Call me Shang-Chi, as my father did when he raised me and molded my mind and my body in the vacuum of his Honan, China retreat.”

With these words, begins the saga of the ‘Master of Kung Fu’.

Shang-Chi first appears in Special Marvel Edition #15 (cover date: December 1973).

Here’s a Marvel comic that should probably be worth a bit more than it currently is. Once upon a time, after the announcement of the live-action ‘Iron Fist’ Netflix series, there were rumors that Shang-Chi would also get his own series on Netflix. These days, discussions on this matter are silent. Would a Shang-Chi series be worthwhile? I think so, and if not his own series, an appearance or two on either ‘Luke Cage’, ‘Iron Fist’ or one of the other Marvel Netflix shows would probably be enough to give Special Marvel Edition #15 the push it needs to go into a higher price range. A standalone Marvel movie would certainly do it.

Who is Shang-Chi? What’s the appeal of this character?

Created by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin, Shang-Chi was arguably Marvel’s most successful artistic attempt to capitalize on the 1970s kung fu and karate craze. It began at the movies ('Enter the Dragon' starring Bruce Lee was released by Warner Brothers in 1973) and on US Television, where the series ‘Kung Fu’ starring David Carradine was a huge hit on ABC running from 1972-1975. From there, the kung fu fighting craze quickly spread to comics. This was the same wave that saw the birth of characters like Iron Fist and White Tiger (and DC heroes like Karate Kid and Richard Dragon, the Kung Fu fighter).

Shang-Chi was trained to be a living weapon, his name meant “The Rising and Advancing of a Spirit”. Honing his fighting skills to almost perfect levels, Shang-Chi’s father wanted him to murder his enemy Dr. Petrie. When Shang-Chi learned that his father, Fu Manchu, was actually one of the most insidiously evil men on earth, he faked his own death, joined with his father’s enemy Sir Denis Nayland Smith, and tried to stop his father’s criminal plans.

Noble and driven, the appeal of Shang-Chi resided in how he tried to do the right thing and was willing to turn against his own father to protect his honor and live up to the meaning of his name. In The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #2 (June 1974), we get Shang-Chi’s origin story, and that comic is also worth seeking out, but it’s his first appearance in Special Marvel Edition #15 that’s the sleeper key that might really pay off.

Other Bronze Age comics featuring first appearances of popular characters from around the same time, i.e. Hero for Hire #1 (first Luke Cage), Marvel Premiere #15 (first Iron Fist), Spider-woman #1 and Nova #1, have all spiked in value in recent years.

Special Marvel Edition #15 has likewise gone up in price, as a quick look at the available stats from Gocollect.com makes clear. The last Ebay sale of a 9.8 graded copy, for example, was for an impressive $2, 200.00 which places returns on that grade for this comic at over 30%, and that was just one month ago. This might have been a fluke one-off, but figures in other grades support that the value of SME #15 has been steadily rising. In 9.6 grades, returns are up 38%, in 9.4 grade: 31.1%; in 9.0 grade: 14.7%.

This may seem tame compared to, e.g., Hero for Hire #1 with its 333% increase in value on 9.8 graded copies, but Shang-Chi’s numbers are nothing to shake a round house kick at. So it is safe to say that  Special Marvel Edition #15 is growing in value, while it may not be doing so at the same pace or extent as some of the other Bronze Age books mentioned above, it's more than keeping up with others.

That might mean that it’s probably as good a time as any to pick up this comic. Will 2019 be the year that  Special Marvel Edition #15 consolidates its rise and advance? Only time will tell.