Friday, February 22, 2008

Friday Night Fights--Wild Kingdom Style!!

We've already seen the cartilage-crushing fury of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, fighting a shark:

This was pre-Jaws, maybe...Shang-Chi started the shark craze!!And we've witnessed first hand the carnage as the son of Fu Manchu had to face off against his father's schizophrenic gorilla:

Insane in the membraneBut those weren't Shang's only forays against the animal kingdom, not by a long shot. Especially in the early days of the mag, the writers loved nothing more than pitting him against wild beasties (in between bouts against murderous assassins, that is).

Take, for example, Shang Chi vs. the alligator:

This one is for eating Captain Hook's hand...

Come to think of it, Captain hook would have made a perfect MOKF villain...

Endangered...species...my...ASSOr, in one of Paul Gulacy's finest early moments, Shang-Chi vs. the jaguar:

Uhh, Shang, less analyzing, more fightin', please...
Ah, that's more like it!
Float like a butterfly...
Again with the analyzing??
That jaguar went down quicker than Jacksonville against New EnglandSeriously, in his first few issues he fought so many animals, I thought Marlin Perkins was going to show up!

But, there was one animal Shang-Chi couldn't defeat...well, not so much an animal, as a muck-encrusted mockery of a man: Ladies and gentleman, Shang-Chi vs. Man-Thing!!

Lesson: don't fight when your high on your father's mimosa gas
Geez, Shang, this guy's not even an elemental...
Man-Thing has drank your milkshake!No, that one didn't go so well, did it? Ewwww.....

Fortunately for Man-Thing, Bahlactus wasn't around to teach him the true meaning of fear!!

In order, we have scenes from Master of Kung Fu #21, Special Marvel Edition #15, MOKF # 23, 25, and 19. I swear to heaven, when I win the lottery, I'm going to buy the Sax Rohmer rights and sell them to Marvel so we can get some reprints going....

1 comment:

CaptainAverage said...

Safari-tastic! "I must become the cat". We had a cat that scratched the tar out of me, I guess I should have tried that tactic.Then again, I'm not a ...MASTER OF KUNG-FU!