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Shang-Chi’s next family reunion is taking him all the way to the Negative Zone to rescue another sibling, but his return may not be a welcome one.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Shang-Chi #4, available now from Marvel Comics.
Shang-Chi may have just become the latest breakout superhero star of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but his life in the comics has been far from glamorous as of late. Having inherited his father’s vast criminal empire has already left him walking a fine line between hero and villain, and surrounding himself with the latter hasn’t helped. Of course, Shang-Chi isn’t willing to just walk away from his family again, and in fact has even made it a point of bringing them together as much as possible. Now he has been presented with an opportunity to bring his last sibling back into the fold, but reuniting with Sister Hammer is going to require making a trip all the way to the Negative Zone.
Shang-Chi #4, by Gene Luen Yang, Dike Ruan, Triona Farrell, VC’s Travis Lanham and VC’s Joe Caramagna, begins with the hero dreaming of the first House of the Deadly Hand, his childhood home which long ago vanished from its place in China. While the sky twists and bends above him, Shang-Chi enters to find a woman seated on his father’s old throne. That morning, he discusses the matter with his advisor and sorcerer, Mister Lee, who tells him that it is a sign that the Five Weapons Society is incomplete without its fifth champion. Shang-Chi’s dream still doesn’t make sense, though, especially if it is supposed to be leading him to his long-lost sister. Thankfully, Mister Lee is there to look for himself and explain that it isn’t the dream which doesn’t make sense, but rather the place that Shang-Chi is dreaming of: the Negative Zone.
This alien universe has been a part of the Marvel Universe since 1966’s Fantastic Four #51 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, though its long history hasn’t helped anyone to understand it in all that time. Even stranger than this twisting, alien dimension is how Zheng Shi-Hua, aka Sister Hammer, came to be there in the first place. First introduced in 2020’s Shang-Chi #1 by Gene Luen Yang, Philip Tan, and Dike Ruan, Shi-Hua is the only full sibling that Shang-Chi has within the Five Weapons Society. Unfortunately, their closeness didn’t impart any of Shang-Chi’s heroic nature upon his younger sister, and Shi-Hua followed in their father’s villainous footsteps despite the traumas he inflicted upon her.
In their youth, Shi-Hua was branded and exiled by Zheng Zu, and upon her return, his dismission of her achievements led her to deeply resent Shang-Chi for the praise he received. The years since then have seen Shi-Hua poison, capture and even kill her siblings in a quest for personal glory and power, and while Shang-Chi has fought against her, he has also been the one to let her escape. Now it looks like he will be the one rescuing her from one of the most dangerous dimensions in the Multiverse — and there is still no telling how she got there or what to expect when he arrives.
Shang-Chi may have managed to win over Esme and Takeshi, but they have also been far less inclined towards outright betrayal than Shi-Hua. There is always the chance that her time in the Negative Zone has left her a bit more receptive to help, even that of her long despised brother. Then again, with no way to know what led Sister Hammer to become trapped in the Negative Zone to begin with, there might be a good reason to believe this is all some sort of elaborate trap. Whatever the case may be, it doesn’t seem as if anything is going to stop Shang-Chi from finding out. Here’s hoping he doesn’t become yet another victim to Marvel’s most dangerous dimension in the process.
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