Master of Kung Fu #108
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMaster of Kung Fu #108, titled 'Chameleons,' represents the Moench-and-Day creative partnership at full throttle during what many fans and critics regard as the second great peak of the series — a stretch of Cold War espionage storytelling that rivaled the celebrated Gulacy years. The issue brings the newly introduced KGB defector Mia Lessing (Dark Angel) into full operational play alongside Shang-Chi's Freelance Restorations team, threading a body-double deception plot through the streets of London that showcases Moench's fondness for le Carré-inflected moral ambiguity in a Marvel superhero context. As one of the final chapters produced by Gene Day before his sudden death in September 1982, it belongs to a tragically short but critically acclaimed solo penciling run that Comics Bulletin later ranked among the top ten Marvel achievements of the 1970s-into-80s era.
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Doug Moench scripted the issue under editor Denny O'Neil, with Jim Shooter serving as Editor-in-Chief — a regime whose friction with Gene Day over Day's Steranko-influenced, non-grid panel layouts was well documented and contributed to an atmosphere of editorial tension during this final phase of Day's run. Day had taken over full penciling duties with issue #102 after inking Mike Zeck for years, and by #108 he was handling pencils, inks, and cover art simultaneously on a monthly schedule. The issue was released to newsstands on October 20, 1981, carrying a January 1982 cover date, and was produced during the same brutal stretch of deadlines that, according to contemporaneous accounts, severely strained Day's health in the months leading up to his death.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Story title is 'Chameleons'; cover date January 1982, on-sale date October 20, 1981.
- Full creative credits: writer Doug Moench, penciler/inker/cover artist Gene Day, colorist Christie Scheele, letterer Janice Chiang, editor Denny O'Neil.
- Dark Angel (Mia Lessing), the KGB defector, appears as a supporting character; her first appearance was one issue earlier in Master of Kung Fu #107 — making this her second appearance.
- The plot turns on Dark Angel alerting Shang-Chi's team that Winston Markham is a double agent inside the British Ministry of Defense, then revealing that the 'Dark Angel' who betrayed them mid-mission was a surgically disguised KGB body double — the real Mia Lessing had been captured.
- All five key supporting characters indexed for this issue — Black Jack Tarr, Clive Reston, Denis Nayland Smith, Leiko Wu, and Mia Lessing — appear together, illustrating how richly populated Moench's ensemble had become by this late stage of the run.
- Gene Day served as sole penciler, inker, and cover artist — a triple role he held from issue #102 onward after Mike Zeck's departure; Day died of a heart attack on September 23, 1982, shortly after completing issue #120.
- The issue was collected in Marvel's Master of Kung Fu Omnibus Vol. 4, which gathers issues #102–125 along with Marvel Comics Presents #1–8 and the Bleeding Black one-shot.
- Both a direct-edition and a newsstand edition exist, as well as a Mark Jewelers insert variant — a standard tri-variant configuration common to Marvel's early-1980s distribution.
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Reprints
↩ Reprints [Marvel Hostess Ads] #66 (1982)
Reprinted in Eks almanah #441 (1985), Superaventuras Marvel #50 (1986), Superaventuras Marvel #54 (1986), Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu Omnibus #4 (2017)
Key issues in Master of Kung Fu
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