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Shang-Chi has been fighting an uphill battle to reforge his family’s legacy, and the latest attack on the Five Weapons Society proves that he is winning.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Shang-Chi #8, available now from Marvel.
Shang-Chi has one of the longest and most complicated histories out of anyone in the entire Marvel Universe. Recently, the Master of Kung Fu has worked tirelessly to reconcile his dark past alongside the family he is only now getting to know. With the Five Weapons Society at his command, Shang-Chi has spent months trying to reforge his family’s legacy with each and every living member of it right at his side. And, despite being betrayed more times than he could count, it looks like all of Shang-Chi’s efforts are finally paying off in the best way possible.
The Five Weapons Society has fallen under attack from all of Shang-Chi’s greatest enemies, and even one of its own. Shang-Chi’s sister Zheng Zhilan, aka Sister Staff, has sided with her brother’s enemies in their war against him. The battle is fierce, and although the primary target is Shang-Chi, Zheng Zhilan directs her fellow assailants towards Esme, aka Sister Dagger, following a vicious strike that destroyed her namesake weapon. As it turns out, this was all just a ruse put on by Sister Staff in a bid to lure her brother’s enemies away in the pages of Shang-Chi #8 by Gene Luen Yang, Dike Ruan, Triona Farrell, and VC’s Travis Lanham. Not only that, but Zheng Zhilan’s triple cross is exactly what Shang-Chi needed to realize that all his hard work is finally paying off.
With the death of Zheng Zu, Shang-Chi inherited the Five Weapons Society which his father had spent so many years cultivating into a criminal empire as vicious as it is vast. Ever since then, the Master of Kung Fu has worked tirelessly to both bring his family back together and reform their unsettlingly lethal legacy. Of course, this is the same challenge the titular hero has been trying to overcome nearly his entire life, or at least from his first appearance back in “Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu!” by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin from the pages of 1973’s Special Marvel Edition #15. Zheng Zu trained his son to be the Five Weapons Society’s deadliest assassin from an early age, but after Shang-Chi’s first mission, he quickly saw where such a villainous road would lead and made his now iconic heroic turn.
The journey from those tragic beginnings to where Shang-Chi is now has been an exceptionally difficult one, especially now that he is embroiled in so many different conflicts. Apart from the most recent attacks and shocking revelations, Shang-Chi has been losing the faith of his closest allies. Despite handing his own brother over to the Avengers when they uncovered Takeshi’s betrayals, many of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes still don’t hold him in any sort of high regard. That coupled with the fact that the family he does still have by his side have made it no secret how they feel about Shang-Chi’s apparent rejection of Takeshi, as well as the direction he has been driving the Five Weapons Society in. On the other hand, Zheng Zhilan taking such an active role in corralling their enemies, as well as Esme’s fierce dedication in the face of devastating family drama culminate in the reassurance that Shang-Chi’s efforts have begun to create very real change for them all.
Shang-Chi and the Five Weapons Society have a long way to go in reforming their reputations in the eyes of the world, let alone the other heroes tasked with protecting it. Thankfully, having allies such as Esme and Zheng Zhilan stick around to join in his battles goes a long way towards proving just how far Shang-Chi’s legacy has already come in such a short amount of time. He may not be able to save all of his siblings, but Shang-Chi has more than proven that he is capable of giving his entire family the chance to save themselves.
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