Journey into Mystery #516
Bring Me the Head of Shang-Chi
Shang-Chi has come to Hong Kong to prevent the mysterious Cursed Lotus from flooding the country’s water supply with heroin in order to make the Asian continent her drug addicted slaves.[1] His quest has taken him to Kwun Tong, where he hopes to stop the White Tiger from carrying out this goal. Following him is Mai-Yin Woo, a young girl Shang had befriended whose father is a drug mule for the White Tigers. While fighting their leader, Deng Ling-Xiao, Shang was distracted and wounded and fell in the bay.
Unwilling to accept that the Master of Kung Fu is dead, Deng orders his men to scour the docks to find proof that the hero is dead. Once again, Deng accuses Chow Yun Woo for allowing Shang-Chi to follow them, but the drug addicted sailor swears on the soul of his late wife that he has not betrayed either the White Tigers or Cursed Lotus.
Not far away, his daughter Mai-Yin is hiding behind some crates. She is frightened and believes that she is going to die. That’s when Shang finds her and tells her that she has to return home because it is not safe. Mai-Yin refuses to do so, saying that she came to save her father and points out that he would do the same if she was in his position. Shang admits he can’t deny that but still insists that she go home, promising that he will bring her father back to him. Although Mai-Yin agrees to go home, she is lying to him. After Shang departs, Mai-Yin pulls out the nunchaku she took from Shang’s boat that she had hidden in the waistband of her shorts.
As Shang-Chi races across the pier, he rips off his bloody shirt and tosses it into the water. Just as he planned, the White Tiger’s men find it and see it as evidence that Shang is dead. He then follows the goons to a nearby warehouse where Deng’s gang is creating a massive vat of heroin which they intend to dump into the nation’s water supply. When one of the scientists on the job says it will take another four hours to refine the drug, Deng is unhappy and shoots her between the eyes. Her colleague then says he can get the job done in two hours, which is satisfactory to the gang leader. Deng then use a holographic projector to contact his beloved leader, Cursed Lotus to tell her that everything is going according to plan. She is pleased to hear it, but tells him to stop calling her his love, as Cursed Lotus loves nobody.
Meanwhile, Shang-Chi has been spying on this operation when he is caught by one of the guards. However, the man’s smoking habit gives him away. But, before Shang can act, Mai-Yin shows up and tries to help her friend. This gives Shang the opening to take the guard down. When he asks why Mai-Yin disobeyed his orders, she reminds him of how he told her that she could accomplish the impossible if one wishes it so. Realizing that sending her away now would make him a hypocrite, Shang-Chi reluctantly accepts her help. He instructs her to take a shuriken and a lighter from the guard they knocked out as they will need both for the task ahead.
Inside the warehouse, Mai-Yin’s father, Chow Yun Woo is getting ready to shoot up again. However, before he can inject himself with a new batch of heroin, he is stopped by Deng, who takes the opportunity to mock his addiction. Ling-Xiao assures him that he won’t be alone for much longer as their vat of drugs will taint the water supply of the entire Asian continent, creating millions of people just as addicted as he is. These drug addled citizens will then be transformed into a continental army loyal to Cursed Lotus. When Deng says this will include Chow Yun’s daughter, Woo breaks down into tears of absolute shame.
That’s when Shang-Chi comes running in and begins fighting through the White Dragon gang. While they are distracted, Mai-Yin cuts through the mob hurling shuriken at anyone who gets in her way. She makes it to the vat of drugs and manages to cut one of the fuel lines heating the chemical brew. She is caught by her father who goes so far as to put a gun to her head. However, before he can pull the trigger, Mai-Yin tells him that she won’t stop him and that when she goes to heaven she’ll send his love to her mother. This shames Chow Yun so much that he drops the gun and hugs his daughter, asking her to forgive him for everything he has done. He decides to light up the leaking fuel and blow up the drugs, but before he can, Chow Yun is shot in the chest twice by Deng. As Shang-Chi leaps at his foe, Chow Yun drops the lighter, causing it to land in the puddle of fuel. This causes a massive fire that quickly turns the rickety wooden warehouse into a blazing inferno.
Shang-Chi quickly helps the Woo family get to safety and then goes back inside to save Deng Ling-Xiao. He finds the drug lord hanging over a flaming pool of water. As Shang tries to pull him to safety, he asks who Cursed Lotus really is. Deng is about to tell him that she’s someone known to Shang-Chi, but has a change of heart. Loyal to the end, Deng lets go of Shang-Chi’s hand and falls to his death. Soon law enforcement and fire teams come to put out the fire and secure the area. Shang manages to get Chow Yun to a hospital, saving his life. When word gets back to Cursed Lotus at her hideout in mainland China, she shoots the messenger right between the eyes. Chow Yun is expected to make a full recovery and has decided to turn his life around. Having decided to kick his drug habit, he now spends his time fishing with his daughter.
With his work in Hong Kong finished, Shang-Chi decides that it is time to leave, the next step on a never ending journey.
Recurring Characters
Shang-Chi, Wild Tiger, Cursed Lotus, Chow Yun Woo, Mai-Yin Woo
Continuity Notes
At the end of this story it is implied that Cursed Lotus is Shang-Chi’s sister Zheng Bao Yu. This is confirmed in the Shang-Chi profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #10. The reason for this vagary is explained below.
Licensing Issues
In this story, Shang-Chi’s family members are given pseudonyms in this story. Fu Manchu is referred to as the “unnamable one” while Zheng Bao Yu is called “Cursed Lotus”. This is because these characters were from the Fu Manchu books written by author Sax Rohmer. Marvel licensed out the property from 1973 to 1983 for their Master of Kung Fu series. While Shang-Chi was an original character owned by Marvel, many of his supporting cast and foes were taken from the Fu Manchu novels written by Rhomer between 1913 to 1959.
Although many of Rhomer’s books have entered public domain (all of Rhomer’s work pre-1927 as of this writing in 2022), the Rhomer estate still has a trademark and copyright on Fu Manchu stories after this point. It’s all very complicated and I’m not a copyright lawyer, but basically whenever Marvel has mentioned these characters or featured them in a story following the end of the Rhomer license it has been used using pseudonyms, such is the case in this story.
