Post by brentlambert on May 10, 2011 12:41:24 GMT -5
MASTER OF KUNG-FU 2010: Year In Review
(#2-3) by David Brashear
Cast: Shang Chi, Black Jack Tarr, Leiko, Clive Reston, Dennis Smith, Fah Lo Suee,
Antagonists Faced: Fu Manchu, Si-Fan, Shinobi Shaw
Standout Character: Shang-Chi
Best Moment: Revelation of Fu Manchu’s real identity
Overall: While I normally start with the good of a story, I’m going to start this time with the downside to this title that I found. It’s too short. While stories don’t have to be very long I found it to be somewhat jarring in reading in how there were so many barely a paragraph scenes one after another with line breaks between them in some of the issues. It felt like if a show or movie had a quick scene jump every few seconds for no real reason. I get what was trying to be done but it sort of brought me out of the reading experience a bit. Won’t be the same for all of course as some prefer shorter stories over longer ones.
The good things about this series are just about everything else. Shang-Chi is another one of those characters that I’m not very familiar without outside his basic history and his martial arts mastery. David does a very good job of not leaving the readers confused about anything in the story from the Si-Fan and who they are to Fu Manchu and his place in the story. Like Rom in the Tales to Astonish I did find it funny how in recent Marvel Comics they have to not name Fu Manchu cause of legal reasons, but because we work in the medium of fan fiction his name can be used quite easily with no thought of Marvel not holding the rights to him. The revelation with Fu Manchu and the inclusion of Shinobi Shaw caught me off guard at first, having not realized he was dibbed for the title as well, but it fit very well with Shinobi’s motivations in canon history and his current place in Astonishing. Hopefully towards the resolution with these antagonists there will be more action of Shang-Chi cutting loose as I’m very interested in seeing him live up to the title of the series.
(#2-3) by David Brashear
Cast: Shang Chi, Black Jack Tarr, Leiko, Clive Reston, Dennis Smith, Fah Lo Suee,
Antagonists Faced: Fu Manchu, Si-Fan, Shinobi Shaw
Standout Character: Shang-Chi
Best Moment: Revelation of Fu Manchu’s real identity
Overall: While I normally start with the good of a story, I’m going to start this time with the downside to this title that I found. It’s too short. While stories don’t have to be very long I found it to be somewhat jarring in reading in how there were so many barely a paragraph scenes one after another with line breaks between them in some of the issues. It felt like if a show or movie had a quick scene jump every few seconds for no real reason. I get what was trying to be done but it sort of brought me out of the reading experience a bit. Won’t be the same for all of course as some prefer shorter stories over longer ones.
The good things about this series are just about everything else. Shang-Chi is another one of those characters that I’m not very familiar without outside his basic history and his martial arts mastery. David does a very good job of not leaving the readers confused about anything in the story from the Si-Fan and who they are to Fu Manchu and his place in the story. Like Rom in the Tales to Astonish I did find it funny how in recent Marvel Comics they have to not name Fu Manchu cause of legal reasons, but because we work in the medium of fan fiction his name can be used quite easily with no thought of Marvel not holding the rights to him. The revelation with Fu Manchu and the inclusion of Shinobi Shaw caught me off guard at first, having not realized he was dibbed for the title as well, but it fit very well with Shinobi’s motivations in canon history and his current place in Astonishing. Hopefully towards the resolution with these antagonists there will be more action of Shang-Chi cutting loose as I’m very interested in seeing him live up to the title of the series.