Avengers: Doomsday Spotlights, Part 21 – Shang-Chi

Anyone looking at the hotel valet, Shaun, wouldn’t assume he was secretly one of the greatest fighters in the entire MCU. It wasn’t until that fateful bus fight that the cat got let out of the bag, including why he had to hide such extraordinary talents. It all started when criminals with a vendetta against Shang-Chi’s father, Wenwu, killed his mother. After that, Wenwu reassembled his old criminal empire, the Ten Rings, and relentlessly trained Shang-Chi into a killing machine. Horrified and traumatized, Shang-Chi would try to escape that life until Wenwu reunited him and his sister with news that he could resurrect their mother. However, after journeying to their mother’s mystical village, they discovered that Wenwu’s plan was influenced by a deception from a cataclysmic entity known as the Dweller in Darkness. Harnessing the power of his father’s artifacts—the real Ten Rings—and the assistance of their village’s dragon, Shang-Chi slew the creature and attracted the attention of a few of the Avengers. 

Origins

In some ways, Shang-Chi’s origin was pretty similar to the MCU film, at least regarding his parents. In this case, his father, Zheng Zu (a powerful sorcerer and skilled martial artist who extended his life with magic), began an organization known as the Five Weapons Society (based on the realm of Ta-Lo’s Five Sets of Heavenly Weapons) that eventually grew into a massive criminal empire over the centuries. He would also meet Shang-Chi’s mother, Jiang Li, in Ta Lo after attempting to invade it to steal the Heavenly Weapons, but was betrayed and left for dead by the people he hired for the job. Jiang Li would save his life, run away with him, and start a family with him. This would’ve set Zu on a more noble path if an attempt on his life didn’t redirect him back on the path of evil. After attempting to reopen the portal to Ta Lo, a fight broke out between Zu and his wife and father-in-law, but the plan quickly backfired, leaving Jiang stranded in the Negative Zone. 

Without the loving care of his mother, Shang-Chi would be left at the mercy of his cold-hearted father. Yet, Shang-Chi never saw it like that. Even after witnessing the tragedy of the Ta Lo portal and many other horrible things Zu had done since, he still believed that his father was a good and honorable man, and that everything he’s done was in the service of good. Therefore, he fully submitted himself to Zu’s brutal and very extensive training in martial arts, combat tactics, philosophy, history, languages, and espionage. By the time he turned 19, he had been honed into the perfect living weapon, so Zu sent him out on his first mission: kill an old enemy of his. Still unaware of what was really going on, Shang-Chi went and killed his target, but that got him in trouble with British secret agent Smith. 

However, instead of immediately arresting him, Smith chose a different direction: he told Shang-Chi the truth about everything. His dad led a criminal empire; he committed countless atrocities, and the man he was sent to kill wasn’t even what would be considered an enemy. One could only imagine the level of betrayal and heartbreak Shang-Chi felt in that moment. His own father, the man he loved and served loyally for years, was not the noble hero he believed him to be, but a monster. But despite the weight of this devastating truth, Shang-Chi agreed to help Smith take down his father. Eventually, he presumably shot and killed Zu and attempted to retire, but then stepped back into action after discovering that he was alive. Unlike the last time, though, Shang-Chi beat Zu within an inch of his life, which scared him enough to try and retire again. But of course, Shang-Chi would still be dragged into more conflicts, eventually teaming up with many different superheroes and even joining the Heroes for Hire for a time. 

Powers, Abilities, and Weaknesses

Surprisingly, Shang-Chi actually does possess some powers (more on that later), but for the most part, he doesn’t need them. That’s because he himself is a power. As previously mentioned, Shang-Chi had been relentlessly and ruthlessly trained by his father since childhood. By the time he went on his first mission, he had already become a master in countless forms of martial arts. Not only can he fight extraordinarily well, but he can also read and adapt to opponents on the spot, as well as disarm or disable them within seconds. Further, the training also elevated his body to peak human conditioning. While heroes such as Captain America, Winter Soldier, Red Guardian, or even U.S. Agent have undergone similar conditioning, what separates them from Shang-Chi is that they all received enhancements or forced advancements to varying degrees. Shang-Chi, on the other hand, naturally grew to the point where he can tolerate extreme amounts of pain, perform insane acrobatic feats, and develop sharp reflexes. Finally, while he does prefer to fight hand-to-hand most of the time, it doesn’t mean he isn’t insanely skilled with weapons. Marvel.com even states that his “ability with swords, staves, nunchaku, and shuriken is also unmatched,” which is pretty terrifying when you consider how extremely formidable he is without them. Shang-Chi isn’t just a really good fighter; he’s a master of armed and unarmed combat, a tactical genius on the battlefield, and has earned the respect of many heroes and villains. 

But despite not needing extra abilities, having them in your arsenal couldn’t hurt either. In this case, one of Shang-Chi’s most underrated abilities is his chi (or life energy) manipulation. While it doesn’t grant him any crazy abilities like unlimited strength or phasing through walls, channeling his chi can improve his condition and fighting in multiple ways. For instance, he can use it to heal faster than the average human, increase the power of his hits, enhance his endurance, or overall improve his physical performance. While this doesn’t automatically mean he can become instantly indestructible or powerful, small factors like this can make all the difference in a fight. Speaking of which, another underrated ability from chi manipulation is that it helps him focus and regulate his emotions. This may not seem like a huge deal, but in a fight with many things happening at once, where you can be easily overwhelmed with anger or anxiety, it becomes a lot more significant. But by channeling the force of his chi, Shang-Chi can hone his focus and achieve enough calm to calculate his next move and make it through the fight.  In fact, marvel.com also states that whenever Shang-Chi achieves this level of peace, he can dodge something as fast as bullets with ease. Shang-Chi is already classified as a living weapon, but thanks to his chi manipulation, that weapon is now sharpened to a finer point. 

However, even ordinary weapons have caveats, and Shang-Chi is no exception. Despite his amazing fighting skills and even with his chi-enhanced abilities, Shang-Chi is still 100% human. Of course, this means that almost anything can hurt or kill him. He’s not immune to bullets, knives, or even damage from opponents’ punches. And since his preferred fighting style is unarmed, close-range combat, that presents its own set of problems. Long-range attacks, energy beams, and even rapid-fire guns can pin him down if he isn’t careful. Further, while he has been known to defeat opponents who outmatch him in strength and build, they can still easily crush him if Shang-Chi’s focus slips even for a moment. But one of his greatest weaknesses has to be his emotions, because there have been times when he has lost control, and it has affected him in many ways. For instance, when he fought his father after discovering he was still alive, he snapped and beat the man within an inch of his life, which drove him to retire into a life of peace. At another time, during the events of “World War Hulk,” Shang-Chi found out one of his associates betrayed another of their group to Hulk’s Warbound, so he brutally killed him in response, once again seriously affecting his mental state. Basically, if Shang-Chi doesn’t handle his emotions, he risks committing regrettable actions or even making a decision that could cost him the whole battle. But this only speaks to how much strength and will Shang-Chi has, given his reputation. 

Greatest Feats

In fact, these qualities would truly shine during the events of the “Shadowland” comics in 2010. In this story, Daredevil is possessed and heavily influenced by the demonic entity known as The Beast, which the ancient ninja organization—The Hand—worships. Therefore, devastated at how bad things have escalated in Hell’s Kitchen and operating under askewed judgment, he takes over the Hand and turns Hell’s Kitchen into its own militant state. It got so bad that even Kingpin went to a bunch of street-level heroes for help: Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Colleen Wing, and Misty Knight; with later assistance from Punisher, Spider-Man, Elektra, and a Kingpin-controlled Ghost Rider. However, things soon get out of hand. Daredevil quickly defeats him and Iron Fist, and the rest of them would’ve been toast if Punisher didn’t intervene. Regardless, this does not keep the Master of Kung-Fu down. Shang-Chi is well-known for his feats in single combat, but helps fight a whole army of mystical ninjas while everyone else tries to work through to Daredevil. Yet somehow, things keep getting worse, as Spider-Man villain  Mr. Negative attempts to seize control of the chaos to expand his territory. Spider-Man and Shang-Chi briefly break away from the others to stop him, but Negative corrupts Shang-Chi with his powers. Thanks to his teaching and discipline, Shang-Chi held back against the corruption for a while, but after finally succumbing to it, Spider-Man had to intervene when Shang-Chi almost killed the villain. Thankfully, Shang-Chi came back to his senses (once again, thanks to his discipline) and rejoined the fight against Daredevil, and the heroes were able to drive the Beast out and restore their friend. Overall, what makes this whole event truly iconic for Shang-Chi isn’t that he played a huge role in defeating Daredevil or performed some impossible feat. Instead, it served as a mental, emotional, and even spiritual trial: he had to fight a friend, battle his own corruption, and do it all under mounting pressure from the Hand’s forces. It’s easy to fight a supervillain or stop a few bank robbers, but if an event of this scale doesn’t whip a hero into shape, then I don’t know what would. 

Speaking of whipping a hero into shape, though, this perfectly transitions into another admirable trait of Shang-Chi’s character. Roughly a year after this event, Spider-Man came to Shang-Chi for help with a particular, and very important, problem: he needed to learn a new fighting style. Why is this so important? Because, for a while now, Spider-Man had lost his spider sense during the events of “Grim Hunt,” where Kraven the Hunter’s family hunted and killed Spidey; then he was eventually brought back to life, but at the cost of losing his spider sense. After that, he realized how much he relied on it, as he kept getting repeatedly beaten by villains and even regular people. Therefore, to make up for this glaring weakness, he went to the greatest martial artist in the world to develop a new style. Shang-Chi agrees to help, but he is anything but easy with his new student, training him the same way that he was. While sparring, Shang-Chi constantly redirects or blocks predictable moves and, despite Peter’s super strength and other enhancements, absolutely destroys him. But over time, Shang-Chi taught Peter to read opponents’ intentions and body language rather than react to them. Further, he incorporated Peter’s spider powers (such as sticking to walls, super-strength, etc.) with different parts of various martial arts, combining them into a style known as The Way of the Spider. This is a truly amazing moment because he didn’t just improve a fighting technique; he created a whole new one, especially for a super-powered individual. Also, despite Spider-Man being physically stronger and able to withstand ridiculous amounts of punishment, Shang-Chi still bested him multiple times during training. Finally, even after Spidey eventually gets his spider sense back, he doesn’t go back to relying on it. Instead, he still used The Way of the Spider long afterwards, and it has drastically improved his battles ever since. In a way, Spider-Man now carries on a piece of Shang-Chi’s legacy as an amazing teacher and martial arts master. 

However, this last feat forces Shang-Chi to ascend above a fighter or a teacher. He becomes a leader, but unfortunately for him, not in the way he expected or wanted. This all takes place during the 2020 Shang-Chi mini-series, where Shang-Chi’s father has died (for real this time), leaving the Five Weapons Society without a leader. Therefore, Shang-Chi’s siblings and their factions begin to fight over who should fill the power vacuum. With some encouragement from the spirit of his uncle, Shang-Chi reluctantly agrees to take his own place as the leader. However, there was one last obstacle in the way: his younger sister, with a horde of Jianshi (basically vampire zombies) at her command. Recognizing that he couldn’t defeat her alone, he managed to convince his other siblings to team up with him and stop her. The battle was hard-fought, but the conclusion was most surprising: they discovered that their father’s spirit was active, manipulating Shang-Chi’s sister into hating him and causing a conflict. The revelation completely shattered her worldview, but what truly affected her was when Shang-Chi also protected her from a last-minute and (what would’ve been) lethal shot. In a raw, mixed sense of emotions, she retreated, and Shang-Chi took over the Five Weapons, planning to transform them into a force of good for the world. Shang-Chi spent his whole life running away from his past and distancing himself from his father’s legacy, but he was still willing to face it again for the sole purpose of the greater good. Not only that, but he fought or connected with siblings he had left behind or didn’t wish to encounter. It’s already hard fighting a personal enemy, but who could fight family? Especially family who have been corrupted by the one person who’s supposed to take care of them? Yet Shang-Chi stood tall and rose above that, saving everyone from the Five Weapons to his own family. 

Conclusion

In my opinion, this is the first time in a while since writing this series that the MCU iteration of a character closely matches its comic inspiration. Watching Simu Liu’s portrayal of the man who ran away from a hard life, fights with brutal savagery while also staying true to his heart, and sacrifices his own fears and life for others is very compelling and inspiring. But now, despite never finding out who or what the Ten Rings were broadcasting to, I can’t wait to see what role they’ll play in the lore and the overall “Avengers: Doomsday” event. Most importantly, though, how will Shang-Chi (with the rings or not) stand up against one of the most powerful villains in the MCU?