Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1976-08-01 00:04:17 |
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Master of Kung Fu #44-45
Issue(s): Master of Kung Fu #44, Master of Kung Fu #45
Cover Date: Sep-Oct 76
Title: "Golden daggers, a death run" / "Shang Chi: The death seed"
Credits:
Doug Moench - Writer
Paul Gulacy - Penciler
Jack Abel / Pablo Marcos - Inker
Review/plot:
These issues are the beginning of a story dealing with the return of Fu Manchu, who has been out of the picture for a while. The return of Fu Manchu ensures that Shang Chi will stay with the British agents who he had otherwise become disillusioned with recently, so bringing him back makes sense although it would have been interesting to see what Shang-Chi would have done if his father and sister had not returned so soon.
This issue goes into the backstory of Ducharme - a character i am not familiar with but i feel like i'm supposed to be, possibly because she has only appeared in Sax Rohmer's books to this point. After hearing her story (she's been a double agent for forty years, kept alive by Fu Manchu's longevity formula), Shang-Chi, Leiko, and Reston fight their way to the Golden Daggers (The true name of the group that had been using the Oriental Expeditors warehouse as a front), only to find that it was controlled not by Fu Manchu, as they suspected, but by Shang-Chi's sister Fah Lo Suee. Rejecting her offer to form an alliance against Fu Manchu, the MI-6 agents attack her.
Reston is captured by Fah Lo Suee and it is revealed that one of her agents, a man named Tarrant, was actually Griswold, the Swiss agent.
Petrie attempts to kill Smith and is outed as the MI-6 traitor.
Meanwhile Fu Manchu's men retrieve a giant oyster from the bottom of the sea.
Great Kung-Fu/British Spy adventures as always, although my inability to remember names is a real deficit when trying to follow all these double-agents and such.
Quality Rating: B-
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: Shang-Chi and company are still on the estate of Switzerland agent Herbert Griswold at the start of this issue.
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
| Previous: Power Man #34 | Up: Main 1976 / Box 11 / EiC Upheaval | Next: Marvel Premiere #31 |
Comments
This must be one of the earlier uses in superhero comics of having each chapter of an arc narrated by a different character.
I did a little research.
Ducharme was created by Steve Englehart, Alan Weiss. She first appeared in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #2. Marvel.com lists her appearances as...
Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu Vol 1 1
Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu Vol 1 2
Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu Vol 1 4
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu Vol 1 2
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu Vol 1 11
Master of Kung Fu Vol 1 43
Master of Kung Fu Vol 1 47
The name Ducharme seems to be borrowed from the primary female character of the 1928 French pulp novel La Cité de l'Or et de la Lèpre, which features the Fu Manchu-esque Dr. Natas.
That two-gun, motorcycle jump is reaching Nick Fury levels of badass. All she's missing is a cigar and going shirtless.
