Master of Kung Fu #43
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMaster of Kung Fu #43 — titled 'A Flash of Purple Sparks' — is the climactic second chapter of the Shockwave two-parter that forms the heart of the long-running 'Oriental Expediters' espionage arc, one of the most celebrated multi-issue story threads in Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy's run on the title. The issue delivers the first full defeat of Lancaster Sneed/Shockwave by Shang-Chi and, crucially, reveals Shockwave's blood relationship to Sir Denis Nayland Smith — a character twist rooted in pulp-fiction tradition that deepened the entire MI-6 supporting cast's backstory. It also marks the first appearance of Sir Herbert Griswold, and it sits squarely inside what critics and Comics Bulletin both identified as one of the top Bronze Age Marvel runs, a stretch (roughly issues #38–50) widely regarded as the creative peak of Gulacy's tenure on the book.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The issue was written by Doug Moench, penciled by Paul Gulacy, inked by Jack Abel, colored by Petra Goldberg, lettered by Gaspar Saladino, and edited by Marv Wolfman — the same tight unit that drove the series through its most celebrated phase. Gulacy, who had been inspired by Jim Steranko's cinematic Nick Fury work, brought a spy-film visual sensibility to the title that comics historian Les Daniels singled out for praise; the Moench–Gulacy collaboration on Master of Kung Fu ran continuously from 1974 through issue #50 (March 1977), culminating in the apparent death of Fu Manchu. Issue #43 was released on May 11, 1976, with an August 1976 cover date, and exists in both the standard 25-cent edition and a limited 30-cent price variant.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Story title: 'A Flash of Purple Sparks'; Part 2 of 2 (direct continuation from #42).
- Second appearance of Shockwave (Lancaster Sneed) — his first appearance was Master of Kung Fu #42 (July 1976), not #43.
- First appearance of Sir Herbert Griswold, confirmed by both the Marvel Fandom wiki and the Grand Comics Database.
- Shockwave is revealed within this issue to be the nephew of series regular Sir Denis Nayland Smith, a story revelation that recontextualizes his villainous motivation.
- Creative team: writer Doug Moench, penciler Paul Gulacy, inker Jack Abel, cover art by Rich Buckler, editor Marv Wolfman.
- A 30-cent limited-distribution price variant of this issue exists alongside the standard 25-cent edition.
- The story was reprinted in the French anthology Eclipso #75 (Arédit-Artima, 1981) in black-and-white, and later collected in the Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu Omnibus Vol. 2 (Marvel, 2016) and the Master of Kung Fu Epic Collection Vol. 2: Fight Without Pity (Marvel, 2019).
- The issue falls within Gulacy's #38–50 run, which Comics Bulletin ranked sixth on its 'Top 10 1970s Marvels' list in 2010 and which comics scholar Les Daniels cited as the creative high point of the series.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Eclipso #75 (1981), Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu Omnibus #2 (2016), Master of Kung Fu Epic Collection #2 (2019), Shang-Chi Maestro del Kung Fu #33
Key issues in Master of Kung Fu
Variants (2)
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