Deadly hands of Kung Fu #6
Back in the 70's when Marvel started doing black/white magazine sized comics. After Savage Tales and Savage Sword of Conan this was one of the next titles. I picked it up for 2 main reasons. First off it has Shang Chi story,and over the past few years I had discovered I really enjoyed the Shang Chi comic. Secondly I found this super cheap. If I recall correctly I got it for $4 shipped off EBay. I have looked at the two big online comic shops. And to get it in the condition mine is it would run me at least $6.
Now I am not sure if the format for this issue is how it normally is. But this issue has two fairly long comics. And one article on 3,as of the time,current Bruce Lee movies. One article on style of kicks in Martial arts. Now I would have rather had 3 stories and one article. But oh well.
The first comic is a story starring the Sons of the Tiger. They are a group of 3 martial artist who have a necklace that is in 3 parts. When they join the parts they get super human strength,agility,and stamina. The story is written by Jim Dennis and the art is by George Perez and Frank Springer.We start the story with Robert Diamond sneaking down a darken hallway. But he gets attacked by 4 men with bo staffs. Robert fights his way to freedom. And some time later the Sons of the Tiger are headed to a martial arts tournament. These fights aren't suppose to be full contact. But it seems the referee is on the side of the Son's rivals. So the rivals are making full contact. Even with this cheating Lin,one of the Sons,manages to win. He ask the judges to suspend the no full contact rule for the next 30 seconds. And he goes and kicks some major ass. We jump ahead to later that night . The evil ref has kidnapped a lady that knows the Sons. So she manages to sneak off and calls Robert. So the Sons of the Tiger go to rescue her. We get a great few pages of fights all set at a circus. And at first they have the upper hand. But soon the over whelming numbers get the best of them. So they join the 3 pieces of the necklace together and power up. Powered up they easily manage to defeat the bad guys. While the artwork is great. But the story is very lacking. Really it seems to just be a way to show lots of martial art fighting.
We get the Bruce Lee movie article next.It is four pages. Nothing special at all. And really there isn't that much text. It is mostly pictures.
After that is a 3 page article of kicks in the martial arts. I am sure if I was into martial arts this would have been more interesting to me. But since I am not it isn't . Really if it was up to me they could have taken this article and the Bruce Lee one and used those pages for another comic.
Now we get a short 2 page article about the creation of a new "pulp" novel. That has a martial artist as the lead. Funny thing this artist is named Richard Dragon. I am pretty sure that is the same name of a someone in the DC universe. I am wondering if this novel ever came out.
To wrap the issue up with get a 16 page Shang Chi story. Written by Doug Moench and art by Mike Vosburg and Bob McLeod.Shang Chi walks into the nearest town to get something to eat. He stops at a burger joint. A couple of bikers start to rag on him. But one of their girlfriends goes over to talk to Shang Chi. This pisses off her boyfriend and his biker friends. A few of them attack Shang Chi but he easily defeats them. As he is leaving the girl ask to go with him.They walk around the city and talk. But the biker gang find him and attack him. We get a nice fight that last quite a few pages. Finally it is down to Shang Chi and the leader of the gang. The leader tries to attack Chi with a knife but the girl jumps in the way. She gets stabbed and dies. This pisses off Chi. And he goes into a rage. And beats the living shit outta the gang leader. After knocking the leader out. Chi feels great sorrow for doing this. And he heads off. I love the artwork in this one. It has a flow to it that makes it seem like a great martial art film. It is the best thing in this issue.
Like I said earlier ,I am not sure if every issue has the same format as this. If so I really don't see me getting anymore issues. Partially cause most back issues of this magazine cost at least $7 or more. And I can't justify paying that much for one great story,one middle of the road story. And some meh articles. Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #6 gets D.