In the early '70s, Marvel comics entered a licensing agreement with the estate of Sax Rohmer, most famous for the characters Sir Denis Nayland Smith and Dr. Fu Manchu. At the same time, fueled by Bruce Lee and such movies as Enter the Dragon, a Kung Fu craze had gripped the U.S. As is usual for the comics industry, this trend was one the comics publishers had to hop on. In 1973, Marvel allowed writer Steve Englehart and artist Jim Starlin to create a book that would combine the two. That comic book was The Hands of Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung Fu, generally referred to as Master of Kung Fu or MoKF.
Of all the martial arts characters Marvel created, heck that any company of the day created, MoKF was the most successful. It debuted in the showcase book, Special Marvel Edition #15 and with the 17th issue, the title became The Hands of Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung Fu. It ran until #125, ending in 1983. In addition to that run, there was also one Annual and five issues of Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu.
Jim Starlin drew the first three issues, leaving with #18, when Paul Gulacy took over the penciling job. Englehart was the writer until #20, when Doug Moench took it over.
In Special Marvel Edition/Master of Kung Fu #15, we meet Sir Denis Nayland Smith, an MI-6 agent, Dr. Petrie, one of Smith's allies, the Insidious Fu Manchu, Smith's nemesis and Shang-Chi, the son of Fu Manchu, trained from birth to be a living weapon, skilled in all forms of the martial arts.
Fu Manchu decides to send his son, Shang-Chi on a mission, to assassinate Dr. Petrie. Shang does so, killing the man in his own bed. As Shang leaves, he is confronted by a wheelchair bound, Sir Denis. It is Smith who opens Shang's eyes to the true nature of his father, Fu Manchu. A confrontation with the Devil Doctor, Fu Manchu, finds Shang renouncing his father, setting the stage for many future stories.
Englehart's plan for the book was that Shang would be a kind of Fugitive. Because Shang has murdered Petrie, the Master of Kung Fu was wanted by the law. Englehart wanted to follow his run from the law. Doug Moench, wisely, saw it differently.
Moench, instead of following Englehart's plan, chose to have Shang join Sir Denis and MI-6. The series then became a spy-thriller, in addition to a martial arts book. This change gave the series a greater depth, as well as insured it would have plenty of stories to come.
While Paul Gulacy would draw the series off and on until #50, Doug Moench would write the book until #120, when Moench and the late Gene Day, the artist on the book at the time, were forced off the series by Marvel's Editor-In-Chief, Jim Shooter. (Doug did write #122, but that issue seems more like a fill-in issue, like the one before it was.) Alan Zelelntz would write the remaining three issues of the title.
While Moench may not be the best writer in comics, he seem to have found in Master of Kung Fu, the one set of characters and circumstances that he felt the greatest affinity for. Under Moench's guidance, the characters would grow and elements of their lives would continuously come back to, if not haunt the group, then certainly resonate in their lives.
Throughout the series, Shang-Chi and his allies – Sir Denis Nayland Smith, his assistant, Black Jack Tarr, Clive Reston (whose father may be James Bond, and his great-uncle, Sherlock Holmes), and Leiko Wu (who has been romantically linked with Shang-Chi and Reston) – would continuously face the Devil Doctor, Fu Manchu. There are three major arcs for these encounters: Master of Kung Fu #40 –50 (considered the classic of the three major run-ins), #71-89 and #115-188 (the shortest of the Fu Manchu arcs). This would eventually lead MI-6, for whom Shang and the others worked, to suspect that the agents had been contaminated by the insidious Fu Manchu. Their response is to resign from MI-6 and start their own espionage agency, Freelance Restorations.
The third Fu Manchu story arc ends with the apparent (once again) death of the Devil Doctor. In this instance, Shang is pretty much instrumental in bringing about his father’s death. While this runs counter to Shang’s belief in the sanctity of life and pacifism, he did, however, feel it had finally become a necessity. Unfortunately, when Alan Zelentz took over the series and was bringing it to an end, he contradicts this and has Shang feeling guilty about killing his own father. The series ended with Shang-Chi leaving the spy business, the “games of deceit and death” as he called it. He retired to Hong Kong and became a simple fisherman.
Because of this contradiction, I tend to feel that Marvel has published comics featuring more than one Shang-Chi. One is “The Master of Kung Fu”. The other is “The Master of Martial Arts” (the name is taken from Marvel Comics Presents #156-158). There may be two others.
The Master of Kung Fu’s adventures are chronicled in Special Marvel Edition #s 15 & 16 and Master of Kung Fu #17-122 and also includes the five Giant Size Master of Kung Fu comics. This, for me, is the canon for the series. The remaining three issues are semi-canonical. Doug Moench, when he returned to the characters in Marvel Comics Presents #1-8, accepts the fact that Shang left behind the “games of deceit and death”. He does not, however specify why. Instead, it is vaguely hinted that Shang was forced into abandoning the life he had been leading.
The Master of Martial Arts, on the other hand, is the guy who teams up with Spider-Man, the Thing, the X-Men, Daredevil, Elektra, Iron Fist, ROM and Moon Knight. He is also the one who felt so guilty about instrumental in his father’s death that he retired. This Shang-Chi is a part of the Marvel Universe. If you were to read the entire run of MoKF that Moench wrote, you may notice that none of these team-up is ever mentioned in the series. This helps me to believe that they are not canon.
In other words, IMNSHO, if Steve Englehart or Doug Moench wrote it, it’s canon. Pretty much. Moench did write Master of Kung Fu Annual #1, in which Shang teamed up with Iron Fist and a Moon Knight Special that had Shang working with Moon Knight. I simply don’t accept that Shang is actually a part of the Marvel Universe. But that’s just me.
Of course, there is a problem with that. In MoKF #19, Shang encounters the Man-Thing. In #s 59 and 60, he spars with Dr. Doom. So, are these three issues exceptions? Or am I wrong and there is only one Shang? Well, it should be kept in mind that on both occasions Shang was under the influence of drugs that had been forced on him. So perhaps the Man-Thing and Doom were only illusions. My personal belief is that in the MoKF Universe, there does indeed exist a Man-Thing and Dr. Doom. But they are not the Doom and Man-Thing we find in the mainstream Marvel Universe.
But that’s just my opinion. Incidentally, don’t ask me where I stand on the subject of Shang’s appearances in The Deadly Kung Fu belong. I only have two or three issues of those magazines. So, I haven’t had time to fully form an opinion on them.
The next canonical appearance of Shang is in Marvel Comics Presents #1-8. In this story, Leiko’s left hand is cut off. It is later replaced in The Return of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu with a prosthetic hand. The latter comic, btw, seems to have Shang rejoining Freelance Restorations.
Then last year. Last year Marvel, under the MAX imprint, published a Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu mini-series. It contradicts a number of things about the original series. For instance, Black Jack, Clive and Leiko are once again agents of MI-6. Given that those three left under clouds of suspicions in the original series, I don’t think it’s possible for them to be a part of the British intelligence agency any more. Just a guess.
Leiko no longer has an artificial hand.
Shang is once again a fisherman in Hong Kong, having, again turned his back on the “games of deceit and death”. When did this happen?
Shang’s father’s name is no longer mentioned. This gets a bit awkward as the characters dance around saying it. (The reason is that Marvel no longer has a licensing contract with the Sax Rohmer estate.)
I tend to believe that the MAX mini-series represents a third Shang-Chi. (Four, when you count the Ultimate Universe, Shang-Chi. Let’s not talk about that one.)
Still, and all, MoKF is probably my second favorite comics series. It lags just behind Cerebus the Aardvark.
Master of Kung Fu #115-188 (the shortest of the Fu Manchu arcs).
73 issues is the shortest??? Wow!!! ;-)
I think you meant 118, not 188.
IIRC it was Moench's run on MoKF that led to DC hiring him to write for Batman.
"Master of Kung Fu #115-188 (the shortest of the Fu Manchu arcs).
"73 issues is the shortest??? Wow!!! ;-)
"I think you meant 118, not 188." - KAM
|Pounds head on table.| Uh, yeah. That is what I meant. So much for proofreading.
"IIRC it was Moench's run on MoKF that led to DC hiring him to write for Batman." - KAM
That's funny, I had always assumed that the reason Moench got the Dark Knight gig was because of his work on Moon Knight. I see more similarities between Batman and Moon Knight than I do Shang-Chi and Bats.
Maybe, never claimed to have a perfect... uh... remembery. ;-)
Anyway I seem to remember an interview where it was said that either Moench or Gene Day had gone to work for DC and he contacted the other to tell them that DC was familiar with MoKF & wanted to use both Doug & Gene.
Guess I'll have dig through my old Comics Scenes & Comics Journals to find it.
Didn't Moon Knight start off as a knock-off of Batman?
Another bit of questionable MoKF trivia from my head: Apparently Gene was happy to work from a full script & Doug was happy to write them, but then the editors found out and forced them to do it The Marvel Way because that's how they did it at Marvel.
"Anyway I seem to remember an interview where it was said that either Moench or Gene Day had gone to work for DC and he contacted the other to tell them that DC was familiar with MoKF & wanted to use both Doug & Gene.
Guess I'll have dig through my old Comics Scenes & Comics Journals to find it." - KAM
Huh, I'd forgotten that Gene Day was supposed to be Doug's artist on Detective. As it turned out, Gene was only able to do one cover before he died. So maybe you are right, after all. I was just making a guess.
"Didn't Moon Knight start off as a knock-off of Batman?"
I wouldn't be surprised if that were true. I was never really a fan of Moonies', but that does sound about right. IIRC, he debuted in an issue of Werewolf By Night. Don't, off hand, recall which issue, though.
"Another bit of questionable MoKF trivia from my head: Apparently Gene was happy to work from a full script & Doug was happy to write them, but then the editors found out and forced them to do it The Marvel Way because that's how they did it at Marvel."
I hadn't heard that. At least, I don't remember hearing that. It wouldn't surprise me, though. Jim Shooter would have made that decision, seeing how he was the Editor-In-Chief of Marvel in those days, and Shooter had some rather...interesting ideas about what makes a great comic book. I mean, this is the guy who wrote Secret Wars, and said it was an example of what comics writing should be. (Uh huh.) At any rate, the relationship that Doug Moench and Gene Day had with Marvel in general and Jim Shooter in particular, was enough to cause them to leave Marvel. And that may have been a contributing factor.
It was in The Comics Journal #82, oddly enough in an interview with Dave Sim, so the information is second-hand rather than from the horse's mouth.
Excerpts from the interview are in italics & ©1983 Fantagraphics, Inc.
About my memory of Kung Fu being the reason DC gave Doug Moench Batman.
Dave Sim: Doug was phoning him [Gene Day] up and saying, "You wouldn't believe it, but they've got copies of Kung Fu on everybody's desk. Everybody's reading it and they're just wild and crazy and enthusiastic about us coming over."
About my memory about their being forced to do it "The Marvel Way" at Marvel.
Kim Thompson: They'd dump on Doug Moench because he'd write very elaborate scripts. And Doug told me - and I believe him because Doug has a very good working relationship with all the artists - that the artists all thought it was great, they worked fine together. But the editor would tell him, "What's this you're doing? We can't have this." Regardless of what Gene Day or Bill Sienkiewicz or whoever thought of it.
Dave Sim: Sure. Gene was throwing out half of Doug's scripts, but it was with Doug's full agreement, because Doug would do as much writer stuff as a writer can do before the artist gets ahold of it, and then Gene would turn it into an artist's thing, and then it was Doug's job to do the final slant - to turn it into an artist-writer thing, and it goes back to Gene to ink and it's the final artist-writer step and you have a fully integrated book. You don't need an artist-writer-editor book.
Not quite as I remembered it.
Shooter is an example of one of those Child Prodigies who does their best work in their teens, then goes downhill from there.
He sold his first comic book script at 13 & wrote stories for the Legion of Super-Heroes at DC. (He did some other stories too, but the Legion was his best work.) The Shooter years are generally regarded as one of the best periods for the Legion. Then he retired for a few years and came back in the mid-'70s. His Legion stories weren't as good as they had been, then he left for Marvel and you know more about that time then I do.
Ahhh! The Comics Journal #82. I have that one. I used to also have #81. Need to get it again. Anyway, I've long forgotten 99% of what was said in that interview. Or most of the interviews I've read in The Journal. I ought to go back and rebuy and/or re-read some of those issues.
Anyway, that's probably less second hand news than you suspect. Dave Sim was a very good friend of the late Gene Day. As a matter of fact, Dave's comic company, Aardvark-Vanaheim, published Black Zeppelin, a comic series that Gene Day produced. So it's possible that the story is quite accurate. Of course, it all depends on how honest you think Dave Sim is.
"Shooter is an example of one of those Child Prodigies who does their best work in their teens, then goes downhill from there.
He sold his first comic book script at 13 & wrote stories for the Legion of Super-Heroes at DC. (He did some other stories too, but the Legion was his best work.) The Shooter years are generally regarded as one of the best periods for the Legion. Then he retired for a few years and came back in the mid-'70s. His Legion stories weren't as good as they had been..." - KAM
Yeah, I've heard that story about the Shooty man. I think it's one of the two more widely known factoids about him - that and the fact that he became Marvel's Editor-In-Chief. What the hell's he doing nowadays? Anyone know?
"...then he left for Marvel and you know more about that time then I do."
Yeah. Regretfully, I do. I'm sure Shooter did a lot of good for the company. But beginning in the '80s, the quality of Marvel comics started to dip. It got worse as the decade progressed. I guess that's why stuff like Jon Sable, Freelance and American Flagg seemed so good at the time. It was better than Marvel's (or DC's) output at the time.
Incidentally, I met Shooter at a convention in Dallas in 1985, during the time that Secret Wars was being published. When I met him he said, "I know you from somewhere." I had to tell him no, because I had never met him before. I told him that one of the things I disliked about Secret Wars was how you had to wait all those months until the end of the series to learn the whys and wherefores of all the changes that had taken place in the various other Marvel Comics. Y'know, like the Thing leaving the FF, Spider-Man's new costume, Kitty getting her pet dragon, Lockheed, etc. He said something about how he hoped I'd like it better when the series came to an end or something like that. He struck me as being a bit of a glad-hander. Not someone I would completely trust.
I've just finished re-reading the Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu MAX mini-series. And now for a review, nitpick session:
Plot: Black Jack Tarr, Clive Reston and Leiko Wu, agents of MI-6 are investigating a man known as "Comte de Saint Germain", who is planning world destruction (of course). Also on St. Germain's trail is a rival MI-6 group, called Omega Squad. Shang-Chi, who is a former MI-6 agent and is now residing in Hong Kong, having retired from the games of "deceit and death", is asked to return to active duty when Clive's wife, Leiko, is missing. (She was sent on a separate assignment). Meanwhile, St. Germain, also known as "The Ghost", has sent one of his assassins after Shang-Chi. The assassin's name is "Moving Shadow". It's revealed that he is Shang's step-brother. St. Germain, it turns out, is Shang's father, Fu Manch...er, the Devil Doctor. (Marvel no longer has the licensing rights to Fu Manchu, who was a Sax Rohmer creation.)
Overall, this is not as good as the original book. Too much of it seems like a "best of" Master of Kung Fu. We have already seen Fu Manchu "replace" Shang-Chi as his son, several times in the series. This time, it's no better or worse than the previous ones. It's just redundant.
St. Germain/the Ghost/Fu Manchu plans on destroying the world using a scalar device, a device that will concentrate electicity in the air and direct it to a target area. It's based on Nicola Tesla's theories. However, back in MoKF #33-35, a madman named Mordillo planned to wipe out the world's population by using a solar chute (a craft that will concentrate the rays of the sun, causing those focused rays to burn down anything in its path). The schemes seem very similar to me.
Fu Manc- er, Shang's father has somehow managed to survive being killed, that is, reports of his death were greatly exaggerated. Not once is it explained how he managed to survive. Not that it matters. We're never told how he was supposed to have died to begin with.
I have some questions about the ages of some characters. In the original series, which began in 1973, Tarr was a war veteran. I assume he was a Korean War veteran. At least that's how they made it sound. It's possible they meant WWII. They definitely did not mean the Vietnam War. Black Jack was fairly "old" then. About 40ish. In the original series, time seemed to pass by pretty close to real life time (unusual for a comics series). If, in the MAX mini-series, about 10-20 years has passed since the original series, then Tarr should be getting close to 70 years of age by now. He sure doesn't seem like it. Also, he never complains about his bad back in the MAX series. Of course, as I've said earlier, the MAX series may represent yet another version of Shang-Chi and his cohorts, so that may not matter.
However, when we first meet Shang-Chi in Special Marvel Edition #15, he's about 19 years old. By the time the series ended, he was clearly in his late 20s. Shang in the MAX series is supposed to be still older. That's all good and fine. The problem lies with Shang's step-brother, Moving Shadow (the worst name Doug Moench has ever come up with, IMNSHO). Shadow is younger than Shang. He was conceived shortly after Shang failed to murder Dr. Petrie. (Or so I suppose. This event is never explicitly stated. We just know that Fu- the Ghost, impregnated another woman in order to replace Shang.) That places Shang's age at around 40. So, if that's true and Black Jack was in his forties in the original book, he's now around 60 in this mini-series. Pretty spry for an old guy.
Black Jack and the leader of the Omega Squad, a guy named Spetz, have a rivalry to see who can become the leader of MI-6. Last I knew, in the original series, the person in charge of MI-6 was Fa-La-Suee, Shang's step-sister. What happened to her? (Other than licensing problems. She was a Sax Rohmer creation.)
In #2, Leiko, who has been captured by Shang's father, has no gloves on her hands. Fu- St. Germain has his assassins take her to be executed. All of a sudden, she's wearing gloves. Why?
Part of the rivalry between Tarr and his group and Spetz' Omega Squad lies in the fact that Omega is hi-tech, while Tarr and his people aren't. Is there really any good reason - aside from force of habit - that keeps Tarr, Reston and Leiko from going hi-tech?
What happened to Sir Denis Nayland Smith? Not a word is ever spoken of him. Yet, in the original series, Smith became a substitute father figure for Shang (Chi having rejected F- St. Germain as his father). He was also the one to whom they all looked to for leadership. You'd think that Shang would at least inquire about Smith.
When we first meet Shang, one of the girls in the village Shang now lives in, asks him to teach her a lesson. Chi takes one of her dolls and buries it halfway in the sand. He tells the girl that the doll is in quicksand. The problem is how to rescue the doll without sinking in the quicksand, too. The girl is then left to ponder the question. Shang is soon recruited by Reston to rejoin MI-6 for the St. Germain mission. It appears to me that Shang is gone for two or three days. Did the little girl really sit by her doll the whole time trying to solve that problem?
I knew Sim was a friend of Gene's, the McGrew brothers are based on Gene & Dan Day, with a little bit of Yosemite Sam thrown in, but sometimes second-hand stories can be questionable depending on the memories of the people telling the story.
one of the things I disliked about Secret Wars was how you had to wait all those months until the end of the series to learn the whys and wherefores of all the changes that had taken place in the various other Marvel Comics.
The wait didn't bother me so much as the fact that the changes meant nothing to the overall story.
Kitty getting her pet dragon, Lockheed
Actually she got him before that, during the Brood storyline in X-Men 170-something. I think you're thinking of the female dragon that Lockheed loved & left.
Hmm, should there be a Secret Wars board?
As for MoKF, they could have said that his step-sister had died or retired. They could also have said that Sir Denis had died. (Would just mentioning his first name be a violation?)
"I knew Sim was a friend of Gene's, the McGrew brothers are based on Gene & Dan Day, with a little bit of Yosemite Sam thrown in, but sometimes second-hand stories can be questionable depending on the memories of the people telling the story." - KAM
Or how much faith you have in the source.
"The wait didn't bother me so much as the fact that the changes meant nothing to the overall story." - KAM
True dat. Secret Wars was overall a dismal failure. By issue four I was no longer reading it. Don't get me wrong, I used to own all twelve issues. It's just the writing was so horrible that by the fourth installment I was putting it in my long box, pretty much unopened.
"Actually she got him before that, during the Brood storyline in X-Men 170-something. I think you're thinking of the female dragon that Lockheed loved & left." - KAM again
Probably. It's been so long since I've read those stories. And they really weren't all that memorable to me either.
"Hmm, should there be a Secret Wars board?"
'Tis up to you, oh Great Moderator, sir. Frankly, I think the whole series is one giant nit.
"As for MoKF, they could have said that his step-sister had died or retired. They could also have said that Sir Denis had died. (Would just mentioning his first name be a violation?)"
I'd be fine with that. As a matter of fact, the last time Sir Denis had been mentioned, it was said that he had retired. He was certainly old enough that he should probably be dead by now. And Shang's sister could easily have retired, died or been ousted. I just wish there had been some line of dialogue to let us know. Particularly what Sir Denis' situation was.
And, no, I wouldn't think refering to a "Sir Denis" or even "Smith" would have violated anyone's copyrights.
IIRC Peter David still has Rick Jones talk about fighting alongside Rom: Space Knight even though Marvel no longer has the rights to that.
Rick Jones fought alongside ROM? Yeesh! Jones really was a professional sidekick, wasn't he? Does he now present his resume to each prospective hero before working with them? "And in the late Sixties, I worked with Captain America as a replacement for Bucky Barnes..."
I wonder why Marvel can refer to ROM and not Fu Manchu? In virually every appearance Shang has made since the late '80s, Marvel's writers have gone out of their way not to identify Shang's father by name. I can only think of one exception and that was in last year's Ultimate Team-Up, where in all of one panel, Fu Manchu was named as Shang's dad. But it reads like Brian Michael Bendis was trying to slip it by.
I suspect the key difference is that Shang is more often than not on the covers of the stories in question and ROM is not on the cover of the Peter David stories you mentioned. Because of this visibility, Marvel may have to be more careful about violating the copyrights of the Rohmer estate.
I wonder why they bothered saying the Ultimate version of Shang-Chi is the son of Fu Manchu? As I understand it the Ultimate Marvelverse is new takes on the characters so why not say that Shang's father was a Marvel character like Yellow Claw or something? (I think Yellow Claw was a Marvel comic.)
Actually, the impression I get is that Shang's father has been retconned into being some sort of international crimelord. Actually, that's exactly how he's been retconned. He's now a sort of Eastern Wilson Fisk. "We just don't mention his name." And that's not just the Ultimate Marvelverse. That includes Shang's appearances in The Uncanny X-Men, Journey Into Mystery and Marvel Knights.
As to why they even bothered identifying Fu by name in the one panel of Ultimate Team-Up... I have no idea. Maybe they were just testing the waters?
The Yellow Claw was indeed a Marvel character, btw. He was pre-Fantastic Four. But he has been revived in the Marvel Age, where he's fought Captain America, Iron Man and Nova. (Nova?)
Perhaps they can mention ROM because the firm behind the toy(Kenner wasn't it?) doesn't care about the copyright, while whoever owns the rights to the Fu Manchu millieu does.
ROM was created by Parker Brothers. (They should've stuck with board games.) For more on ROM you can check out this site: http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/comics/Rom/
It could be that you're right, btw, Tim. My problem is that Shang-Chi just doesn't work right when his Dad is some nameless Crimelord-type character.
Excelsior!
BTW, judging by the ROM site I've linked, ROM appeared in only two regular Marvel comics: Power Man/Iron Fist #73 and Marvel Two-In-One #99. Going to the Grand Comic Book Database Project (www.comics.org), I find that ROM also appeared in Incredible Hulk #295, #374 (mention only) and #418, What If? #36, Uncanny X-Men #187 (mention only) and, Doctor Strange, Sorceror Supreme Annual #2 (flashback only).
Excelsior!
Tim, you can't Copyright a name or title. You can Trademark it, though.
Also Trademarked words can be used without permission, provided they are used correctly.
Using xerox as a term for a photocopy will get a writer a nasty letter from the lawyers at Xerox. (Mimeograph was once a Trademarked name, but so many people used it as a synonym for a photocopy that it is now in the Public Domain.) Use Xerox to refer to the company & capitalize the name and they are happy.
Also Trademarks can lapse if they are not used. When Fawcett lost the lawsuit with DC they let the Trademark on Captain Marvel lapse & Marvel Comics eventually got the rights to Trademark the name. So while DC can print stories about the original Captain Marvel & even call him that in the books, they can't use the name Captain Marvel in the title of a book.
Maybe the lawyers at Parker Brothers don't have a problem with Marvel mentioning ROM (would anyone know the name otherwise?) or maybe they let the Trademark lapse (when was the last time PB marketed ROM?)
The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #8
In the first story of this issue, Shang encounters a former cop turned serial killer, called the Midnight Slasher. The backstory on the Slasher is that he came from an abusive home, but later grew up to become a cop. The Slasher (his real name is never revealed) and his partner are off-duty at a bar one night when a guy comes in to hold up the joint. The two policeman decide that even though they are off-duty, they will go ahead and attempt to arrest the robber. I thought that cops were under an obligation to perform such duties even if they are off the clock.
The Slasher's partner is beating the snot out of the robber (this would net him a suspension for police brutality, surely). It's at this point that another police officer arrives, sees one man beating up on another man. The on-duty cop then fires his gun at the Slasher's partner, killing him. While I realize we're talking about an L.A. cop, but isn't that bad police procedure? Aren't you supposed to announce your presence as an officer and order the two men to stop fighting and find out what's going on before firing off a round out of your weapon? Or are L.A. cops trained in the school of "Shoot first, ask question later"?
After sparring with the Slasher for a bit, Shang convinces him to give up his homicidal spree. (Yeah, right.) The two men then leave the gymnasium in which they'd been fighting. Just outside the door is one of L.A.'s finest and one of the members of the gym. Using "logic", this lady who works out at the gym concludes that because Shang's sparring partner had a knife, he must be the Midnight Slasher. (Hey, he could have been Jack the Ripper, too, lady.) The cop then shoots the Slasher. Hopefully, he drew a reprimand and a suspension. That is very bad police procedure. First of all, neither Shang nor the Slasher are armed. They do not pose an immediate threat to anyone. The police officer does not know if a crime's been committed and if so by whom it was committed. He does not know if the Midnight Slasher is indeed standing in front of him. And even if he suspected that he was the Slasher, the officer's duty would be to bring him in for questioning. Instead, he shoots him. Remind me to never move to L.A.
Excelsior!