Back in the seventies a craze suddenly erupted around a form of martial arts emanating from Hong Kong movies known as Kung fu. There were films with Bruce Lee none of which I have seen to this day and a TV series starring David Carradine which had the imaginative name of Kung fu. There was even a song Kung fu Fighting by Carl Douglas that became a UK number one hit in 1974.
It was inevitable that the comics industry would get in on the act and Marvel certainly did starting with The Hands of Shang-Chi Master of Kung Fu which ran for 125 issues from 1974 to 1983. Along the way Kung fu even got a black & white magazine for the more mature market which was one of Marvels more succesful outings in that format running for some 33 issues.
And so to to day Panini releases a compendium of stories featuring Shang-Chi to act as a tie in to the forthcoming movie. Now I was never a fan of this genre and it was only because I wanted soemthing to read that I took a chance on this Marvel Select edition.
The first story is taken from Heroes For Hire #18/19 another title I've never picked up though this was different to the old comic I was "more familiar" with. The verdict? Frankly the story and art were dreadful. I reminded me of the bad days of the nineties and was not a good start.
However persevering there was some respite in the tie in to Spider-Island which I keep meaning to pick up a trade of. Now this three-part story was actually quite good and did encourage me to want to grab a copy of the full saga.
Sadly the remainder of the collection with Avengers #11 and a Shang-Chi "one shot" were frankly boring to tedious and with this I will revert to avoiding Kung fu stories again. I certainly won't be bothering with the film.
Rating: 2 Stars (Hardcore martial arts fans only)
Liked the song though so here it is....
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