Spider-Man and Shang-Chi’s History in the Marvel Comics

Spider-Man 4 is kicking into gear. Following reports that Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton is in talks to direct the Marvel Studios-Sony Pictures production, speculation began to swirl that the next installment for Tom Holland’s wall-crawler will feature a team-up with Simu Liu’s Master of Kung Fu (who last appeared in his own solo film in 2021). That would continue the trend for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which paired the webhead with co-stars Iron Man (in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming), Nick Fury (in 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home), and Doctor Strange (2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home).

Shortly after his debut appearance in the pages of 1973’s Special Marvel Edition #15 by co-creators Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin, Shang-Chi went toe-to-toe with Spider-Man for the first time in 1974’s Giant-Size Spider-Man #2. The martial arts master was framed for crimes committed by his father, Zheng Zu (known at the time as Fu Manchu, based on the criminal mastermind licensed from the Sax Rohmer novels), who pit the two heroes against each other under the false pretense that the other was the leader of a gang planning to destroy a power plant.

The hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, proved formidable despite Spider-Man’s strength, skills, and stamina, so the fight ended in a standstill. Spider-Man and Shang-Chi called a truce when they realized the manipulations of Shang-Chi’s father, and the pair joined forces to foil the diabolical Doctor Fu Manchu (who Spider-Man mistakenly assumed was a fictional character).

Spidey and Shang-Chi crossed paths again in a two-part story featuring Nick Fury and Black Widow in 1979’s Marvel Team-Up #84-#85, where the terrorist Viper — along with her bodyguard, the Silver Samurai, and the hired assassin Boomerang — plotted to crash a S.H.I.E.L.D. Heli-Carrier into the United States Capitol and destabilize the American government.

After teaming up with Captain America and the Falcon to defeat a supervillain mob that included Spider-Man villains like the Rhino, Shocker, Tarantula, Speed Demon, and Scorpion (in 1993’s Captain America #413), Shang-Chi trained Spider-Man in “the Way of the Spider” — Spider-martial arts — after the web-slinger lost his Spider-Sense (in 2011’s Amazing Spider-Man #664).

Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense was eventually restored after the Jackal infested Manhattan with genetically engineered bed bugs that spread Spidey-powers with their bite and turned the borough into Spider-Island. Shang-Chi possessed his own spider-powers for a time (in the tie-in comic Spider-Island: Deadly Hands of Kung Fu) and joined forces with the Avengers and Iron Fist’s Immortal Weapons — Bride of Nine Spiders, Dog Brother, Tiger’s Beautiful Daughter, Fat Cobra, and Prince of Orphans — to help defeat the Spider-Queen’s mutated army (in Amazing Spider-Man #672).

In 2021’s Shang-Chi series by Gene Luen Yang and Dike Ruan, the titular hero took over as Supreme Commander of his father’s cult-like organization, the Five Weapons Society. No longer needing to compensate for his lost Spider-Sense, Spider-Man admitted he stopped practicing the Way of the Spider — despite Shang-Chi advising him the fighting style would only make his extrasensory abilities even stronger. When the villain King Wild Man transformed Spider-Man into a Spider-Monster (in Shang-Chi #1), the Brother Hand and his half-sister, Zheng Esme/Sister Dagger, were able to subdue and cure his mutated form.

Most recently, Shang-Chi used the Society’s criminal power as a force for good when a city-wide gang war broke out (in Amazing Spider-Man: Gang War: First Strike). As the all-out turf war between New York’s crime families reached Chinatown, Shang-Chi — commanding the power of the Ten Rings — warned rival gangs led by Mister Negative and Lady Yulan that Chinatown was under the protection of the Five Weapons Society. 

Shang-Chi assured Spider-Man that the Society “is not a crime family” (in 2023’s Deadly Hands of Kung Fu: Gang War #1), and in the final battle of the gang war, Spider-Man’s superhero team — including Shang-Chi, Daredevil (Elektra), Luke Cage, Iron Fist, She-Hulk, and Spider-Woman — defeated the Madame Masque-led Maggia to end the Gang War event (in Amazing Spider-Man #44).

For more installments of ComicBook Back Issues, read Spider-Man’s Strangest Tales With the Sorcerer Supreme, Matt Murdock Defends Spider-Man & Peter Parker in Court, How Doctor Strange Solved Spider-Man’s Identity Crisis, The Death (and Return) of Spider-Man’s Aunt May, The Osborn Legacy: Green Goblin as Spider-Man’s Maniacal Mortal Enemy, and Spider-Man’s Deadliest Foes Form the Sinister Six.