Diabolical plans - the evil cad!
This issue came out in December 1979, just as the `70s was ending. Maybe the martial arts craze was very much a thing of that time, but after reading this it seems a pity this volume didn`t continue much longer...
Superheroes are cool but occasionally I like to try something different. Reading this I felt a pang of nostalgia for adventure stories, like pulp fiction of the `30s and rousing Boy`s Own adventure yarns. I always felt Master of Kung-Fu was like that, and this issue is typical of such. A band of stiff-upper-lipped British types against a dreaded menace from the mysterious Orient - marvelous!
Another great thing about this series was the excellent artwork, inked mostly by the late, great Gene Day. This story was written by Doug Moench, who I used to enjoy on Werewolf by Night.
This issue is the first part of a storyline featuring, Shang-Chi`s infamous father, the diabolical Doctor Fu Manchu (although, I just discovered Marvel no longer has the rights to use that name) and his evil - cackle, cackle - plan to create an army consisting of some of history`s deadliest assassin cults. Thugee, Si Fan, Hashishan, they`re all here.
Fu Manchu`s opium induced ramblings, and Shang-Chi`s Zen philosophies are sometimes a bit hard to get your head around - I couldn`t understand what the bloody hell he was on about, to be honest - and the story jumps around from scene to scene in sudden fashion, but have a look at the brief page of combat (very Mortal Kombatesque) for an idea of some of the fun to come...
HIII-YYAAA!