Tales from the 50 Cent Bin! - The Master of Kung Fu #100

Next up for the month is a return to the Marvel Universe’s Master of Kung Fu. I’ve already looked at a few things involving Shang-Chi. I thought I’d come back to the guy since I got a random issue from his first series. Word on the street is that there may be a Shang-Chi movie coming one of these days. I don’t know how that’ll pan out, but hopefully that does get some traction. It’d be nice to see some more Marvel kung-fu action since The Immortal Iron Fist Netflix show is gone. More on that next week.

Today’s issue is The Master of Kung Fu #100.  I don’t remember where I found it at. This double-sized issue was written by Doug Moench. I probably remember Moench more for his Batman work, but he’s done some Marvel stuff as well. The artwork is handled by Gene Day and Mike Zeck. Jim Novak handles the letters and Bob Sharen does the colors. So, what happens in the 100^th issue of Shang-Chi’s book? Flashback time!!! (echoes)

Tales From the Magazine Bin! - The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #15

A few years ago, I looked at something different for the blog: a magazine. It wasn’t any ordinary magazine, though. The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu was a black-and-white comic magazine that Marvel published for 33 issues. The Kung Fu craze was at full force in the 70’s, so Marvel not only created characters like Shang-Chi and Iron Fist, they also had this magazine. The magazine contained reprints of comics, “how-to” articles, and reviews on stuff. After I looked at the one from a few years ago, I thought I'd watch out for these.

Today’s issue is #15 and it’s the magazine’s annual. It was released during the Summer of 1974. We actually get three regular-paged reprints in here this time. An artist named Nick Cardy handled the pretty cool cover of Shang-Chi and Iron Fist kicking butt. If only they had actually teamed up in the magazine.  "Midnight Brings Dark Death” was first printed in Special Marvel Edition #16."Heart of the Dragon" first came out in Marvel Premiere #16. Finally, "Retreat" originally came out in Master of Kung Fu #19.

Trade Tales! - Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 18: Ultimate Knights

Well, a new year has dawned on us and I’m starting it off by looking at media featuring martial arts. That’s what January has been about for the last few years and I still want to keep it up. Sorry for starting a little late. So, what can I say that isn’t related to me making fun of the fact that Spider-Man: Homecoming pushed Black Panther back a few months? I might as well let go now. I don’t need to mention it anymore especially since I watched Homecoming with a pretty cool lady. Wait, what else has happened that involves a certain creator of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe?

For those who don’t know, Brian Michael Bendis, the writer of this series and many other series, has left Marvel for DC Comics. It was something that literally got me out of bed when I saw it on my phone. I didn’t believe and I’m still pretty shocked. One may wonder what caused him to leave but I wanna know what he’s going to do at DC. Maybe he could do justice with the Outsiders or B’Wanna Beast. Just keep him away from Superman because I can see that going either way.

Anyway, the next volume for this series is "Ultimate Knights" and it contains Ultimate Spider-Man #106-111. The creative team is pretty much the same. Bendis is writing, Andrew Hennessy is inking, and Justin Ponsor handles the colors. Mark Bagley is still on pencils but it has to be said that this is his last arc with this series. He and Bendis stuck with this series for over 110 single issues. Not many teams have done that. At the end of this arc, he passes the torch-shaped pencil to Stuart Immonen who does a few pages here. So, let’s see what happens when Spidey teams up with some martial artists, a crazy guy, a sorcerer, and a blind lawyer.

Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 18: Ultimate Knights

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Pencils: Mark Bagley and Stuart Immonen

Inks: Andrew Hennessy

Colors: Justin Ponsor

Letters: Corey Petit

Trade Tales! - Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 14: Warriors

Next up for Martial Arts Month is a return to the Ultimate Universe specifically Ultimate Spider-Man. I don’t have any current thoughts about Spider-Man: Homecoming this time. All you need to know is that I’m still not sure if I’m going to see it yet.  Anyway, not only do we get one martial arts hero, we get two: Iron Fist and Shang-Chi. Shang-Chi had already appeared in the Ultimate Universe (Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #16-17) while this is Danny Rand’s first appearance. They aren’t the only faces that show up here though since this one is pretty packed as you’ll see.

This is Warriors. Insert any reference to the 1979 cult classic here. As usual, Bendis and Bagley are heading the writing and pencils, respectively. The inks is still being done by Scott Hanna. The trade contains Ultimate Spider-Man #79-85. So, let’s see Spider-Man get overshadowed by a crapton of characters. Just know that Snow, Cleon, Cochise, and Ajax didn’t make the meeting.

Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 14: Warriors

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Pencils: Mark Bagley

Inks: Scott Hanna

Colors: J.D. Smith

Letters: Chris Eliopoulos

Tales From the 50 Cent Bin! - Master of Kung Fu #125

Since it is the season for some butt-kicking, I think it’s time to return to a character that I talked about a couple of years ago: Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. He’s not really a favorite of mine. I really don’t know much about him. All I’ve really read of him has been a free comic book of Amazing Spider-Man where Peter had to learn kung fu, The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #3, and Master of Kung Fu #124. He debuted during the 1970’s when the martial arts craze began to take hold over here. He wasn’t the only character that came out of that craze and I’ll get to them later. He’s still around the Marvel Universe these days. I think he was even an Avenger for a bit though everyone’s been an Avenger. I actually think I’m on reserve status these days…

Today’s issue is Master of Kung Fu #125. This was actually the last issue in this series for the character. I found it at McKay’s and since I read the previous issue before, I wanted to see how it all ended. Allen Zelenetz wrote the final issue. William Johnson did the main pencils while Alan Kupperburg came in and did some pencils and his own inking. Hellboy’s creator, Mike Mignola, handled the main inks. Denny O’Neil was also the editor of this issue. So, let’s see how Shang Chi dealt with the guilt of killing his father.

Master of Kung Fu #125

Writer: Allen Zelenetz

Pencils: William Johnson and Alan Kupperburg

Inks:  Mike Mignola and Alan Kupperburg

Letters: Rick Parker

Colors: George Roussos

Editor: Denny O’Neil

Tales from the 50 Cent Bin! - The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu #124

Welcome back to Martial Arts Month. This time, I will actually be looking at a character that was previously talked about in The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu magazine: Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung Fu. Now, I actually picked this issue out of the 50 cent bin a long time ago when I had the idea of doing a month dedicated to martial arts. I didn’t read it until recently and you’ll find out what I thought about it below. I know nothing about the character, so this is pretty new to me. The team is mostly full of people I’ve never heard of. The only names I recognize are Mike Mignola as the inker, Denny O’Neil as the editor, and Jim Shooter as the Editor-in-Chief. So, let’s see what happens when the Master of Kung Fu faces some stuff.

The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu #124

Writer: Alan Zelenetz

Penciler: William Johnson

Inker: Mike Mignola

Letters: Rick Parker

Colors: Christine Steele

Editor: Denny O’Neil

Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

Tales from the Magazine Bin? - The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #3

Today’s post is going to be on something a little different: a 1970’s comic magazine called The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. By the way, that is an awesome title. It was a comic book magazine published by Curtis Magazines, a defunct imprint from Marvel. That’s right, folks. Marvel created a magazine dedicated to martial arts. Let’s see if DC has done anything like that! Anyway, it lasted for about 33 issues. I believe this was created in order to cash in on the whole Kung Fu craze during the 70’s. It included stories as well as a few articles. It even included some “how-to” tutorials. Today’s issue is the third issue from August of 1974.

The editorial team for the issue includes a lot of names I know of. The team included names like Roy Thomas, Tony Isabella, Marv Wolfman, Chris Claremont, and John Romita Sr. The cover to this issue is pretty awesome. It’s beautifully done by Neal Adams. The cover shows Jim Kelly and another fighter takin’ it to “The Man.” It also looks like one of the Lone Gunmen from The X-Files made it in. For this, I’ll just browse over the contents since there are two 14-page stories, five articles, and a letters page.