Routine Difficulties
Just a few months after “The Phoenix Gambit,” Zeck joined Moench as the series’ regular penciler, helping him finish off the plot lines that had been developing since the team’s defeat of Fu Manchu. The Moench/Zeck era begins in earnest with issue 71 (“Nightimes”), which was a chance for the characters to catch their breath and for the reintroduction of the themes hinted at in “The Phoenix Gambit.” This issue leans heavily on Shang-Chi’s internal monolog, appropriately enough for a story that is primarily devoted to character development and reflection. While Leiko works on a puzzle, Shang-Chi recalls the events of the last 20 issues over the course of four pages whose panel borders are drawn to look like the edges of a jigsaw puzzle.
Shang-Chi notes that he has “settled now into a routine, an existence which is finally whole—a unity of mind, body, spirit and emotions.” At this point, the word routine has a positive connotation, but that won’t last for long. Or rather, it won’t last for long as an unadulterated good. Considering Shang-Chi’s ongoing anxieties about blind obedience and conformity, “routine” will prove to be an ambiguous concept. But ambiguity has its own virtues, at least in a story that continually emphasizes balance and the positive coexistence of incongruities (Lekio’s yin/yang puzzle serves as a binding structural motif).
Soon it is time for their “nightly routine,” which is one that Shang-Chi “never resented”: their workout at a local school of martial arts. This is a “routine necessary for the discpline of the both body and mind.” Appropriately, his ruminations about the interplay between mind and body take the form of an extended monologue accompanying his sparring session with Leiko (which soon becomes an exhibition match for the much less skilled (and, incidentally, much more white) school regulars.
Shang-Chi’s narration even reflects, albeit somewhat indirectly, on the paradox of being a thinking, narrating mind during a physical battle. He is bothered by the question of self-consciousness, and uncomfortable with the pride he feels at the students’ admiration:
“I must ignore it. But without being conscious of doing so, devoting all thoughts to the real reality, the inner reality.
“Making of the mind a blank screen upon which anything may be projected…
“….whose unseen patterns every possible image…
“…darling and diverting from the surrounding reality—
“…until the goal is achieved.”
On the surface, his goal is achieved: he ends the sparring match with an impressive back flip. And he is certainly focusing on an inner reality, but his declaration that he must not be conscious of ignoring his own pride is blatantly contradicted by the mere fact of formulating the words.
After a movie, dinner, and a romantic carriage ride, they return home, and an unusually content Shang-Chi notes that coming home is less a routine than a “ritual.” He is even ready to surrender to the charms of a life built on orderly, recurrent patterns rather than intense reflection punctuated by bouts of violence: “Have I underestimated the importance of routines? Perhaps nothing is lacking.” Of course, Shang-Chi’s problem is not just existential; it is generic. The fact that we have reached page 30 of 31-page superhero comic without any real fight scene is exceptional, indeed, unsustainable.
But even without appeal to this meta-level, we can see that Shang-Chi’s idyll with Leiko works precisely because they have separated themselves from all the exterior. forces that dominate their lives. Questions still linger about MI-6, Smith, and the new enemies who seem to have appeared out of nowhere. Even more important, much has been left unresolved on a personal level. Breaking off contact with Smith does not fill the father-shaped hole in Shang-Chi’s life, nor can he really pretend to be indifferent to the fate of his comrades in arms. So Shang-Chi’s musings about routine are put to an end by the sudden appearance of a bloody and beaten Nayland Smith, who falls to the ground, begging for help. The issue ends with Smith prone in Shang-Chi’s arms, revealing that MI-6 is “rotten to the core” and Smith himself has resigned. This, in turns sets the stage for the eventual, unsurprising relation that Fu Manchu is still alive.
