We saw the
double-sized last issue some time back, but today we have another double-sized issue that almost feels like more of an ending. From 1982,
Master of Kung Fu #118, "Flesh of My Flesh" Written by Doug Moench, art by Gene Day.
It's an all-out action banger, as with Sir Denis Nayland Smith kidnapped and hidden somewhere in London; Shang-Chi parachutes into his father Fu Manchu's fortress in Honan, China. He accompanied by his comrades Black Jack Tarr and Clive Reston, and while Shang is glad they're with him, he also knows they will only be able to go so far with him. Despite having a solid army and later, a giant mantis! Fu was not at the top of his game: he had been kept alive for centuries with his "elixir vitae" serum of immortality, but he needed boosters every so often, which had to come from the blood of his children. Right now, that appeared to be Shang, his sister Fah Lo Suee (which I kept reading as "Fallacy"?) and a clone of Shang: Fu had him cloned years ago, and actually raised the clone in the same castle as Shang, who for years would maybe catch a glimpse of him every once in a while but not understand it. Fu says he had always suspected Shang could be "corrupted" by weak western ways, so he kept the clone in-house and always near him, and their relationship seems much stronger for it, although while Bizarro Shang has a facial scar and wears a black gi, I don't recall if he had a name? Although Fu probably had other kids, maybe just not handy: I think Moench would pull out another for Shang's
Marvel Max mini with Paul Gulacy, which also looks coooooooool.
After smashing up the blood previously stolen from him, Shang kills the Death Dealer--maybe
that one?--in a one page fight; then frees Fah Lo Suee and confronts his old teacher, who is still loyal to Fu since he wants a return to the old glories. Fah Lo Suee shoots him, then Fu's assistant Ducharme, then tries to kill Fu, who escapes underwater. While Sir Denis escapes in London, so Leiko Wu and Dark Angel (not
that one! can save him; Shang runs a gauntlet of vipers and fights his way out of being eaten by that giant mantis, before facing his clone-brother. Meanwhile, Black Jack and Reston have planted bombs all over the place, but then the detonator is triggered in a fight, starting the 30 minute countdown early.
Shang defeats his brother, throwing him to his death: Fu mourns him with a screamed "
MY SONNNNN!" before he starts trying to drink the blood before it all leaks out of the corpse. Black Jack and Reston try to warn Shang to get out, but he refuses, telling them their mission was to rescue Fah Lo Suee, and he had to do this. Pouring the elixir into the dirt, he watches the great Fu Manchu trying to lick it off the ground. After the explosions, and the collapse of the castle, they find Shang, not just fine, but "(
alive)...for the first time, Reston." They're worried they never found out where Sir Denis was being held, but Shang already knows, his real father is fine, and he tells him so on the last page.
This was a more than fitting end to the Marvel saga of
Fu Manchu, so of course if you go to his Marvel Wiki entry it continues for
pages after that. Also, Marvel calls him "Zheng Zu" now and doesn't keep the license, although at least some of his novels have got to be public domain by now. There were five Fu Manchu movies--with Christopher Lee as Fu!--and the last,
the Castle of Fu Manchu was a
Mystery Science Theatre 3000 episode that nearly broke Joel and the bots! So much stock footage...
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