WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Shang-Chi #4, available now from Marvel.
Shang-Chi may have just become the latest breakout star of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he has been one of the Marvel Universe’s greatest heroes for decades. However, Shang-Chi’s life has spiraled out of control since he inherited his father’s vast, cult-like criminal empire. While he’s tried to change the Five Weapons Society for the better, it seems to only be capable of making him worse.
And after finding himself at odds with several of Marvel’s greatest heroes, Shang-Chi was even forced to battle none other than the Thing in Shang-Chi #4, by Gene Luen Yang, Dike Ruan, Triona Farrell, Travis Lanham and Joe Caramagna. Shockingly, he even managed to win the fight with a single strike, but its echoes will have major repercussions for a long time to come.
After many restless nights dreaming of his other long-lost sister waiting for him within their old family home, Shang-Chi turns to the Five Weapons Society’s sorcerer Mister Lee to decipher the vision. As it turns out, the alien landscape that Shang-Chi had been seeing was that of the Negative Zone, somewhere his friends in the Fantastic Four know better than anyone. When Reed is unwilling to lend assistance to the Five Weapons Society, they are forced to take matters into their own hands by breaking into Reed’s lab and stealing a vessel capable of making the trip. Shang-Chi and his siblings are able to pull it off and rescue Shang-Chi’s mother from the Negative Zone rather than his sister, but the mission is a success nonetheless. Unsurprisingly, they aren’t met with any fanfare upon their return, and it only takes a second for the fists to start flying.
The Fantastic Four leap headfirst into battle against the Five Weapons Society. From the outset, it doesn’t appear as though the Thing, Invisible Woman, or Human Torch know exactly who it is that they are up against until Shang-Chi joined the fray himself. As the Thing looms over Takeshi demanding to know who sent them, Shang-Chi appears from behind his fellow hero and takes the FF powerhouse out of the fight with a precision strike to a pressure point on his back before Reed’s arrival ends the fight.
Despite Shang-Chi’s noble intentions, this incident comes across as a clear attack from the eyes of the Fantastic Four, one that involves him assaulting them in their own home to further the goals of a criminal empire. While no one doubts Shang-Chi’s fighting skill, the fact that he was able to penetrate the Thing’s rocky hide to deliver a disabling blow with one punch is equally disconcerting for the FF.
Shang-Chi and his siblings might not be embroiled in all-out war with Marvel’s heroes, but he’s perilously close. He has already squared off against Wolverine in the process of bringing another long-lost sibling back into the fold, not to mention Captain America and Spider-Man both having had their own uncomfortable interactions with Shang-Chi in recent days. Now that Shang-Chi has crossed so many lines, it’s hard to imagine there is any going back from here, and it’s hard to imagine anyone will be pulling their punches against him in the future.
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