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Shang-Chi (2020)
Shang-Chi (2020) #4
Shang-Chi is at death’s door! The Deadly Warrior is dying from a mortal wound, and it looks like there’s only one person who can save him…his father? But he’s dead…right?
22 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 30, 2020
1 person is currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
Gene Luen Yang
365 books3,391 followersGene Luen Yang writes, and sometimes draws, comic books and graphic novels. As the Library of Congress’ fifth National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, he advocates for the importance of reading, especially reading diversely. American Born Chinese, his first graphic novel from First Second Books, was a National Book Award finalist, as well as the winner of the Printz Award and an Eisner Award. His two-volume graphic novel Boxers & Saints won the L.A. Times Book Prize and was a National Book Award Finalist. His other works include Secret Coders (with Mike Holmes), The Shadow Hero (with Sonny Liew), Superman from DC Comics (with various artists), and the Avatar: The Last Airbender series from Dark Horse Comics (with Gurihiru). In 2016, he was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. His most recent books are Dragon Hoops from First Second Books and Superman Smashes the Klan from DC Comics.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 6, 2022
I still find it odd that two of Zeng Zhu's children are called Takeshi and Esme. You'd think that if he is so obsessed with protecting China, he wouldn't name his children with names from two nations that had invaded China. Especially not the Japanese... but something tells me those crimes will never be adressed in these comics unless they get tired about ranting about Brits.
And btw. the summary states that Shang-Chi was infected by a jiang shi and becomes one of them. But how? Aren't jiang shi created by the hun leaving the body and the po remaining?
And we start the story in Henan province... why am I not surprised? Did they chose that location for touristic scenery? And that monster guarding the tomb looks like a greek chimera with several human arms around its neck.
And when the writing says "Be ever victorious, Brother Hand! Be ever victorious!"
Who talks like that and who writes like that? Yang didn't write like this in his other works. Does he try to have them sound ancient chinese or what? If yes, why is this ok but stuff like Mulan gets lambasted? And afterwards we get a superfluous lecture about the tomb sweeping ritual and that its something his people have always done to remind them that past and present are not so far apart.... odd, I never heard of that before. In fact, the whole honoring the ancestors thing in old stories or books about them, if it mentions that at all, it was to make sure they are not pissed off. And why can Shang-Chi just do the ritual and talk to a ghost? He is not a medium or a shaman. Plus why is his ghost uncle dressing like a Qing official?
And I have the feeling that the reason Yang wrote that the Brits tried to flood China with Opium in the 1800s and when China resisted declared war instead of being more specific about the two Opium wars is because he doesn't know or doesn't care. Especially since there are no French people to be seen anywhere, even though they were in the 2nd war. Naturally, all British soldiers are white. Guess no diversity for them, despite Indians being in their ranks. Naturally the Taiping Civil War has no place here either or the fact that the destruction of the summer palace was considered divine retribution for the failures of the Qing rulers who were considered outsiders anyway.
And Yang is so... potentially racist, he literally has the British captain be in league with Baron Harkness, who works for Dormamu. No clue whether this is more stroking to ego or plain racist. Because that Dormamu is a pretty damn powerful and evil entity. Ego-stroking because this is necessary to defeat "China", even though that word wasn't used during the Opium wars. And racist because it makes the Brits be in league with super evil demonic forces But can you imagine he outcry if Chinese were presented that way?
And is this supposed to insinuate that the Opium wars made China weak and frail as they did the Five Weapons society? If yes, Yang is an idiot. The 1800s was full of rebellions in the Qing empire, the biggest being the Taiping civil war, which caused 20-30 million deaths and raged at the same time as the Opium Wars.
That backstory tries to portray Zheng Zu even more as a noble man than the stuff before. Him wanting to sacrifice himself for his brother and all. And Harkness refers to Zu as a Chinaman, but did Brits even use that term back then? And Zi outright says that the story Chi knows is a lie by his father to perpetuate fear. Yang is going out of his way to retcon that all apparently.
And later on the prior monster spouts exposition about Chi being destined to destroy the earth instead of killing Takeshi outright. So far I at least considered Yang a good writer, if reeking of racism and propaganda, but this is just Greg Pak level bad.
And then it was over. Well, at least it can keep my interested. Even if only to see how much Yang will further retcon, excuse and downright demonize people and misuse history to come across as almost propagandistic.
And btw. the summary states that Shang-Chi was infected by a jiang shi and becomes one of them. But how? Aren't jiang shi created by the hun leaving the body and the po remaining?
And we start the story in Henan province... why am I not surprised? Did they chose that location for touristic scenery? And that monster guarding the tomb looks like a greek chimera with several human arms around its neck.
And when the writing says "Be ever victorious, Brother Hand! Be ever victorious!"
Who talks like that and who writes like that? Yang didn't write like this in his other works. Does he try to have them sound ancient chinese or what? If yes, why is this ok but stuff like Mulan gets lambasted? And afterwards we get a superfluous lecture about the tomb sweeping ritual and that its something his people have always done to remind them that past and present are not so far apart.... odd, I never heard of that before. In fact, the whole honoring the ancestors thing in old stories or books about them, if it mentions that at all, it was to make sure they are not pissed off. And why can Shang-Chi just do the ritual and talk to a ghost? He is not a medium or a shaman. Plus why is his ghost uncle dressing like a Qing official?
And I have the feeling that the reason Yang wrote that the Brits tried to flood China with Opium in the 1800s and when China resisted declared war instead of being more specific about the two Opium wars is because he doesn't know or doesn't care. Especially since there are no French people to be seen anywhere, even though they were in the 2nd war. Naturally, all British soldiers are white. Guess no diversity for them, despite Indians being in their ranks. Naturally the Taiping Civil War has no place here either or the fact that the destruction of the summer palace was considered divine retribution for the failures of the Qing rulers who were considered outsiders anyway.
And Yang is so... potentially racist, he literally has the British captain be in league with Baron Harkness, who works for Dormamu. No clue whether this is more stroking to ego or plain racist. Because that Dormamu is a pretty damn powerful and evil entity. Ego-stroking because this is necessary to defeat "China", even though that word wasn't used during the Opium wars. And racist because it makes the Brits be in league with super evil demonic forces But can you imagine he outcry if Chinese were presented that way?
And is this supposed to insinuate that the Opium wars made China weak and frail as they did the Five Weapons society? If yes, Yang is an idiot. The 1800s was full of rebellions in the Qing empire, the biggest being the Taiping civil war, which caused 20-30 million deaths and raged at the same time as the Opium Wars.
That backstory tries to portray Zheng Zu even more as a noble man than the stuff before. Him wanting to sacrifice himself for his brother and all. And Harkness refers to Zu as a Chinaman, but did Brits even use that term back then? And Zi outright says that the story Chi knows is a lie by his father to perpetuate fear. Yang is going out of his way to retcon that all apparently.
And later on the prior monster spouts exposition about Chi being destined to destroy the earth instead of killing Takeshi outright. So far I at least considered Yang a good writer, if reeking of racism and propaganda, but this is just Greg Pak level bad.
And then it was over. Well, at least it can keep my interested. Even if only to see how much Yang will further retcon, excuse and downright demonize people and misuse history to come across as almost propagandistic.
January 3, 2021
We learn more about the history and the family. My only issue is I wish the art was a little cleaner.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews