Thank you, fellas. It means a lot to see a hero in the MCU that looks like me that isn't a doctor, IT, or owner of a cleaners or Asian restaurant.
For those that aren't familiar with the character or the series, here's a write up that I posted for him back in December
Shang-Chi is a Chinese assassin who was raised and trained by his father, the immortal crimelord and sorcerer, Fu Manchu aka Zheng Zu who tried many times to take over the world with mind control chemicals and other means. He's very diverse in various forms of martial arts and is much deadlier than Iron Fist and Black widow. From the Marvel Power Grid of character powers, his is as follows:
Intelligence: 3
Strength: 2
Speed: 2
Durability: 2
Energy Projection: 1
Fighting Skills: 7
Iron Fist and Black Widow are rated at 6 for each in regards to fighting skill but their durability are a bit higher than Shang at 3 versus his 2.
Shang has beaten the world's best and skilled martial artists simultaneously along with super humans alike. His great strength and chi allows him to strike his opponent with inhuman force giving him the ability to break through barriers that characters like Hulk or Luke Cage can only break like brick, concrete and iron and able to withstand physical impacts almost to a superhuman level. I know, I know, he sounds like Bruce Lee, but wait!!!! There's more!!!!!
He's a skilled gymnast, trains under the most rigorous physical training exercises, reacting fast enough to dodge gunfire and catch weapons being thrown at him. Speaking of weapons, he's highly proficient with all martial arts weaponry such as the jian (Chinese double edged sword), butterfly swords, oxtail swords, staves, Katana, and both single and double nunchaku. He also uses make shifts weapon or anything around his environment.
Shang can control his nervous system on demand to deaden his body to pain, resist the effects of drugs or poisons, limit the spread of toxins in his blood stream, and even slow down his bleed rate if he suffers a wound during combat. He can do all of this while still engaging his enemy or opponent
He knows and locates different pressure points on a person's body to incapacitate, paralyze, severely injure, or kill a person.
Back to his history, Shang's father's arch enemy, Denis Nayland Smith who started life in Britain as a police commissioner but eventually joined MI-6 after crossing paths with Fu Manchu and stopping his world taking schemes. He was knighted but was crippled by Fu Manchu who had his legs crushed.
Years after his retirement due to his "injuries", he meets Fu Manchu's son, Shang-Chi after Shang slayed Dr. Petrie during a mission. Smith told Shang the truth about his father and convinced him to join MI-6 to fight against his father. Shang eventually convinced Smith that his paralysis was psychosomatic and Smith was able to walk again. This goes back to Fu Manchu's mind control schemes.
Shang-Chi has teamed up with Luge Cage, Iron Fist, Misty and Collen in the Heroes for hire series.
He's also joined the Avengers after the Avengers vs. X-Men event when Captain America and Iron Man wanted to build a new bigger and stronger Avengers team. Shang was one of the first to be selected for this new team. Of course, Tony being Tony, he took advantage of Shang's hand-to-hand combat expertise and equipped him with his own personalized equipment
Shang has also fought along side Wolverine, SHIELD, Silver Sable, Immortal Weapons (Iron Fist, Steel Serpent, Prince of Orphans, Tiger's Beautiful Daughter, Dog Brother, Crane Champion, Iron Fist (Orson Randall), Bride of Nine Spiders, Tiger Empress) , Defenders, Shadow Council, The Secret Avengers, and a few more.
You're probably wondering why I know so much about this character but in all fairness, I know a lot about most characters, the most popular to the not so popular but when I first saw his series in the comic book store, I knew that I had to learn more about Shang-Chi. And it's not just because that in some of the front covers, Shang looked like Bruce Lee. Wink
Being a Marvel comic book reader, card collector, and anything that I could get my hands on as a kid growing up where comics where a luxury to me. I hardly saw any Asian heroes like Iron Man, Wolverine, or even Batman and Superman. I would imagine that I was them just like everyone else but and Asian version. When Bruce Lee became the Green Hornet or Jet Li's Black Mask, I was psyched since it was the first time I saw Asian super heroes as a kid. Sure, one of the first Black superhero movie just came out and there's no taking that away from my black brothers and sisters. It's just that there have been more Black heroes whether they're "side kicks", supporting characters, or main heroes, there have always been more heroes of other colors than Asians.
I know, for the longest time, society views Asians as "small and weak" and it's now time to get us out of the norm. Many movies, books, comics, and races replicate us, get into our culture, traditions and even way of life and religions. But for the most part, society and Hollywood never viewed us as any hero type.
This comic series gave me a lot of hope as a kid and is one of a few reasons why I work out and joined the Marines since it gave me a sense of strength giving me the feeling that I can do what anyone else can.
Points to everyone