Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1976-10-01 00:03:10 |
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Master of Kung Fu #48-51
Issue(s): Master of Kung Fu #48, Master of Kung Fu #49, Master of Kung Fu #50, Master of Kung Fu #51
Cover Date: Jan-Apr 77
Title: "Black Jack Tarr: City in the top of the world" / "Sir Denis Nayland Smith: The affair of the agent who died" / "Fu Manchu: The dream slayer" / "Epilogue: Brass and blackness (A death move!!)"
Credits:
Doug Moench - Writer
Paul Gulacy - Penciler
Jack Abel & Pablo Marcos / Pablo Marcos / Dan Adkins / Mike Esposito - Inker
Review/plot:
This is the conclusion to the return of Fu Manchu arc, and also to Paul Gulacy's run on Master of Kung Fu. Everything continues to be of high quality relative to the time period.
Apparently Fu Manchu's resurrected ancestor/son is actually named Shaka Kharn, not Shaka Kahn.
The arc ends with Shaka Kharn dead, Fu Manchu seemingly dead as well, and Shang Chi quitting MI-6.
Quality Rating: B-
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: Shang Chi quits MI-6 in this story, meaning this takes place before Marvel Two-In-One #29.
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
Inbound References (4): showCharacters Appearing: Black Jack Tarr, Clive Reston, Fah Lo Suee, Fu Manchu, Leiko Wu, Shang-Chi, Sir Denis Nayland Smith, Ward Sarsfield 1976 / Box 11 / EiC Upheaval Previous:
Defenders #40Up:
MainNext:
Nova #2
Comments
The title to #48 refers to the 1974 Disney film "Island At the Top of the World".
There's a page in #50 where Clive Reston is apparently skewered by Shaka Kharn, but later panels show that Clive doesn't even have a rip in his outfit, and at the end he's standing around apparently uninjured. Unless #51 says different, it looks like Shaka Kharn missed(at close range, no less).
Paul Gulacy left Marvel for a while after this(except for some covers) to go into commercial art illustration. One source in the Comics Journal claimed he quit over friction with EIC Gerry Conway along with Starlin, Englehart, etc. but I find that highly unlikely.
Just masterful; the central event of #49 still puts a lump in my throat.
And #50 brings the cycle home again, to Shang-Chi and his insane father, face to face for the first time in almost two years. The incongruity of Shang-Chi with a gun works so perfectly here. And one last look at the Gulacy/Adkins pairing.
In Amazing Heroes #159, Gulacy said that at the height of his collaboration with Moench on MOKF, it was the 3rd best-selling Marvel color comic behind Conan the Barbarian(#2) and Amazing Spider-Man(#1). He also said he left Marvel due to burnout over the monthly grind.
