all gather at Tarr’s car. The information packet just has a note from Fah Lo Suee, saying that she fooled Shang-Chi again. Tarr hits his car, and it collapses.
Shang-Chi and his friends decide they should interrogate Leeks about the information they weren’t able to retrieve. On their way back to the helicopter, Clive talks to Leiko about how he feels about Melissa, and how he still fetishizes (not his word) Leiko for her Asian appearance. Back in Scotland, Melissa opens up to Sir Denis about how she doesn’t think she’s cut out for the world of secret agents, at least in terms of being in the field. We see some Leopard-Cult guys approach the castle. Reston explains to Leeks that he wants some information. The Leopard-Cult guys take Sir Denis down easily, and chase Melissa as she jumps in a car and takes off, freaking out the whole way. Leeks explains that he learned how a remote, uncontacted, Indigenous tribe in South America saw a comet crash into their lagoon (Tarr and Reston figure this was Fu Manchu surviving the destruction of his space station). He quickly won over their loyalty with some medical ‘miracles’, then called in some Si-Fan support. Over time, he constructed a fortress modeled on Ancient China, turned his new followers into the Leopard-Cult, and started abducting various people. The group discusses whether or not they can trust Leeks, and he understands this. They decide that they should confront the obvious trap head on, but decide to go check on Nayland Smith first. Leeks decides to stay at Restons, now that he and the landlady are taken with one another. The cult continues to pursue Melissa, and as Shang-Chi and the others fly overhead (they get there really quickly), Reston recognizes his car on the road. He and Shang-Chi drop down to help, and while Reston rescues Melissa, Shang-Chi goes after two of her pursuers that run into a windmill. He fights them, and takes them down. The hysterical Melissa explains that she let them kidnap Sir Denis.

Issue eighty-three focuses on Fu Manchu, finally confirming that he’s returned, and giving him space to narrate most of the issue. He performs some kind of alchemy thing, and creates a symbol of a snake in a golden pentagon. He looks out over the various factions of Si-Fan and Leopard Cult that have gathered at his compound, and announces to them that the change they’ve been waiting for is about to happen. He tells all these factions that they are part of the Order of the Golden Dawn now. In Scotland, Leeks and the others try to figure out how Fu Manchu’s people knew where to get the information packet and where to acquire Nayland Smith. Leeks feels confident that the only people who could have figured out his riddle were Smith, Petrie, and Petrie’s dead wife, Karamenah (whose name made up part of the riddle). Fu Manchu soaks in his elixir vitae, has snakes slither on him, drinks another portion of the elixir, and smokes a pipe (is it opium?). He has a vision of symbols of power, including the snake one he just made, sees himself leading four horsemen over the world, but also sees a vision of his infant son. Melissa is upset with herself for letting Nayland Smith be kidnapped. Fah Lo Suee comes to join her father, and brings with her Zaran, who wishes to join him. Fu has Maru test Zaran’s worth, and finds him lacking, but offers him a place in his order. Leiko and Shang-Chi get philosophical. We see that Fu Manchu has the people he’s abducted from the UN connected to machines as a method of taking over their minds. Nayland Smith is blindfolded and led by the leopard cult. He’s shocked that their boss is Karamenah, considerably younger and healthier than expected; she explains that Fu Manchu’s elixir now reverses aging (Fu was looking pretty healthy, but I assumed it was because Mike Zeck was working to make him less of an anti-Asian stereotype). Fu Manchu leaves his compound and descends an elevator in a ziggurat. He performs some mystical alchemical thing over a pond, and some glowing lights emerge, which make him think that his plans are working. As they fly off, he feels certain his plans will work. Leiko and Shang-Chi prepare to leave, and still speak about philosophical things (it’s a bit of mumbo jumbo, really).
Shang-Chi and Black Jack Tarr are somewhere in South America, searching for Fu Manchu with little luck. We learn they were pointed in this general direction by the one leopard cultist they captured last issue, but figure they are far from where they should be. They are attacked by some cultists, and while Shang-Chi’s heart is not in the fight, his body responds. Three of their attackers take off, but they know they can’t safely follow. In a flashback, we learn that it was Leeks that got their captive to talk, despite Mrs. Haversham objecting to his methods. Tarr and Shang-Chi continue their search in their jeep. Fu Manchu talks to Fah Lo Suee about his concern that Karamenah has not yet returned with Nayland Smith. We see that the cultists are driving a convoy of trucks filled with the people that Fu abducted through the jungle. We see that these people have diodes attached to their heads. Tarr and Shang-Chi find this convoy. In a flashback, we learn that there have been reports coming in from around South America of UFO sightings – the large balls of light that we saw Fu Manchu release. Reston received a telegram calling him to Casablanca. It was decided that our heroes split up, with Clive and Leiko going to Morocco while Black Jack and Shang-Chi went to South America. Fu Manchu and Fah Lo Suee talk about the glowing lights – they are vehicles of some sort, and he continues to worry that Karamenah has not returned in one. We see that Karamenah is in Casablanca with Nayland Smith. After excusing her leopard cult underlings, she explains that she is not actually working for Fu Manchu, and that she is the one who summoned Reston to her. She explains that Fu has put devices in her head that make her follow his orders, at least until someone she refuses to name freed her. Fah Lo Suee and Fu Manchu watch Zaran spar with Maru, when they learn that some of the cultists fought Shang-Chi and Tarr. Fu is worried they’ll find his convoy. Our heroes approach the convoy once it’s stopped for the night, but are not able to communicate with the mind controlled captives. They are spotted, and Shang-Chi hesitates to kill the man who discovered them; Tarr shoots him, but only after he calls out. As they try to slip away, they are discovered by more cultists. Their fight takes them to the banks of a river full of alligators. Clive and Leiko arrive in Casablanca (so quickly), and there is tension between them. Shang-Chi still does not want to fight, and feels bad when he tosses one cultist to a gator. Soon, they have defeated the men that found them, but have attracted more gators. They are about to slip out of the river and away from them when they realize that two dozen cultists are on the shore.

Steve Oliff coloured issue eighty-five, and it definitely looked subtly different (better?) than the issues prior to it. This book always traded colourists, and it’s too bad because it would have been nice to see someone consistently build on what Zeck and Day were doing here. Shang-Chi and Black Jack dive under one of the alligators in the river and toss it at the leopard cultists on the river bank. They make use of the chaos to rush back to their jeep, which Shang-Chi drives away. The cultists don’t chase them, but do use their radio to report back to Fu Manchu. Clive and Leiko are met by a street urchin in Casablanca who gives them a note saying where Smith is. Karamenah arranges for Reston to rescue Smith, despite the danger it means for her. Fu Manchu talks to Fah Lo Suee about how his plans are going, that his mind controlled functionaries are being sent home so he can run a global wave of sabotage. Clive and Leiko make their way into the building where Karamenah is pretending to hold Smith; Leiko hits her when she is asked, and they escape. Tarr and Shang-Chi find Fu Manchu’s compound in the jungle, and while it looks deserted, know that a trap has been laid for them. They enter anyway. Clive takes Leiko and Smith to a cafe with a proprietor he knew as a child. Richard is clearly meant to be Rick, from the movie Casablanca. He recognizes Clive, despite not knowing him as an adult, and gives them a room. As Shang-Chi and Tarr prepare to enter Fu’s main building, they see they are followed by more than a dozen men. Tarr opens fire, but they are attacked by more men upon entering the building. They fight, but separate when Shang-Chi insists on finding his father. He falls through a trap door. Clive keeps watch and he and Leiko talk about their previous run-in with Fu Manchu. They end up kissing. Shang-Chi explores. As dawn breaks, Leiko makes it clear to Clive that while she still has feelings for him, their kisses were for old times’ sake. Leopard cultists start to climb over their balcony. Tarr discovers a room full of Fu’s new style zombies. Shang-Chi finds his father.
When Shang-Chi confronts his father, he talks about how he feels messed up. He feels like he was raised for a different era, and that his efforts to find replacement father figures have led him nowhere. Fu Manchu, for his part, blames Shang-Chi for ruining his plans, and then explains how he’s going to use his electrode-implanted prisoners to sow chaos around the world, so he can conquer it. Shang-Chi is disappointed that once again, his father doesn’t care about him. Tarr shoots the machine controlling the prisoners and starts looking for Shang-Chi. Instead, he finds Fah Lo Suee, reclining with some leopards (not the cultists, the actual cats). She blows some smoke at him (opium?) and he has strange visions. Fah Lo Suee tells him that Nayland Smith is in Casablanca with Karamenah, whom he thought was dead. He flees, looking for Shang-Chi. Shang-Chi tells his father that he denounces him, and Fu mocks him. Tarr finds them and starts shooting at Fu, but he’s only been a hologram all along. They see a glowing light leave from the volcano opposite the building they’re in after the wall opens, and realize that Fu has escaped them. A bunch of Si-Fan show up, and they start to fight. Recognizing they’ll be overrun, they rush across the compound, enter a temple and take an elevator down into the grotto we saw before. This leads them to the pool, and Shang-Chi dives in to see where the glowing lights are coming from. Deep in the water is a pyramid, and the lights that look a bit like ships come out of them. They return to the surface to find the cultists waiting for them. They grab onto a rising light and jump off after it clears the volcano’s mouth. They find a single leopard-cultist with a vehicle, and knock him out so they can take it. Fah Lo Suee and Zaran watch them leave, and she says they’ll head to Morocco, where she has a secret ally (Karamenah?). Tarr wants to head for Casablanca too. In Casablanca, Richard shows up just as the leopard-cultists attack Reston and Leiko, and he shoots them. Tarr and Shang-Chi find the landing strip, and see that another batch of mind controlled prisoners is being shipped out; they figure the quickest way to Lima and connecting flights is to join them. Reston and Nayland Smith agree they should wait in Casablanca for Tarr and Shang-Chi, even though Smith knows that Fu is headed to New York. We see Shang-Chi and Tarr slip onto the outbound flight, and Shang-Chi vows vengeance.
The Statement of Ownership for 1979 reports an average press run of 302 000, with average newsstand returns of 172 000.

Shang-Chi and Tarr arrive in Casablanca and meet up with the others at Richard’s place (Tarr knows him). They update each other on what’s happened, but Shang-Chi is worried that Leiko won’t look at him. Tarr goes for a walk, Clive and Richard sit at the bar, and Shang-Chi sits down to talk with Leiko. Their conversation is interspersed with scenes of what happens with Tarr. As he walks, he comes across Fah Lo Suee and Zaran in the street, and after Zaran leaves, he pulls his gun on Fah Lo Suee. She hypnotizes him and starts making out with him. Zaran finds them, and defying Fah Lo Suee’s orders, starts beating on him. She leaves, but makes it clear he’s not to kill Tarr. He leaves him in the street and orders their men to meet him in a little bit. At the same time, Leiko talks to Shang-Chi about the first boy she ever loved, at the age of twelve, and how she never felt the same way about anyone until she met Shang-Chi, but then she admits that she kissed Reston and asks for forgiveness. Shang-Chi goes to ask Clive if anything happened while they were separated, and Clive lies, so Shang-Chi decks him. This is when Tarr comes crawling in, and tells them he saw Zaran. Shang-Chi gives in to his rage and goes after the villain, finding him with Fah Lo Suee and some thuggee. Shang-Chi attacks, and while he takes on the thuggee and Zaran, Leiko arrives and challenges Fah Lo Suee, who really wants the fight to stop. Shang-Chi notices the improvements in Zaran’s fighting, while Leiko struggles against his sister. Nayland Smith (who was sleeping) joins the others and learns what’s happened. Once Shang-Chi has Zaran on the ground, Fah Lo Suee demands that the fight stops. She explains that she’s working against Fu Manchu, and that she wants to stay on the good side of the people who will likely emerge as the new leaders of MI-6. She’s told them that all attacks on Shang-Chi and his friends need to stop in order for her to work with them, and explains that she erased the tape she stole from her brother as a means of protecting her new partners. She also claims she’s the reason Nayland Smith got away. Smith and Reston arrive, as does Karamenah, who we learn has been working with Fah Lo Suee. Fah explains that Fu is heading to New York, and that she’s going to meet him there. She wants to join forces with Shang-Chi’s group to stop his plans, but there is too much mistrust between the factions. Smith thinks it better that they work against Fu separately. Karamenah explains that she doesn’t want to see Petrie, her former husband, because of the age difference caused by Fu’s elixir. Everyone separates, and it’s clear that Shang-Chi is very upset and hurt by Leiko’s actions.
Shang-Chi and the crew arrive in New York by helicopter (did they fly it from Morocco?) just as a massive fuel depot in New Jersey catches fire. We see that one of Fu Manchu’s new electrode-puppets is responsible. Fu Manchu, Maru, and some of the Warriors of the Golden Dawn are in the sewers under Manhattan, setting up a nuclear bomb. We learn that Maru has accepted electrodes in his head, but these are used to increase his strength and speed, and to dull pain. Fu Manchu orders him to watch for Fah Lo Suee, and to kill her if she comes, revealing that he’s known all along that she is going to betray him. As Tarr lands the chopper, we learn that Fu plans on detonating the bomb and blaming it on the Soviets. Shang-Chi and crew wait on the pier where Fah Lo Suee said Fu Manchu was going to meet her. She arrives with Zaran, and while they talk about working together, someone tosses a knife from the nearby sewer and hits Fah in the back. A bunch of Golden Dawn guys attack, and while Clive takes Fah to the hospital, the rest get into the fight. Fu and Maru sneak out of the sewer and into an office tower, where they kill a guard and catch an elevator to the roof, so they can escape before the bomb blows. The Golden Dawn guys run back into the sewer, and the heroes (and Zaran) pursue, where Nayland Smith finds the bomb. He and Tarr stay behind to defuse it, while Shang-Chi, Leiko (who lost her gun) and Zaran chase the warriors into the World Trade Center. Shang-Chi follows one into the elevator, which takes him to the observation deck. Nayland Smith is struggling to defuse the bomb. Shang finds Maru on the roof, signaling something, and starts to fight him. He’s surprised by the bigger man’s strength and apparent imperviousness to his nunchuck strikes. Things aren’t looking good for Shang, but Leiko joins him and tries to help. Shang sees no choice but to kick Maru over the side of the roof, and they watch him fall to his death. As Leiko starts to apologize to Shang for kissing Reston, a glowing light thing floats above them and hits them with gas. Fu steps out of the shadows, explaining this is his mimosa gas. As Nayland Smith admits he doesn’t know how to stop the bomb in the ten minutes remaining, Fu climbs a ladder into the glowing light ship, while Shang-Chi tries to hold his breath.

While still suffering the effects of the mimosa, Shang-Chi follows his father into his flying saucer. As he climbs the ladder, we see that Neville Smith and Tarr are still working to defuse the nuclear bomb. Smith convinces Tarr to pull the trigger wire, but when the bomb doesn’t explode, Smith worries that the timer might still set the bomb off. Shang-Chi surprises his father, and by defeating the Si-Fan pilot, sends the ship crashing into Manhattan. Fu summons the three lights we saw before in his underground lagoon. They turn out to be three small vehicles, from which three monstrous beings created by Fu emerge. Shang-Chi thinks he’s still hallucinating, but no, it seems his father has created new life forms for this simple reason, which makes no sense. Shang-Chi fights them, but they are strong. When he sees some cops approaching with rifles, he gets away from them and lets the cops kill them. Fu still thinks his bomb is going to go off, so he gets his ship into the air. He’s surprised that the bomb doesn’t blow (Tarr and Smith are relieved), and even more surprised when his son enters the ship again. Leiko finds Smith and Tarr, and tells them she doesn’t know where Shang-Chi is. Shang-Chi reflects on all the nonsense he and his friends have been put through as part of this strange plot of Fu’s, and his anger blows. He gives his father a good punch to the face, and then smashes the computers that run his ship before jumping out into the river below. The ship explodes, and we see Shang-Chi swim to a dock. He feels like he is finally free of his father’s machinations at last.
With the action completed, everyone gathers on the pier near their helicopter. Reston has rejoined the group, and nothing is said of where Fah Lo Suee is, or her condition. Shang-Chi informs Nayland Smith that he doesn’t want to return to England with him, and that he doesn’t want to be part of the spy trade anymore. Smight comments that he’s thinking of setting up his own private agency, and hopes Shang-Chi will return to them at some point. Shang isn’t able to apologize to Reston for hitting him, but he shares a nice moment with Black Jack. He tells Leiko that he will see her again, and then walks away. She decides to go after him, and they promise to never leave one another. As they eat in a diner, they talk about their options, and she suggests they go stay with her brother David, who is a cultural attaché to the Hong Kong embassy. They head there, and are met by Dee, a servant. David finishes a meeting with a local police sergeant and then is pleased to see his sister. They sit and catch up (it’s odd that Shang-Chi would be sitting shirtless in such a fancy place without comment). They learn that New York has been experiencing gang violence between Asian communities, and that David is unable to help out due to the confines of his role. He explains that ABC (American Born Chinese) factions have been beefing with FOB (fresh off the boat) factions, and now there is also rivalry with a Japanese gang. The Joy Boys are the ABC group, while the Golden Claws are ‘buddha-heads’, a term for Japanese I’ve never heard before. That night, when Shang-Chi can’t sleep, he heads off to investigate the scene in Chinatown. He gets harassed by a cop for jaywalking (I think this echoes an earlier scene from Volume One, or I just have deja vu). He comes across a group of tough-looking guys and asks them about the Joy Boys. They lead him into an alley and attempt to beat him up, but he takes them all out. They take him to their hangout, where the guy who first spoke to him suggests he become their new leader, since their regular leader was killed by the Golden Claws a few nights prior. Shang-Chi is surprised, as this was not his intent in coming.

The Joy Boys have decided that Shang-Chi will lead them, despite his reluctance and the clear disagreement coming from Chen. While the gang wants Shang-Chi to help them ambush the Golden Claws the next night, Chen decides that a few of them need to rob a gun shop first, and sends Shang-Chi to lead three men. Soon, as the men approach the gun shop, Chen attacks Shang-Chi in an alley, and is quickly taken out by him. Shang-Chi goes to stop the other men, who have already broken into the store, when they are stopped by the police (Chen flagged down a patrol car and sent it after them). They are arrested, but one of the Joy Boys escapes with a gun. Leiko realizes that Shang-Chi is missing. He is processed and left in a desolate cell where he meditates all night. Leiko and David come to free him (she got Nayland Smith to make some calls, and all charges have been dropped), and as they leave, Shang-Chi explains that he needs to go stop the gang from attacking their rivals. They head to the park, and Shang-Chi insists the Wus wait in the car. The two gangs engage in a standoff, and Shang-Chi gets between them, lecturing about peace and appealing to the lessons taught by their respective cultures. Chen argues with him, seeing him as an outsider. Leiko and David arrive on the scene, and Leiko reveals that she’s learned that both gangs are being manipulated by drug lords. Chen makes a move towards Leiko, and she responds instinctually, which causes both gangs to start fighting. During the brawl, Shang-Chi notices the guy with a gun, but he’s too nervous to use it. Chen takes the gun from him, and tries to shoot the leader of the Golden Claws. Shang-Chi dives in the way, saving the gang leader, but getting hit in the side. This leads to him giving another speech to the assembled gang members, who all stopped fighting when the gun went off, and this time they listen to him. The gangsters all start walking away, except for Chen who is angry and expects his followers to return to him.
While Shang-Chi frets about his sense that something is going to happen soon, a ‘monster’ breaks into a dry goods store in Chinatown and hurts the shopkeeper in front of her granddaughter. David Wu is talking to Leiko and Shang-Chi about how they’re spending their time in New York (it looks like they’re doing a lot of couples touristy things) when the granddaughter, Angela, arrives at the Hong Kong embassy looking for help. She tells them what happened, and David further explains that the people of Chinatown have been telling him stories like this for a while now. Shang and Leiko go to the store with the girl, and the ailing grandmother explains, telling them about a legendary monster in tunnels, and about a warrior who fights in fire. As Shang talks to the crowd that’s gathered outside, Leiko drops down a manhole to see what’s going on; she is attacked by something big. She makes it back to the surface, immediately dispelling Shang-Chi’s disbelief about the story. They head down together, and track the creature to a building that is empty inside, except for a strange staircase. They start climbing, suspecting the creature is at the top. It emerges, and below them, they see that a Si-Fan has come out of hiding. This man, a ‘dweller in darkness’ has been waiting for years for Shang-Chi to fall into his trap, following directions given to him by Fu Manchu back when Shang-Chi still lived in New York. The Dweller sets fire to the staircase, and the ‘monster’ attacks. They climb the stairs into the bedroom where the Si-Fan and his ‘friend’ have been living. The monster is really just a big ape, and Shang-Chi is reluctant to hurt it, but when they both fall through the floor and are at risk of falling from the girders that stopped their fall into the fire below, Shang kicks the creature to the ground. The Si-Fan kicks it, ordering it to kill Shang-Chi, but the ape turns on him and attacks him. The fire spreads, so Shang and Leiko kick the boards off a window and escape. Later, at the old woman’s store, she continues to conflate Shang-Chi’s experiences with the legend she told before, and he gives up on trying to dissuade her from those beliefs.

Issue ninety-three opens with an illustrated fable about a man who loved money more than his friends and ended up losing both. Leiko likes the book she’s reading it from, and buys it from a shopkeeper before she and Shang-Chi return to the embassy, talking about how they know they’ll end up going back to England, despite how much they are enjoying New York. Later that night, Shang-Chi hears a disturbance, and finds Black Jack Tarr in the lobby, tussling with Dee. After David and Leiko join them, Tarr explains that he, Nayland Smith, and the others have started a private agency at their castle in Scotland, and that he’s in New York on a case. Melissa Greville’s sister, Mandy, has fallen in with a cult called The Dawning Light, and he’s there to retrieve her. Shang-Chi questions if she’d even want to be ‘rescued’, and Tarr explains that she took some important papers with her when she left (she worked in the Ministry of Defence), and subsequently, a weapons shipment from West Germany has been stolen. Shang-Chi is reluctant to get back into this type of ‘tradecraft’, but agrees to help Tarr so long as he can talk to Mandy and get her take on things. They can’t just leave, because Tarr was followed from the airport, so Shang-Chi dresses in Dee’s work clothes and lights off some firecrackers to distract the thugs waiting outside, allowing Tarr and Leiko the chance to get to Tarr’s car. As they drive, they look at a picture of Mandy, and of Samisdat, the leader of the cult. They arrive at the mansion the cult lives in, and take out the two guards so they can get inside. Once in, they find a stream of cultists heading to the basement in robes, and so disguise themselves and join them in their worship. They are surprised to see that Mandy is leading the proceedings, and she gives a speech about how the cult must be strong, and be prepared to kill outsiders (this helps convince Shang-Chi that this is not a simple religion). As the ritual draws to a close, Tarr manages to grab Mandy, but as they try to leave, they run into the goons that chased him earlier. Tarr jumps out a window with Mandy, leaving Shang-Chi and Leiko to fight the goons. Some of the cultists had dropped their candles, so the building catches fire; Shang-Chi helps them escape the flames, but they all want to kill him. The crew manages to escape, and soon stand on the side of a river arguing with Mandy, who has known Tarr her whole life. She promises that at some point, she’s going to kill him.
A man in a supervillain bodysuit wakes from a dream where he is fighting Shang-Chi. And older man, probably a doctor, calls him Agent Synergon (but for the rest of the issue he’s referred to as Agent Syn, and we learn he’s KGB), and talks about how his boy has been enhanced to a point of perfect synergy between a device that releases chemicals like adrenaline and his body. We see that he’s being trained to take out all of Nayland Smith’s people, with a particular focus on fighting Shang-Chi. Our hero and his friends arrive at Nayland Smith’s castle in Scotland. Smith greets them as they take the unconscious Mandy Greville inside. We learn that Smith has gathered his crew, including Lyman Leeks and Mrs. Haversham, and launched Freelance Restorations Ltd. He shows Shang-Chi and Leiko around the renovated castle, telling them he’s spent every penny he has on it. They look at opulent living and bedrooms, and see Dr. Petrie, who is crying over a picture of Karamenah. Clive Reston is shooting outside, and he and Shang-Chi immediately bury the ax. Shang-Chi is surprised that Smith charges for his services, but it makes sense to him when he continues to see that no expense was spared here. More bedrooms, an inner garden, and a swimming pool are shown, as is the business wing, outfitted with computers and a gym. Lyman Leeks starts to work on deprogramming Mandy, but she’s pretty adamant about clinging to her beliefs, upsetting Melissa in the process. Time passes, and Shang-Chi and the others enjoy themselves. Melissa researches more about Samisdat, the cult leader, and suspects a connection between him and the KGB. Leeks continues to struggle with Mandy. Elsewhere, Agent Syn continues to have the same dreams, but now he is beating Shang-Chi in them. His handler prepares him to go to Scotland, where he is supposed to eliminate Mandy before she can share the secrets of Samisdat Island (there’s always an island). Syn starts disabling alarms. Feeling restless, Shang-Chi notices someone moving through the inner courtyard towards Tarr’s room. He manages to save him from getting stabbed by Mandy (she knocked out Mrs. Haversham to escape). Mandy flees, and Tarr and Shang-Chi split up. Shang-Chi is surprised to find Agent Syn in the garden, and they start to fight. Leeks rouses Nayland Smith, who gets the others. Tarr chases Mandy towards the swimming pool, just as Shang-Chi’s fight with Syn takes them there too. Seeing his target, Syn shoots at Mandy, but Tarr knocks her into the pool, saving her. Shang-Chi breaks the device on Syn’s chest, and Reston, just arriving, shoots him in the back five times, knocking him into the pool. Mandy seems to snap out of her brainwashing, apologizing to Tarr for trying to kill him. Issue ninety-four must have run short, because there is a full text page of Shang-Chi sharing pearls of wisdom, followed by three pages outlining the floorplan of Stormhaven, Nayland Smith’s castle. There is also a page detailing Fu Manchu’s fortress in China. I used to love pages like this as a kid.

Issue ninety-five opens with Leiko and Shang-Chi having infiltrated an ocean liner full of Dawning Light cultists, on their way to Samisdat Island. Through a flashback, we learn that Mandy, having come to her senses, told everyone about Samisdat’s plans to gather his flock on his island, as part of a larger plan to sow chaos throughout the west. Reston has looked up Agent Syn and discovered that he was previously known by the code name Samisdat, and that he was KGB (his real name was Alexi Kalashnikov, which is kind of amusing to me). Tarr and the others were sure that the Soviets are behind Samisdat’s plans, and Smith was able to convince Shang-Chi to join his new endeavour, at least for this mission. The boat approaches the island, and we see that Smith is flying Tarr and Reston in as backup. Once night falls, Shang-Chi and Leiko sneak out of their barracks to start surveying the island. They don’t find much about Samisdat’s opulent mansion that concerns them, but then Shang-Chi discovers an underground base with a grass-covered convenient skylight. They listen as Samisdat talks to some KGB types about how he has a satellite ready to launch which will allow him to destroy spy satellites and sow chaos (it’s always a satellite in this series). Leiko and Shang-Chi are discovered by guards but manage to escape and hide among the cultists again. Samisdat reveals that he has five “Agent Syn variants”, other men with the same, or improved, enhancements. He knows that Shang-Chi is on the island, so the next day, when addressing his faithful, he has them take off their robes. Shang-Chi and Leiko stand out, and he orders the others to get them. They split up, and Leiko finds herself fighting on the edge of a cliff. Tarr and Reston parachute onto the island, but Black Jack gets caught on a tree. A guard almost kills him, but Clive saves him, just before Shang-Chi rendez-vous with them and leads them to the underground base (we see that Leiko is captured). Clive starts to sabotage the satellite, but Samisdat shows up with his five Syns. Some of the guards start shooting, and a big fight is on. Leiko comes to and leads her pursuers towards the sound of gunfire, hoping to reveal to them that Samisdat is playing them. As the fight turns to our heroes, Samisdat attempts to escape in his rocket. It goes haywire in the sky, destroying his own mansion, and then it explodes. Smith arrives with the “Caribbean authorities”, whatever that means, and they start to round up the cultists, who are having varying reactions to what they’ve learned.
Shang-Chi and Leiko are in London, attending a karate match. It seems that earlier in the day, a man just came up and gave them to them, seeing as he couldn’t attend and they are “Orientals”. The match is between a white man named Jenkins and a Black man called One-Eyed Carter, because he only has one eye. The match is entertaining, and Carter shows good sportsmanship. A guy in the audience starts something with Shang-Chi, going so far as using a racial slur that wouldn’t get printed today, and taking a swing at Shang-Chi. Shang-Chi takes the guy out, which momentarily distracts Carter in the ring, but he rallies and knocks out his opponent, winning the championship. As he leaves the ring, he tells Shang-Chi and Leiko that he’d like to see them in his dressing room, and mentions Freelance Restorations. He talks a lot, going into a lengthy explanation of how he’s trained his brain to compensate for his missing eye, and then kicks everyone else out of the dressing room. He explains that on the side, he runs an antiques business, and has been getting shaken down by some local gangsters. He wants Shang-Chi and Leiko to help him, and while they reject payment, they go with him to the shop. Inside they find four men robbing the place, and start to fight them. One of them makes off with Carter’s red book, which he says holds all of his accounts. They catch one of the men, who claims to work for a guy named Oryx. Leiko calls Clive, who agrees to go through their files for information on Oryx. He and Melissa stay up all night compiling their research. Mandy talks to Black Jack about how the cult operated, and explains why she doesn’t want to go back to working for the government. Instead, she has the idea of setting up a school for blind children in part of the castle, and Tarr realizes she’s thought this plan out before pretending to just think of it in front of him. Smith has been listening and agrees that it’s a good plan, as in addition to helping children, it provides his organization with cover and the opportunity for government grants (although no one thinks about how they’ve already had an assassin break into the castle). Leiko learns from Melissa where to look for Oryx, and they make plans with Carter. After Carter hangs up the phone, we see him talking with the guy that got into the fight with Shang-Chi at the karate match. After Carter picks up his new friends and they head to the pier where Melissa said Oryx operates, Shang-Chi starts to feel suspicious. They find a guy reading through the red book, and Carter kicks down a door to get to him. Oryx, who is very tall, approaches with some other guys, and there’s a fight. Oryx stabs Carter and flees with the red book. Shang-Chi checks on his new friend, and finds his CIA identity card falling out of his jeans (because of course undercover agents carry ID cards). He jumps onto the boat that Oryx is fleeing in and they fight. He knocks him out and looks in the red book. He’s surprised to find that it’s full of information about Samisdat and his island. Later, Shang-Chi goes to visit Carter in the hospital, and finds the man he fought, and the guy who gave him and Leiko the karate tickets. That guy explains the whole affair, which is kind of complicated (involving French cover operations, Yugoslavian intelligence, and a desire to stop Samisdat). They knew they’d need Shang-Chi’s help, but also knew he was averse to spycraft, so they duped him. Shang-Chi goes to see Carter, who claims he was also suckered into some deceit. He decides to quit the CIA, and go freelance himself.

Issue ninety-seven has to be the wordiest comic in Doug Moench’s entire run with Shang-Chi, if not of his career. Shang-Chi is meditating on duality, yin and yang, and the way violence always finds him. He is thinking about how he’s been finding it harder to keep control of his anger. His meditations are interrupted by Leiko, who is upset that their cat has injured a bird in the garden. He comforts her, and they work out together. Reston and Tarr come to see them – this night Nayland Smith has a large party planned, but two people need to go to London to interview a prospective client; Leiko uses a double-headed coin to trick Tarr into letting her and Shang-Chi stay for the party. Soon the caterers arrive in a bustle of French phrases and talk of a ‘dessert train’. As the guests arrive, Smith introduces Major Pendleton Asquith, who was the impetus for the idea of the party and who recommended the caterers. They talk about the art that Smith owns and displays, and Asquith turns his nose up on Shang-Chi’s ideas. Shang and Leiko admire a statue and flirt. At dinner, they discuss the fact that there is a ring of art thieves operating in the UK at the moment. After dinner, Smith displays his latest acquisition, a Surrealist painting that depicts two images at once. Asquith puts it down, Shang-Chi disagrees. It’s time for the ‘dessert train’, an actual train loaded with various desserts. Masked thieves jump out of the train’s cars and start robbing everyone, loading the artwork into the cars. When the opportunity arises, Shang-Chi and Leiko jump into action, taking them out and working their way up to the maitre d’. Once the other guests join our heroes, one of the thieves speaks to Asquith, and Smith figures out that he is behind the thievery (he also reveals that he didn’t know who he was before talk of the party began, which makes no sense). Asquith tries to flee but Shang-Chi catches him and the last thief. Later, Smith speaks to the real caterers while Leiko flirts with Shang some more, and he stays reflective in the narrative.
Shang-Chi and Reston are in London, and as we see Shang go about his tasks, we also see a man arrive at the airport, having come from Hong Kong with a newspaper clipping about Shang-Chi. We learn that Mandy’s gotten permission to start her school for the blind, and that her sister has started making modifications to Stormhaven, such as braille floor tiles. Mandy asks Shang-Chi to bring a student named Christine Markham back from London, and since Leiko wants him to get some of her things from her flat, and since Clive is driving in to visit his father, he agrees. We see that the visitor from Hong Kong looks up Leiko’s address, assuming he can stake it out to find Shang-Chi. He changes into a colourful martial arts outfit and reveals that his name is Shadow-Slasher. He sees Shang-Chi and Christine arrive at Leiko’s, and throws a knife at the door, carrying a message. Basically, he wants to fight Shang-Chi. Our hero places the blind girl in Leiko’s spot and crosses the street, looking for Shadow-Slasher. The villain attacks from above and they fight, with Shang-Chi trying to deescalate the situation through talk. Shadow-Slasher takes off, and Shang loses him in the streets. He goes to get Christine, figuring it would be safer to go to Reston’s father’s. As they cut through a park, they see that a historic battle reenactment is taking place, and this is where Shadow-Slasher strikes again. A cannon goes off near Shang’s head, deafening him, and he has to carry Christine so he can move quickly enough. He fights the Slasher again, and thinks he’s beaten him. They get to the Restons’, and Clive takes Christine inside while Shang goes back to look for his foe. He finds him in the street and they fight again. This time, Shadow-Slasher has a few weapons (no mention of how he got them through customs), but Shang keeps putting him down. The guy keeps getting up and fighting again, until his persistence pushes Shang-Chi to the point where he starts to lose his temper. They each jump at each other, kicking, and Shang’s foot connects with the other man’s throat. He goes down, but when Shang goes to look at him, he’s gone, with a manhole cover left open. Shang returns to the Restons’, and he and Clive leave with Christine. After they arrive at the castle, Shadow-Slasher comes out of the car’s trunk and comes at Shang-Chi with a tire iron. Shang-Chi grabs it from him and delivers a sharp blow to his head. The Slasher passes out, and Shang realizes he and Reston now have to take him back to London.

Issue ninety-nine opens with a scene where one man calls another to return to him and when he doesn’t, he shoots him, but the guy takes off. Shang-Chi is meditating on plants and weeds in the garden of Stormhaven, even though it has started raining. Sir Nayland Smith opens the door of the castle to Rufus ‘One Eyed’ Carter, who has been shot. He tells Smith that he’s there for help with a problem, and explains how a secret weapons shipment from Israel is arriving soon in Aberdeen, where it’s supposed to be secretly taken to England. He’s learned that Libyan terrorists want to blow up the weapons, taking out most of the city’s port with them. Carter was sent to Israel, where he met a Palestinian operative (it’s odd how Palestinians are portrayed as wearing monk-like robes), but that guy was killed, and Carter shot his assailant. The dying contact told him that the sabotage would come from within before he died. Carter returned to England and told his boss, Nicholas Blair, about the plot, but soon after, his first meeting with Shang-Chi happened, and he quit the CIA. Recently, Carter went back to talk to Blair about this plot, and learned that the CIA was going to use the opportunity to find a leak in their own operation, and that he didn’t care how many Scots died because of it. This takes us to that first page, where Blair shot him as he ran away. Now he tells Smith that he wants Shang-Chi to come with him to help with this situation; Shang agrees. We see that Blair expects Carter to interrupt his plans, but still intends to go ahead with them. Leiko talks to Smith about how she’s not actually worried about Shang going on a mission without her. She talks about how he’s seemed to find balance between his calm demeanor and his conflicted anger, and she recognizes that their relationship has become more mature. She talks about how she was acting younger than she is (which reconciles how she can date a man like Reston and then a guy like Shang, who is barely out of his teens). It feels like Moench is wrapping up his run here, and pointing out how both Leiko and Reston have grown through their relationships with Shang-Chi. Smiths shows her a newspaper headline about a woman killed in Whitechapel, and she seems freaked out. As they drive, Shang-Chi and Carter talk about how Carter is code-switching now that he doesn’t need to play the jive act he kept up before. Leiko relaxes in the bathtub but hears a radio report about how police in Whitechapel have now found two more bodies, and makes the connection between them and the Jack the Ripper murders (positing the Prince Edward theory). She gets out of the tub and gears up, telling Smith she’s going to London. Shang and Carter swim out to rendez-vous with the freighter carrying the weapons, and sneak aboard. Shortly after, a police boat pulls up and Blair and some other men hold the crew at gunpoint. Carter realizes that Blair is the ‘inside man’ in this operation, and he and Shang-Chi move in to stop them. There’s some fighting, and we see why Carter is a karate champion, and soon Blair is the only enemy left conscious or on the deck of the ship. Carter takes him out, but one of his men managed to get to the hold and light a fuse to blow up all the weapons. They realize there isn’t time to stop it, but Shang-Chi manages to get to the bridge and turn the ship away from the dock while Carter helps get everyone else into the water. When the ship explodes, it’s far enough away from land as to not cause any problems. Shang joins Carter on the docks, and the American talks about how much he used to trust Blair.
The Statement of Ownership for 1980 reports an average press run of 276 000 copies, with average newsstand returns of 143 000.
Issue one hundred is split across three chapters, happening at different times, the first of which is drawn and inked by Gene Day, with Mike Zeck handling the last two (with some inking assistance). The first chapter is written as an excerpt from Nayland Smith’s journal, when in May of 1932, he, Petrie, and Leeks, were in Egypt. Smith was in love with Fah Lo Suee, it seems, and she arranged to betray her father to him. Fu Manchu was in Cairo assembling the ingredients for his elixir vitae, and had tasked Fah Lo Suee with bringing three sarcophagi with her when she met up with her father. She proposes that Smith and his friends hide in them, but only Smith agreed. The others followed as he was taken into the desert, and into a recently unearthed tomb. Inside, Fu Manchu spoke to his Si-Fan about immortality, and his plans for mind control drugs that will allow him to create again the greatest killer mankind had known, but with his control. To make some kind of demonstration for the superstitious Si-Fan, he started dumping mummified corpses out of the sarcophagi. When he opened Smith’s, he was surprised to see him, but he was quickly captured. Fu decided to use his new drugs on Smith, but Fah Lo Suee stopped him, betraying her father. This is when Petrie and Leeks arrived and started shooting up the place. Fu fled, taking Fah with him. Smith was very upset, and wondered what could have happened between them. The second chapter shows a young Shang-Chi training with his teacher Ho, as they talk about how mankind is always growing. He sees Fah Lo Suee arrive with a lover, some white man named Phillip, and she talks to Shang about love and the wider world, two things he doesn’t know about. Later, Shang overhears Fah and Fu talking, and some thirty years after her betrayal, he decides it’s time to punish her. Later, she comes to say goodbye to Shang, and as he explores at night, he hears Fu yelling at her about how she’s ‘set madness lose in the world’. Weeks later, he discovers an old woman in the compound, who he later sees begging Fu Mancu for his elixir again. The next day, he sees Fah leaving, but doesn’t put it together that she was the old woman. The third chapter brings us to the present day (aka 1980), as Leiko walks London hoping the new Jack the Ripper killer will come after her. In Scotland, Shang-Chi learns of Leiko’s mission, and reads Smith’s journal. Smith and Leeks explain that Fu Manchu recreated the Ripper, and that Leiko knows about it. There’s a bit of a history lesson, bringing us up to speed on the Ripperology of the day, and Smith talks about Leiko’s need to assert herself as an independent agent again. While all this is happening, Leiko saves a woman from the Ripper, and then gets attacked by him herself. Shang insists that he and Reston head to London, and Melissa insists on joining them. Leiko gets cut badly, but saves the woman. The Ripper runs when the police arrive, and then someone calls Reston to tell him this while he and Shang-Chi are in the chopper en route to London. They go to see Leiko in the hospital, and Melissa offers to be the new decoy. Shang and Reston give her some space while she walks the streets, but when Shang hears her scream, he’s surprised to come across some Si-Fan Dacoits. He fights them, and then finds Melissa and Reston, who point him towards a particular building. Entering it, he realizes he’s found the Ripper’s lair, and is attacked. He fights him, and realizes it is Phillip, the man he saw as a child. This is when Fah Lo Suee shows up, claiming that Phillip has enough elixir to last him a thousand years, and this is when Shang realizes she was the old woman he met back home. Fah wants to try to cure Phillip of the medical curse that Fu put on him, out of love for the man he was, but Phillip lunges at her with his knife and she shoots him dead. Fah feels responsible for what happened to Phillip, but Shang points out had she not freed him years before, he would have killed for their father. Fah asks them to remember her to Nayland Smith and then disappears.

Clive and Melissa leave Leiko and Shang in the hospital, where Leiko is still recovering. Leiko and Shang discuss what happened last issue, and he leaves, but notices something odd about two men in hospital scrubs in the hallway. He follows them, and finds them trying to suffocate an old man in his hospital bed. He knocks them out, and learns that the old man is the one he met at Malay Jack’s who betrayed him, and whom he was rude to (there is no issue reference, and I’ve left too much time to be able to puzzle it out from my memory). The man wants Shang to help him stop the Yakuza who have taken over the bar and now peddle opium to women and children there. The man was going to stop them, but a sniper shot him, which is why he’s in the hospital now. Shang rejects the man once again, leaving him to contemplate suicide by unplugging the machines he’s attached to (although they aren’t breathing for him, so I’m not sure what that would do. Walking back to Leiko’s, Shang decides to go to Malay Jack’s. He finds a tattooed Yakuza boss who prepares to send a quartet of swordsmen to go kill the old man. Shang busts through the window and fights the boss, while the swordsmen flee. He chases them, crashing their car. He takes out one guy, and has to swim across the Thames to get the rest of them. He knocks out one more, and then another. The last one gets into the hospital, where Shang has to run up some stairs to head him off at the elevator. They fight in the hall, which the old man hears. He assumes that no one is coming to help him (although I don’t know what he interprets that noise to be). Leiko also hears this and figures she has to go help the old man. Shang’s fight takes a while. Leiko makes her way to the old man’s room (she can barely stand) and tries to convince him not to unplug the machine. He does it anyway, just as Shang takes the last guy out. He enters the old man’s room to find Leiko at the side of his bed. She quietly plugs the machine back in and tells Shang that he died naturally. Shang feels new resolve, as Mike Zeck’s epic run on this title comes to an end.
This volume ends with the inclusion of What If? #16, from 1979, which asks the question “What If Shang-Chi Master of Kung Fu Fought on the Side of Fu Manchu?” The Watcher introduces us to Shang-Chi, showing us how his father sent him to assassinate Dr. Petrie in the mainline Marvel Universe. He was confronted afterwards by Sir Denis Nayland Smith, and learned of his father’s evil, causing him to confront him and turn against him. The Watcher tells us that in this story, Nayland Smith arrived after Petrie’s death, and so Shang was not given any narrative counter to his father’s. He returns to his father and discusses how he feels about killing, but his father tells him that some killing is necessary, especially when faced with great evil, like that of Nayland Smith. We see two scenes play out at the same time. Nayland Smith talks to Black Jack Tarr and they agree it’s time to kill Fu Manchu, while Fu convinces his son that they need to end Imperialism and restore the world he once lived in. Shang is sent with some Si Fan to dig up the bodies of five of Fu’s best Dacoits, who were killed in London, while Black Jack goes to recruit Clive Reston and his girlfriend, Leiko Wu, to their cause. Shang and his men enter the cemetery, which Tarr learns about. While Shang watches the men dig, Fu tests his latest variant on his longevity serum, using it to revive a dead rat to life. Fu tells his pet (I can’t tell what animal it’s supposed to be) about his plans. Tarr, Reston, and Wu confront the Si Fan in the cemetery, and there’s a fight. Shang impresses Tarr with his skills, but the Si Fan escape with the bodies of the Dacoits. Tarr manages to get one prisoner. Fu injects the dead men while Nayland Smith uses truth serum to interrogate his prisoner (there’s a juxtaposition thing happening here). Shang insists on seeing his father, who has barred him from his lab, and once he forces entry, is dismayed to see what his father is doing. Nayland Smith learns that Fu plans on attacking Buckingham Palace. Shang is to be confined to Fu’s hideout, but he escapes. As Tarr and the others arrive at the Palace, the Dacoits show up riding big lizards and gassing the whole place. They enter the Palace, as do our heroes. Shang also arrives and breaks into the Palace. There’s a lot of fighting, and Shang ends up working with the people who have been his friends in the mainline universe. He confronts his father, who sits on the throne, and cuts ties with him. Afterwards, Nayland Smith offers him a job working for him, but Shang doesn’t trust him either and heads off to follow his own path, with The Watcher looking on.

With the long gap between when I started reading this book and when I finally sat down to write this column, I’ve forgotten a lot of what I wanted to say about it. Flipping back through it, I remember these stories well, but have lost some of the more subtle things I noticed about character development.

I did notice that Moench took some new directions with this book to lean into Zeck’s strengths, and to move away from the kind of stories that worked best for Paul Gulacy. We see Moench return to familiar foes, such as Brynocki, Fah Lo Suee, and finally Fu Manchu himself, but the stories are a little more muscular, with lots of opportunities for Zeck to show Shang Chi’s martial prowess. The villain Zaran, who has gone on to exist in the Marvel Universe outside of this property, is introduced here too, and he is a classic Zeck villain. I always enjoyed his appearances in Captain America, so I liked seeing his earlier appearances here too.

After Fu Manchu was dispatched yet again, this book did feel a little aimless, as the transition away from MI-6 made things a little uncertain for Shang and his friends. I like how his relationship with Leiko was portrayed in a serious, mature manner that gave both characters space to grow.

The art in this book is stupendous. Zeck was so good so early, and would go on from here to some very memorable work on Captain America, Secret Wars, and The Punisher, as well as becoming a go-to cover artist for years. Gene Day’s inks worked well over Zeck’s pencils, and I’m looking forward to seeing what Day would do on his own for the rest of this series.

I’m glad that I finally finished this book, and am looking forward to reading the rest of the series, which I tracked down in individual issues long before I bought these omnibuses. Let’s see if I can get through it in a reasonable amount of time…

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Retro Omnibus Review: Master of Kung Fu Vol. 3 by Moench, Zeck, Day and others

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