Zheng Shang-Chi (Earth-616)

My father has often said to me: 'A man may not be too careful in his choice of enemies, for once he has chosen... he has forfeited a friend.' These are words my father has lived by, for he is Fu Manchu, and his life is his word.

—Shang-Chi^[src]

History

Shang was raised to become a deadly assassin by his father, the immortal crimelord and sorcerer Fu Manchu. Feeling lessons from various masters were not enough, the boy was also subjected to alchemy and a virtual reality feed of techniques and styles while he slept. However, Shang Chi became aware of his father's evil and faked his death after his first assignment^[1]. He then began to attack various elements of his father's criminal empire and allied himself with his father's enemy, Denis Nayland Smith^[2]. In retaliation, Fu Manchu sent a number of assassins to kill him.

File:Shang-Chi 005.JPG

His travels led to him meeting a number of other martial artists and superheroes around the world. During which he met his rival, Cat (Shen Kuei). He teamed up with Iron Fist, Jack of Hearts and White Tiger to take down the Corporation^[3].

Heroes for Hire

Civil War

World War Hulk

Secret Avengers

Fear Itself

Spider-Island: Deadly Hands of Kung Fu

Before the events of Spider-Island, the new Madame Web, Julia Carpenter asked Shang-Chi to train Spider-Man in martial arts to compensate for the loss of his spider-sense. He donned special magnetic gloves and shoes during their sparring sessions to help Spider-Man develop a unique fighting style that complemented his spider powers.

With ordinary New Yorkers developing the same powers as himself, Spider-Man is forced to capitalize on Shang-Chi's training in several situations. When the wall-crawler's spider-sense returned, it worked in harmony with the techniques Shang taught him, turning the tide in a decisive battle against Tarantula.

As the events of Spider-Island continued to unfold, Shang-Chi became infected by the spider plague. Developing the same set of powers as Spider-Man, Shang fought alongside other heroes in defending New York against the threat of spider-powered criminals.

During this time, he had nightmares involving the Immortal Weapons and saw himself as a spider attacking innocent people in visions. When he speaks with Madame Web, she left him only with a cryptic fortune. After joining Iron Fist in combat, the two discovered that they had been sharing the same nightmares. Their meeting is cut short as the Bride of Nine Spiders joined the fray and asked Danny to speak with her on a rooftop in private. Sensing something was wrong, Shang followed the two and witnessed the Bride attack and incapacitate Iron Fist. Jumping to his friend's defense, Shang utilized his newly acquired spider powers to easily pin down the Bride, but is caught off-guard and knocked out by his assailant's super natural fighting technique.

The Web of Deceit

Awakening later on at his apartment and aided by Silver Sable, Shang-Chi concluded that the Bride of Nine Spiders was the source of his nightmares. He identified a street sign in one of his dreams and tracks the Bride to an abandoned house in Hamilton Heights. The house had adverse effects on Shang's senses, weakening his reflexes despite his acquired spider powers. After overcoming several hallucinations and physical traps, he was able to find the Bride and the other Immortal Weapons whom she cocooned in webbing. While Shang was able to hold his own against the Bride despite his affliction, he took the opportunity to free Iron Fist and increase their odds.

Badly weakened due to being incapacitated, Danny is nevertheless able to muster enough chi energy to strike the Bride with his signature punch, setting her up to receive a vicious knock-out kick from Shang. As Danny attempted to heal the Bride of Nine Spiders, Shang-Chi succumbs to the spider plague and passes out. Simultaneously, Ai Apaec descends from the ceiling and reveals himself as the true mastermind behind the kidnapping of the Immortal Weapons. The South American chimera god explains that he has been working with the Queen, and the Bride was offered as payment for his services. As Iron Fist readied himself to face this threat alone, Shang-Chi recovered behind him ready to lend his deadly hands of Kung Fu - all six of them, thanks to his spider transformation.

Spider-Island

Madame Web tells Shang-Chi that people with spider powers are taking over Manhattan. Next, He sees Iron Fist fighting the Spider-Man imposters and Spider-Man nearby, Shang-Chi arrives to help them. Bride of Nine Spiders suddenly starts attacking and kidnapping her teammates in the Immortal Weapons. When Shang-Chi is trying to figure out what his recurring dream means, he learns from Silver Sable that she has found possible locations in Manhattan for Bride of Nine Spider's lair. Although Shang-Chi defeats Bride of Nine Spiders and frees Iron Fist, he discovers that the person who was responsible is the demon Ai Apaec who wants to feed off the Immortal Weapons. As Shang-Chi confronts Ai Apeac, Iron Fist desperately rushes to free the other Immortal Weapons. Shang-Chi mutates into a spider during the battle, but Iron Fist uses his Chi force to cure Shang-Chi, leaving Iron Fist weakened. After Iron Fist and the rest of the Immortal Weapons are evacuated, Shang-Chi collapses the hide-out on top of Ai Apaec leaving him trapped for the Avengers to imprison him once more.

Joining the Avengers

Following the events of Avengers vs X-Men, Captain America and Iron Man seek to make a new, bigger, stronger Avenger's roster. Shang-Chi was among the fist to be chosen for this new initiative. He gladly accepted an offer from Steve Rogers and saw it as an opportunity to further challenge himself. Although Stark acknowledged the Master of Kung-Fu as an astonishing hand-to-hand combatant, he was keen to take advantage of Shang's mastery of traditional weaponry and providing him with personalized equipment.

The Garden

During a mission to Mars, several core members of the Avengers are captured by The Garden, leaving Captain America to assemble the rest of the team to mount a counterattack. Shang was among the many heroes who join a second assault on Mars, as part of a rescue effort to retrieve their companions. During the battle, he faced off against the world-razing robot Aleph and critically damages its left leg. Although the damage was eventually self-repaired, Aleph is shortly destroyed by Captain Universe when the robot refused to stand down. The Avengers eventually triumph over The Garden and allow them to continue their purpose on Mars, granted they leave Earth alone for good.

A short while later, Shang was asked by Rogers and Stark to interview the new Captain Universe and find out what the purpose of her presence was. Shang felt it more appropriate to speak with the Uni-Power's host, Tamara Devoux, and 'lured' her out with pie. Using meditative techniques, he helped piece together Tamara's traumatizing past. It was revealed afterwards that the Uni-Power manifested at this time because of the Earth's pivotal role in events to come, and it chose Tamara as a host because she was dying, much like the universe itself.

Later on, Shang and a team of Avengers went to a casino in Macau to investigate A.I.M. activities. While following his own leads, Shang was attacked by ninjas lead by a mysterious armored figure. After utilizing a pair of electrified nunchacku provided by Stark, Shang defeated their leader and took his helmet as a souvenir. He reveals to his teammates that A.I.M. was bidding to hire mercenaries, and that the insidious organization was preparing for a large scale conflict. He is next seen with the rest of the Avengers in combat at an Origin Bomb site which had gone active.

Infinity

Shang-Chi was with the Avengers when they joined the Galactic Council to fight against the Builders and their crusade against all life in the universe. When several allies were captured by the enemy, Shang formed a rescue team with Black Widow, Spider-Woman and Manifold. Wielding a pair of energy projecting gauntlets, Shang's timely intervention prevented his friends from being vaporized by an Aleph.

After the Builders were defeated by the alliance forces, the Avengers returned to Earth with their new Galactic Council allies to face off against an even bigger threat back home - an untimely assault by Thanos. Shang was sent along with Black Widow and Manifold the infiltrate the Peak and shut down Thanos' first line of defense. However, the team was intercepted by the Black Dwarf and a complement of guards. As Manifold returned to grab reinforcements, Shang and Natasha managed to defeat the entire security force, save the general who proved to be too much for even the Master of Kung Fu. The combined might of Gladiator, Ronan and other Council members eventually made short work of the Black Dwarf and allowed Shang and the infiltration team to complete their mission.

Avengers World

With the threat of both the Builders and Thanos thwarted, Shang-Chi was sent to Madripoor along with Wolverine, Falcon and Black Widow to deal with the civil unrest. During the mission, Shang stumbled upon a group of Hand ninjas at a temple, where the Gorgon was being inaugurated as their new leader.

Attributes

Power Grid^[4]

Powers

Chi Augmentation: Through concentration, he can harness his mystical chi to augment his physical and mental capabilities to superhuman levels.

Chi Manipulation: Shang Chi, by his training has incredible control of his chi and body. His mastery of his chi allows for him to surpass physical limitations. Such examples of his chi mastery are:

Meditation: master of meditation and relaxation techniques, enter trance like state to ignore pain, and slow heart rate down. Complete control his over emotions and thoughts.
Precognition: He can have some precognitive visions, and see glimpses of future events.
Heightened Awareness: Demonstrated the ability to detect a threat to his well-being in his immediate vicinity before they commit the action.
Telepathic Tracking: Enhanced psionic senses enable him to detect and track other sentient beings by their unique psionic emanations (thought patterns contained in the psionic portion of the spectrum), having been able to detect Jean Grey hidden by her psychic powers.
Environmental Adaptation: His entire body is oriented to combat, enabling him to adapt to any environment with minimal exposure. Shang was able to stand shirtless in –20° weather without feeling any physical discomfort.
Empathy: The ability to sense the emotions/feelings of people and animals, can broadcast his own feelings in order to influence other people and/or animals emotions psionically.
Enhanced Speed & Reflexes: His reflexes are so efficient that he can dodge and deflect point blank gun fire, dodge bullets from machine guns and sniper rifles.
Enhanced Durability: Generate a chi-based "aura" radiating from his body to protect himself from energy based attacks to a varied degree, and make himself more resilient against physical damage; such as withstanding a punch from Hiroim the Shamed.
Enhanced Healing: If he sustains injury or illness, he can focus his chi for the purposes of healing his injuries.

Template:New Power Grid

Abilities

Master Martial Artist: Shang Chi is one of the greatest martial artists on Earth, having been trained possibly since birth to become the ultimate warrior. Shang Chi is skilled in various martial arts with a particular specialization in the Chinese martial arts. He has been shown defeating multiple highly skilled opponents simultaneously as well as super humans. His great strength and chi (qi) allows him to strike with inhuman force enabling him to break through barriers such as brick, concrete and iron, withstand physical impacts almost to a superhuman degree, and ease all forms of pain and discomfort. Shang has stalemated Iron Fist in single combat, with the two martial artists portrayed as equals.

Skilled Gymnast: He has been shown to be very well versed in gymnastics.

Peak Physical Conditioning: Shang has intensively trained his body to possess the highest level of strength, speed, stamina and endurance that a human can have without artificial enhancements. His notable include the speed and stamina to endure even the most rigorous physical training exercises, reacting fast enough to dodge gunfire and even catch weapons hurled by enemies at him and throw them right back at them.

Skilled Marksman: Shang is a master marksman able to throw ranged weapons such as shuriken (throwing stars) with pin-point accuracy.

Weapons Proficiency: Shang is highly skilled with all martial arts weaponry such as the Chinese double edged sword (jian), butterfly swords, oxtail swords, staves, and both single and double nunchaku. He has often made use of make-shift weapons as well, using metal pipes and even a tree trunk.

Nervous System Control: Shang can control his nervous system enabling him to deaden his body to physical pain, resist the effects of drugs or poisons, limit the spread of toxins in his blood stream, and even slow down his bleeding rate.

Pressure point locator: He can Locate different pressure points on a person's body; incapacitate, paralyze, severely injure, or kill a person.

Espionage: While not focused upon as much in recent appearances, Shang has undergone training during his time with MI-6 and is familiar with many espionage tactics and methodologies.

Philosopher: Shang Chi has an extensive knowledge of Oriental philosophy.

Patient Fisher: Shang Chi is a highly skilled fisherman.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Metal bracelets.

Weapons

He currently wields a dual pair of metallic nunchakus that can discharge electricity with the effect of a Taser when colliding against or person or object when swung with enough force.

-Formerly- Occasional use of swords, shuriken, staff, and nunchaku.

Trivia

Although Shang-Chi was a uniquely Marvel Comics creation, many of his supporting cast members including Fu Manchu, Fah Lo Suee and Sir Denis Nayland Smith, were actually the creation of early 20th century pulp novelist Sax Rohmer. Fu Manchu and Denis Nayland Smith made their literary debuts in the 1916 novel, The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu.

Artist Mike Cusanelli sculpted a Shang-Chi bust for Art Asylum.

References

↑ Marvel Special Edition #15
↑ Master of Kung Fu #18
↑ Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #31
↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 10

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[Marvel_Special_Edition_#15-1] Marvel Special Edition #15

[Master_of_Kung_Fu_#18-2] Master of Kung Fu #18

[Deadly_Hands_of_Kung_Fu_#31-3] Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #31

[4] Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 10

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