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This article, Xu Shang-Chi (Earth-61615), is property of MarvelousMarty. |
Meihui "May" Ying (mother),
Ying Nan (aunt & mentor)
Xu Xialing (sister),
Esme Ying (half-sister);
Alex Su (adoptive brother; deceased)
Sir Denis Smith (step-father & former mentor; deceased);
Maya Lopez (girlfriend)
Defenders Vol 2 30
History
I don't want power, father... I never did. I seek only peace... But not in the twisted and cruel way you do.
- — Shang-Chi
- — Shang-Chi
Early Years
Xu Shang-Chi (Chinese: 徐尚氣) was born in the spring of 1992 to Xu Wenwu, the real name of the Ten Rings founder and leader that was the Mandarin — whom Shang-Chi had known by the name of Zheng Zu — and his once loyal follower Ying Meihui, a former resident of Peng Lai, a mystical village beyond the Valley of Spirits and is one of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven, pocket realms that were formed and graced by the Xian pantheon. Meihui left her home to follow her older sister Ying Nan, who fled Peng Lai after being banished by its council for her endearment for the outer world, but the process of Meihui only rendered most of her memories of Peng Lai to slowly fade away the longer she was away from it, but still she retained the memories of her family and eventually learned her sister's whereabouts. Shang-Chi was raised to become a deadly assassin by his father, along with Shang-Chi's little sister Xialing who is three years younger than him as they were trained side by side under his wing and taught ways of the deadliest martial arts.
However, when the Mandarin kept on brutally training them under the supervision of his assassin, the Death Dealer, as the Mandarin's successors until the late 2000s, Meihui took their two children and fled from the her lover and leader's reach after realizing how unhinged he has turned being labeled as a nefarious global terrorist and has persistently accepted such grim identity and status. Unfortunately during their escape, the younger Xialing chose to stay by her father's side, disheartening both her mother and brother as she had no other choice to leave with him. Still under his mother's care, she and a young Shang-Chi (who was eighteen at the time) had fled to the United States, starting a new life in the city of San Francisco, California as Shaun Ying with his mother and his only maternal relative, Shang-Chi's aunt Ying Nan, abroad and hoping to move on from the clutches of his power-mongering tyrannical terrorist of a father.
A Normal Life
In his adolescence until his early adulthood, Shang-Chi had grown confident enough to befriend a lot of people in his neighborhood and maintain a close friendship with some of them, but it didn't stop Shang-Chi to reignite his keen interest and unrestrained enthusiasm in the ways of the martial arts, despite his mother's disapproval whenever she catches him perform what his father had been teaching and training him to do in his youth. Meanwhile, his mother started a new relationship a mysterious yet altruistic man named Sir Denis Smith, a former British intelligence agent, whom Shang-Chi was skeptical at first due to trust issues and paranoia from his past with his biological father. Thankfully, it was Shang-Chi's aunt Ying Nan who have helped him be more open with new people in the first place deal with his paternal issues without displacing it against his mother's lover.
In time, the two has eventually gotten to know each other more when his wise and disciplined aunt Ying Nan — who later revealed her family and Shang-Chi's maternal linage found in the Valley of Spirits and was able to somehow remember her past through dark magic, the reason she got kicked out from her village — and eventually Smith (due to his past experiences in the field), became his teacher and mentor figure in different forms of martial arts, specifically Kung Fu which Shang-Chi has grown fond of practicing in his sparring sessions. The continuous training between his mentors has led to Shang-Chi progressively improving upon his skills that some would describe him as a master of Kung Fu. Despite being contented with his normal life, Shang-Chi would start using his fighting skills to fight crime when no one was looking nor any authorities in the scene to deal with it in time.
Renewed Passion
Even after deserting the Mandarin, Shang-Chi still continued his martial arts training to fight crime in the name of good
His fantastic journey with Smith has led him to meet a number of other martial artists and superheroes around the country after Ultimate War, even participating during the extraterrestrial Skrull Empire's Secret Invasion on Earth by protecting the people of San Francisco from the shapeshifting conquerors. Eventually, Shang-Chi had professed his approval to welcome Denis in their family as his mother's new soulmate, the two would and even conceive a child named Esme, Shang-Chi's new half-sister, who was born around 2016 in the wake of Ultimate War.
His slow yet gradual exposure even garnered the attention of other vigilantes across the country such as Ant-Man, Spider-Man, Colleen Wing, Daredevil, the Young Avengers, the Runaways, and his would-be rival in combat, the Iron Fist, of which he had worked with and ended up befriending after their first meetings. Affiliating themselves with other city-based heroes, Shang-Chi begins to learn Smith's past as a former member of the Chaste, a group of warriors dedicated into fighting an ancient immortality-seeking evil society called the Hand, but has since learned that its five intercontinental leaders were recently defeated by the Defenders, preventing them from destroying New York in the process. Despite being intrigued by these heroes' adventures, Shang-Chi still wanted to go on with his normal life, spending time with his best friends and family as an adventurous young adult instead of starting a hero as a profession like his newfound allies.
Through a Dark Reign
Facing the Past
In 2018, during the Dark Reign of Norman Osborn being the director of the authoritative agency H.A.M.M.E.R. (the rebranded S.H.I.E.L.D.), Shang-Chi once again have crossed paths with the Defenders, who were forced to remain in hiding after being deemed by H.A.M.M.E.R. as outlaws along with the rest of his heroic opponents across the globe. Banding together as the team of vigilantes came to deal with the city-wide threat that was Kingpin's Empire and its unexpected and unlikely enforcers, the newly-reformed Hand, who had gained over New York City collaborating with H.A.M.M.E.R. and serving Osborn's political agenda.
Assisting the Defenders in dealing with the Hand through the secret aid of Elektra, Shang-Chi was unexpectedly reunited with a familiar face, Zhang Zu, who was now a leading commander of the Hand reborn under the very leadership of its new head Tomi Shishido. The real Zheng Zu whom he faced and fought, was not his father but was merely a former warrior of the Ten Rings formerly under the fearsome guise of the Death Dealer. Instead, Shang-Chi found out and clearly remembered his youthful memories through Zu's revelation that his father was indeed the founder and leader of the Ten Rings, Wenwu, otherwise more known by the world as the Mandarin, and back then he was merely imitating the looks of Zu for the sake of his children to look up to a more "memorable and aspiring face" than his own.
Long Lost Family
Unfortunately, even before Shang-Chi could have found out more about his father's current whereabouts, Zu was executed by Tomi Shishido on the spot, who saw the liability in Zheng Zu after being bested by his younger pupil. Shishido tried manipulating Shang-Chi into joining their ranks in place of Zu's position and gave him the offer that the Hand would help him achieve revenge against the Mandarin for how he had treated him, but Shang-Chi knew enough about the ruthlessness of the Hand's philosophy when he joined them as undercover and declined his one-time offer, knowing who to side with. Zu's once cold and seemingly heartless lieutenant Xialing, the Deadly Dagger, was shaken up by her master's untimely death which made her question her allegiance. Shang-Chi took this as an opportunity to gain an ally with the Defenders, and convinced Xialing to join their side.
It wasn't long after their momentary escape from the Hand that Shang-Chi finds out Xialing was his long lost sister, subsequently offering her shelter in their residence and law low before they find a way to deal with the Hand. Unfortunately, after a year of living in peace and silence since Osborn's governance fell, Shishido had initiated his comeback as he sent a pack of assassins led by Typhoid Mary to track down Xialing's whereabouts and held Shang-Chi's family hostage. Shang-Chi and Denis Smith was able to take down and fend off the Hand's assassins long enough to escape their infested home, only for his step-father to get mortally wounded and formidable aunt get knocked out as they dueled the swifter and deadlier Mary.
Upon defeating Typhoid Mary, a guilt-ridden Xialing surrendered herself to the Hand merely to ask Tomi Shishido to spare Shang-Chi's family and leave them alone as long as she rejoins them. Shang-Chi was against her choice, but she went with her reluctant decision nevertheless, believing that she had become burdensome the moment she was welcomed into his good and innocent family, jeopardizing them in doing so. With Xialing's decision, a mourning and vengeful Shang-Chi vowed to take down the Hand and free Xialing from her grim responsibilities as an assassin. For a start, Shang-Chi knew he had to learn more about the historical strengths and weaknesses of the Hand, and what better way of finding for answers than studying an organization as strong and as ancient as such society: deciding to explore his roots as the lost heir of the Ten Rings by revisiting his old home in Hunan, China and with the help of ally Iron Fist, he would learn more ways on how to channel his inner power, his chi, something that his aunt Ying Nan had taught him little when he was growing up.
Immortal Weapons
Valley of Spirits
From the spring until fall of 2021, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, along with the latter's former enemy Davos would venture a long journey into the birthplace of the Ten Rings in the province of Hunan, China in hopes of finding traces of the Ten Rings ever since their visible presence began to wane in hiding years after Ultimate War has ended. They would encounter the mutant Kuan-Yin Xorn who voluntarily assisted the pair of warriors, since he explained the Ten Rings never left their bases as they've entered a cold war after a fallout with their leader and Shang-Chi's estranged father, the Wenwu, who momentarily left his responsibilities as the head to quest for greater power which would ensure the Ten Rings' restoration to power and continuation to global conquest. The Mandarin's most loyal soldiers were merely cautious in the shadows and were unhesitant to anyone who snuffs the flame of their power and legacy at any place which they've established.
Being the resourceful man that he was, Shang-Chi took advantage of the situation by using his status as the Mandarin's son. Everything seemed to be well as he got to learn about how his father began to harness chi in his younger days but has also grown fascinated by Makluan technology in his journey to the Valley of Spirits, until they were intervened by the abrupt arrival of the Hand in the form of elite assassins led by Xialing, Shang-Chi's sister. On behalf of the Hand, Xialing was sent to hunt and confront the Mandarin to erase competition for Tomi Shishido, but deep down the siblings knew she was merely a bait considering how the Mandarin has become in terms of influence. After a brief brawl between the two sides, the siblings have decided it was best to talk it out, eventually agreeing to deal with this matter personally as only Shang-Chi, Xialing, Iron Fist, Davos, and a few selected subordinates from both the Ten Rings and the Hand would travel to the Valley of Spirits. Arriving at the mystical valley, they would have a run into Iron Man, who was tracking down the whereabouts of the genetically-engineered dragon Fin Fang Foom after being freed from its S.H.I.E.L.D. facility by the Mandarin for reasons they've yet to know.
Seven Capital Cities
Shang-Chi and Xialing teamed up with the Iron Fist and Iron Man along with the protectors of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven to defend and unite the realm from their powerful father
It was not long after they learned that the Mandarin had also embarked on the quest for chi — the very inner energy which he often harnessed both in combat and survival since the beginning — found in the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven, hidden city states spread across the world only accessible through means that his advanced Makluan resources, most notably his Ten Makluan Rings, could efficiently trace and track down when his technology had tracked down the whereabouts of the genetically-engineered Makluan, Fin Fang Foom, who had reached the mystical realms. The Mandarin had deemed his last crusade to utilize his inner chi in the goal of becoming the one and only Immortal Weapon on Earth and bring what his ideology has perceived as peace and security on Earth by bringing back the "old ways" in accordance to his extremist philosophy to be the perfect leader of humanity, just as he was leading the Ten Rings for decades.
A Fatal Tournament
Mandarin slaughtered countless of lives and ravaged most of the Seven Capital Cities, but his progress was ultimately averted by the joint forces founded by various Immortal Weapons such as the Iron Fist along with Shang-Chi and Xialing, who finally chose to reunite and confront their dark past as the Mandarin's son and daughter, as well as the surviving protectors of the mystical cities who swore vengeance on the warmonger for what he did to their homes in his final pursuit for power. Banding together to strengthen the native power of their respected home cities, the Immortal Weapons have cornered and challenged the Mandarin by reestablishing an old traditional event known as the Tournament of the Heavenly Cities, much to the latter's arrogance and amusement due to his seemingly insurmountable power, believing he could win the fatal tournament with nigh-unlimited chi at his disposal.
The odds were continuously stacking against the Mandarin especially when he found out that his own archnemesis, Iron Man, was also part of the momentary alliance to bring him down and end his threat once and for all. The Mandarin impressively put up a fight on his own against them once he reached his full potential of harnessing chi in a destructive scale through his ten rings, but doing so only made him unstable enough for them to find an Achilles' heel on the nigh-godly warrior. In the final moments of his last stand, Wenwu faced his two children as they used every deadly skill and ability which they learned to kill the power-hungry monster who was once their father, something which Shang-Chi saw as putting their father's deranged spirit to rest by letting pushing the dying Wenwu into the fiery mouth of Fin Fang Foom, disintegrating the once invulnerable villain into ashes.
Afterwards, Fin Fang Foom was declared the successor of becoming the living embodiment and source which grants the Immortal Iron Fist their enhanced powers and abilities after Shou-Lao was killed by the Mandarin, and has granted Shang-Chi the augmented power of chi to augment his own chi out to gratitude upon saving his life and defeating the invader of their realm. Xialing declined her brother's offering to be bestowed with the same power, but has decided to end the new Hand's power and take over the leaderless Ten Rings, guiding both organizations into serving the greater good without claiming power or seeking conquest like their father in the merged Five Weapons Society, something which Shang-Chi helped found when they returned back home to deal with their current affairs before finally moving on with their less normal lives once more.
Before leaving the realm of the Seven Capital Cities back to the more normal earthly realm, Shang-Chi invited his mother and aunt from San Francisco through a mystical portal summoned to join them as a family in revisiting their village and relatives in Peng Lai, wherein his aunt Ying Nan was welcomed back to live among them right when the adult children of the late members who banished Ying Nan, notably the Immortal Weapon Fat Cobra, apologized on their parents' behalf for unjustly banishing her in the past.
Accepting Heroics
Seemingly returning into a normal life as he usually expected upon returning to California, Shang-Chi would never expect for his newfound ally Tony Stark to recommend him into the Avengers International roster representing his homeland of China and meanwhile, he also received an invitation from Danny Rand back in New York to join the Defenders' Heroes for Hire, being the first member of their newly-established branch in San Francisco. Shang-Chi and his closed loved ones couldn't be more overwhelmed in joy and excitement to receive such wonderful news, rendering him not to reject nor necessarily accept the offers in the next few weeks, until he has made the decision to accept both opportunities of making a living as a hero since he was able to maintain both work schedules quite separately, thanks to the help of his close friends, who were experts in dealing with such conflicting matters. Throughout the years, Shang-Chi crossed paths with the Avengers ever since he joined their international roster until his eventual disbandment and embarked on countless adventures, forming alliances with the E.D.I., S.P.E.A.R., and the Agents of Atlas, whom he joined from time to time to battle against various rising threats and villainy across the Eastern part of the globe.
Descent of Ta-Lo
In the span of five years since he started operating as a superhero, Shang-Chi made a pact with the Xialing, the Immortal Weapons, and trusted members of the Five Hands Society to divide and keep their father's Makluan rings due to some terrorist groups and other shady agencies embarking on their quest to retrieve and use the power of rings for their own nefarious intentions since the death of the Mandarin and the fall of the Ten Rings. The first five rings were under Xialing's possession, while the rest were kept in the safest hands inside an undisclosed location within one of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven. However, the ruins of their father's destruction across the Seven Capital Cities didn't go unnoticed by its very makers — the Xian — who was revealed to have been tracking down the cosmic energy still stored within the Ten Rings, binding with the chi of those who wish to use them.
As they were called by their relatives and allies in Peng Lai due to the arrival of Ta-Lo's Chieftain Xin, the Xu siblings returned to the mystical village, wherein they learned that while the Makluans (dragons) were its inventors, the shared owners of the mystical rings were the Xian, mortals who ascended into godhood residing in Ta-Lo. Xin introduced himself as the right hand man of the Xian known by followers and in mythology as the Jade Emperor, who sent Xin to lead a secret group comprised of fellow deities and royal guards from Ta-Lo, and travelled to the Seven Cities to retrieve the rings for the Emperor to win a war against supposed "forces of darkness". The armed forces' desperation to take the Rings for the Emperor eventually rendered them hostile against the citizens of the very cities which they once protected, inevitably clashing with Shang-Chi and the rest of the Immortal Weapons, having pledged themselves as the new protectors of their realms ever since their gods have seemingly abandoned them during the modern ages.
When the Jade Emperor himself came down from Ta-Lo to assist his group with confronting the Immortal Weapons and attempt to reestablish his order and presence in the Seven Capital Cities, Shang-Chi reluctantly harnessed the power of his father's rings and used them against its makers after believing that the Jade Emperor has gone berserk, hearing from Xin that the Emperor would even get his followers and people killed just to retrieve his long lost weapons after hearing the lineage of Shang-Chi as the son of the late Mandarin, recently learning of Xu Wenwu's reputation a deadly mortal who used the Ten Rings for centuries and tried to infiltrated the Seven Capital Cities so he could ascend into godhood, just like the gods, and rule over humanity with his violent methods and extreme ideologies.
The intensified battle between the gods of Ta-Lo and the Immortal Weapons would result with Shang-Chi and the Immortal Weapons besting Xin and his most formidable comrades, before he would even match the Emperor's power in his state of berserk. However, the Emperor was revealed to be getting frail by the minute he exert cosmic energy from his body, and it was the moment he unveiled the grim truth about the current state of Ta-Lo. Most of the Xians were raided and slaughtered by the mysterious God Butcher, and the destruction he left slowly rendered the surviving gods to lose their cosmic powers and status as gods, unless they reignite it with the energy within the Rings, the last set created. Seeing the ingenuity and determination of the weakening Emperor, Shang-Chi offered the rings to him as long as they're in good hands, although Chieftain Xin would retaliate against him as he tried claiming the rings on his own, revealing that he tried to frame the Emperor into appearing as a deity gone rogue, just as the former has heard from Xin that Shang-Chi was trying to succeed his late father's mission.
After clearing the air with Xin's treasonous insubordination and subsequent defeat, the Emperor and his fellow gods were able to use the rings channel the cosmic energy stored within them with the assistance of Fin Fang Foom, and successfully renovate the once demolished Ta-Lo, reconditioning it into a more open and extensive realm that could be easily accessed through Peng Lai, wherein Shang-Chi and Xialing's maternal family tree have resided and served as its guardians for millennia, with Emperor appointing compassionate and worthier citizens who would take the place of their fallen gods in Ta-Lo as newly-ascended deities. One of the ascended divine included Shang-Chi and Xialing's aunt, Ying Nan, who led the guardians of Peng-Lai ever since she returned to her home and being bestowed with godly powers, she could now serve and protect all the people of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven due to their direct connection to Ta-Lo.
As a token of honor and gratitude for his act of selflessness in restoring Ta-Lo and saving its residents, the Emperor reshaped what was left of the rings into hung gar iron rings, wishing to rehabilitate the benevolence of the rings after its long-time use of violence and conquest by the warlord Mandarin, and gifted them to Shang-Chi once more, lending them powers (albeit with lesser energy, which some mortal could handle) that could be activated through channeling his inner chi as he could continue using them—in moderation—for good, in his pursuit as a superhero in the Earthly dimension. In return, Shang-Chi would offer his help to the Xians with dealing against the God Butcher should he ever return, in order to give justice for the fallen gods and mortals who didn't deserve such a brutal demise.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
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Shang-Chi harnessing the Ten Rings in its rejuvenated form
Chi Manipulation: Shang-Chi is one of the greatest martial artists on Earth, having been trained since birth to become the ultimate warrior. Shang-Chi is skilled in various martial arts with a particular specialization in the Chinese martial arts. He has been shown defeating multiple highly skilled opponents simultaneously as well as superhumans. While not considered to be superhuman himself, his great strength and tapping into his chi allows him to strike with inhuman force enabling him to break through barriers such as brick, concrete and iron, withstand physical impacts almost to a superhuman degree, and ease all forms of pain and discomfort. Shang-Chi has stalemated Iron Fist in single combat, with some other fighters stating that Shang-Chi is a fighter better than Rand even without the need of chi. Having acquired his father's Makluan Rings and learning how to amplify them after he discovered its deeper origins as mystical weapons of divine gods, Shang-Chi's powers of channeling of chi were enhanced to superhuman levels, and could potentially reach a nigh-godly state in a similar fashion to his father when he last faced him. However, such a comparison only proved the lethality of his usage of the Ten Rings for a mortal especially for someone in a deranged state, as Shang-Chi would keep himself mentally and spiritually sound, balancing his time wearing the weapons, and either limiting the number of rings he wore or only using them if necessary.
- Nervous System Control
- Enhanced Speed & Reflexes
- Energy Generation
- Heightened Awareness
- Enhanced Senses
- Environmental Adaptation
- Enhanced Healing
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| Intelligence |
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| Strength* |
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| Speed* |
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| Durability* |
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| Energy Projection* |
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| Fighting Skills |
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| * Heightened stats when empowered by the use of chi and further enhancement from the Ten Rings | |||||
Abilities
- Master Martial Artist
- Master of Kung Fu
- Peak Human Physical Conditioning
- Peak Human Strength
- Peak Human Speed
- Peak Human Stamina
- Peak Human Durability
- Peak Human Agility
- Peak Human Reflexes
- Master Martial Artist
- Skilled Marksman
- Weapons Proficiency
- Nervous System Control
- Pressure Point Locator
- Espionage
- Philosopher
- Multilingual
- Skilled Fisher
- Adept Acrobat
- Staff Mastery
Strength level
Class 15+
Weaknesses
None known.
Paraphernalia
Equipment:
- Ceremonial Uniform
- Avengers Uniform (formerly; destroyed)
Transportation:
- Flight (Ten Makluan Rings)
- Levitation
- Levitation
Weapons:
- Makluan Power Rings
- Teleportation
- Molecular Manipulation
- Self-Molecular Manipulation
- Nigh-Invulnerability
- Self-Molecular Manipulation
- Energy Manipulation
- Cosmic Energy Blasts
- Force-Field Generation
- Energy Projection
- Energy Whip
- Elemental Manipulation
- Earth Manipulation
- Air Manipulation
- Fire Manipulation
- Water/Ice Manipulation
- Electric Blasts
- Light Manipulation
- Darkness Manipulation
- Electromagnetic Manipulation
- Limited Illusion Casting
- Various owned arsenal
- Nunchaku
- Swords
- Shuriken
- Kali Sticks
- Staves
Notes
- No special notes.
- ↑ Modern Comics: Defenders Vol 2 30
Trivia
- As a spiritual-based philosopher, Shang-Chi devoutly practices Buddhism, interested on whether he'd be able to seek to achieve bodhi, the spiritual state of enlightenment, one day.
- Shang-Chi developed a romantic relationship with fellow Defender Maya Lopez only a few months into joining the team's Heroes for Hire, as they initially bonded over how similar background and journeys were, from escaping their deceitful mentors as well as facing their demons by becoming heroes. While they fell in love, the two didn't start dating until the fall of 2024.
See Also
- Appearances of Xu Shang-Chi (Earth-61615)
- Character Gallery: Xu Shang-Chi (Earth-61615)
- Quotations by Xu Shang-Chi (Earth-61615)
Discover and Discuss
- Search News for: Xu Shang-Chi · Xu Shang-Chi (Earth-61615)
Links and References
- None.