Games of Death and Deceit
Paul Gulacy went on to draw seven of the next ten issues (40 was a fill-in drawn by Sal Buscema, while 36 and 37, drawn by Keith Pollard, had originally been intended for the Giant Size title before that particular line was canceled). The Mordillo trilogy (32-35) was another fairly cinematic mission against a lone villain, but this time one whose mental illness and bizarre robotic creations lent the story an extra flair. It also introduced Reston’s ex-lover Leiko Wu, a fellow spy who quickly became Shang-Chi’s love interest. Issues 38-39 featured romantic intrigue and a beautifully rendered one-one one martial-arts battle, involving a new character, Shen Kuei, nicknamed the Cat, and his lover, Juliet. Upon realizing that he had been sent on this mission by Smith under false pretenses, Shang-Chi resolves to break ties with MI-6, a resolution he carries out in issues 40. In keeping with the overall approach of the Gulacy years, the narrative captions are minimal, adding little to the reader’s sense of Shang-Chi’s individual perspective. [1]
Issue 42, the first of a two-parter detailing Shang-Chi’s fight with Shockwave (Smith’s nephew in an electrified yellow suit), is the first of what would turn out to be several instances when the narration reflects the hero’s altered consciousness. The story unfolds over two time frames: Shang-Chi’s battle against Shockwave alternates with the events that lead up to it. Most of the story takes place before the fight, interrupted frequently but unpredictably by single panels depicting Shang-Chi hitting Shockwave or, more frequently, Shockwave hitting Shang-Chi. Multiple time frames in a Marvel comic were not unprecedented, but the lack of explicit transitions, as well as the near-wordlessness of the fight, create an effect that is immediately familiar from film and television.
The comic, entitled “The Clock of Shattered Time," begins with a thematic splash page: Shockwave in the middle, clocks and skulls to his left, Leiko, Reston, and the former spy Larner standing on a coffin to his right, and Shang-Chi sprawled faced down path is feet, looking as though he is trying and failing to get up. There are two narrative captions on the page, each of which establishes Shang-Chi’s fragile state of mind:
“The thought is difficult to form…through the pain… and yet it screams…. from my mind…to every point of and in my…body…
“I am…near death…”
Upon rereading, this page provides the rationale for the frequent cuts to worlds fighting that interrupt nearly all the pages that follow. Even in the more laconic Gulacy days, Shang-Chi usually finds the time and the strength to think (aloud) about what he is doing as he fights. The absence of words in his standoff with Shockwave is more than just cinematic; it signals the near collapse of the consciousness whose presence we have come to expect.
The fight with Shockwave also parallels Shang-Chi’s first battle in “The Clock of Shattered Time”: the latest, but still not definitive, verbal salvo in his ongoing ideological disagreement with Nayland Smith. In the issue’s physical fight, Shang-Chi is silent, but his meeting with Smith requires him to speak forthrightly in a manner that he has only recently attempted to adopt. Refusing to “play [Smith’s] games of deceit and death” (a phrase that, through repetition, will come to encapsulate Shang-Chi’s moral dilemma throughout Moench’s run), he agrees to help on the current mission, but not to blindly follow orders (Smith’s response, in a small font denoting and exasperated whisper: “Oh, please, Shang-Chi…must we go through this again—?”)
Just before being shown into Smith’s office, Shang-Chi notes that Smith’s secretary, Miss Greville, is casually compliant with the system in which they all are supposed to operate: “She works for Smith—obeys him. Why is it difficult for me to do the same…”. It is just one panel, sandwiched between two panels of Shockwave punching Shang-Chi in the face. Curiously, these panels establish a pattern that is not immediately apparent: if we see Shang-Chi’s face in one timeline (in this case, the fight), it will be obscured in the other (Shang-Chi’s head is cropped out of the panel that focuses entirely on Miss Greville). It’s an intriguing device, especially when we consider that the argument with Smith (and the encounters that follow) is essentially a sequence of talking heads, while the physical battle is agains a man wearing an opaque, reflective oval mask that renders him faceless. The art reinforces the basic fact of both conflicts: they are about maintaining Shang-Chi’s sense of self. In the case of Shockwave, it is about somehow staying awake and coherent while reeling from multiple electric shocks, and in the argument with Smith, it is about remaining true to a worldview in which he professes aloud to be confident, but repeatedly doubts when he is in the field (that is, when he is fighting physically rather than verbally).
Shang-Chi’s non-compliance inadvertently saves Smith’s life, causing the older man to chase after him after he storms out of the office, seconds before a hidden bomb explodes. The two men agree that they will never understand each other’s positions. On the penultimate page, however, the two time lines finally converge when Smith and Reston find Shang-Chi barely standing after suffering Shockwave’s extended beating. Shang-Chi minimizes the damage, because Reston and Larner do not want Smith to know that Smith’s nephew has become a deranged super villain. Smith blithely gives Shang-Chi instructions for his next mission, at which point Shang-Chi collapses, saying “Smith…/…you ask… / …too…much…” Of course, Smith has no idea why it is too much, but these words apply to their entire relationship. Smith asks Shang-Chi to take an assignment, Shang-Chi objects, but ends up reluctantly doing it anyway, resenting Smith for putting him in this position. The very moments that would appear to signal a truce between them are actually just more instances when Shang-Chi is forced to compromise his principles and doubt his path.
Note
[1] The sole exception comes during the last pages of issue 39, when Shang-Chi, realizing his battle with Shen Kuei is pointless, reflects on the seeming inevitability of senseless violence even as he trades blows with the Cat.