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Comics:Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu Vol 1 1

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"Death Masque!"
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—

Image:Quote1.png My entire life has been one mammoth game of grandiose design. Recently, I have been involved in a more minor game. My opponent in this game has been Shang-Chi ... my son. Image:Quote2.png
-- Fu Manchu

Appearing in "Death Masque!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • None

Villains:

Other Characters:

  • Unknown

Locations:

  • New York

Synopsis for "Death Masque!"

  • Part 1: Death Masque!

Shang-Chi is wandering the streets of New York on a foggy evening when he finds an effigy hanging from a streetlamp at the corner of Madison Avenue and 57th Street. When he gets closer, he sees that it wears his own outfit. A knife flies out of the darkness, barely missing him, and embeds itself in a window frame. Shang-Chi notices a paper wound around the knife's hilt and briefly wonders why someone would bother sending a written message along with the message implicit in the knife itself. Then he chases the robed figure who threw the knife. In an alleyway, a second robed figure ambushes him from above. The two remove their robes, revealing themselves as Si-Fan assassins. After a brief fight, the two kill themselves with poison capsules.

Shang-Chi returns to the effigy and cuts it down. The message on the knife is a birthday greeting from his father, Fu Manchu.

first appearance of Ducharme
In Fu's New York headquarters, Ducharme announces a servant, who reports that the two assassins have failed. Fu goes into another room, where five robed figures sit at a table with seven chairs. He calls in two new figures to replace the fallen assassins.
  • Part 2: The Enemy Within!
the Si-Fan attack!
On his way to confront Fu Manchu, Shang-Chi is dragged down a manhole by another Si-Fan assassin. After a long, brutal battle in the sewers, the man takes poison. An oriental woman, whom Shang-Chi had earlier dismissed as a prostitute, helps him out of the manhole. Another assassin appears and throws a shuriken, which hits the woman in the leg; this one also takes poison after a brief fight. Shang-Chi takes the woman to her apartment. After she makes him comfortable, she tries to garrote him, but he nearly strangles her with her own hair. She dives out the window to her death. A second effigy drops down in front of the window with a second message.
  • Part 3: The Council of 7

Shang-Chi kicks down the front door of Fu Manchu's headquarters. Fu learns that another assassin has failed, so he reconvenes his Council of Seven. Five members file in. A servant fetches the other two from the hall. Fu addresses the group and berates them for failing to kill Shang-Chi. When he pounds the table with his fist, one of the robed figures slumps forward. A servant lifts its hood and reveals a third effigy of Shang-Chi. Shang-Chi removes his robe, briefly explains that he ambushed two council members and substituted himself and the effigy for them, and launches himself at the remaining five.

the tenth and last assassin goes down
Shang-Chi puts his training to the ultimate test. He is the equal of any one of the Si-Fan's best assassins. Now he faces five of them at once. A long, grueling fight ends with the defeat of all five. He hurries to catch Fu but finds Ducharme instead. She says, "Your father ... has just left, Shang-Chi ... perhaps you may still ... catch him ...," and appears to be under the influence of opium. Fu has indeed just left, by helicopter, on his way to "the heart of America."

Appearing in "Frozen Past, Shattered Memories"

Featured Characters:

  • Shang-Chi

Supporting Characters:

  • None

Villains:

  • Fu Manchu
  • three cat burglars, one named Morton

Other Characters:

  • unnamed museum guard

Locations:

  • Miami

Items:

  • Buddha statue

Synopsis for "Frozen Past, Shattered Memories"

an example of early Russell
Shang-Chi sees a familiar image in a Miami newspaper: a Buddha figure, now on display in a museum. Shang-Chi goes to the museum and overhears three thieves planning to steal it. They say that a Far Eastern sect, its original owners, plans to sell its temple for $300,000 to get it back— they conclude that they can ask the museum for the same amount in ransom. Shang-Chi reports the thieves to a guard, who dismisses him as a hippie. He waits until the thieves break in, follows them, and easily foils the robbery. He looks for the Buddha, but Fu Manchu has stolen it for himself.

Appearing in "The Coming of the Yellow Claw!"

  • Appearances not yet listed

Synopsis for "The Coming of the Yellow Claw!"

reprints The Yellow Claw #1 (October 1956)

Appearing in "Reflections in a Rippled Pool"

Featured Characters:

  • Shang-Chi

Supporting Characters:

  • None

Villains:

  • three unnamed hitmen

Other Characters:

  • unnamed landlord
  • his wife

Locations:

  • Miami

Synopsis for "Reflections in a Rippled Pool"

to a kung fu master, everything is a weapon
Shang-Chi tries to find an inexpensive place to stay in Miami. The proprietor of a skid row flophouse turns him down because he is an oriental. Back on the street, Shang-Chi meets a blind beggar, who suddenly falls to the ground, shot. A rooftop assassin accidentally hit him instead of Shang-Chi but takes aim again. Shang-Chi races to the building and up the stairs, pursued by two more hitmen. Instead of going directly to the roof, he climbs from a top-floor window. While the three hitmen wonder how they lost him, he attacks. Two fall quickly; the third dives to the neighboring roof and through a skylight, with Shang-Chi on his heels. The hitman takes a hostage: the same landlord who turned Shang-Chi away moments ago. Shang-Chi literally pulls the rug out from under the man. He expects no thanks, and he gets none. He only says, "My father ... does not wish me to settle into a lodging."



Notes


Trivia

  • This issue includes a two-page feature by Frank McLaughlin entitled "Shaolin Temple Boxing."


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See Also


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Links and References

  • None.
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