Special Marvel Edition #16
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeSpecial Marvel Edition #16 is the second chapter of Shang-Chi's debut arc and the single issue in which the series immediately proved it could deliver emotionally resonant storytelling, not just martial-arts spectacle. It introduces Midnight (M'Nai) — Shang-Chi's adoptive brother, childhood friend, and now Fu Manchu's deadliest agent — whose first appearance, full origin, and death all occur within the same twenty pages, creating a tragic mirror for the hero's own moral awakening. That compressed dramatic arc gave Bronze Age readers a taste of the morally complex, character-driven writing that would define the long Master of Kung Fu run that followed. Because M'Nai is later resurrected by the Kree as the cosmically powered Midnight Sun, this issue is also the origin point for a villain who crossed genres from martial-arts thriller to outer-space science fiction.
In Special Marvel Edition #16 (1974), Shang-Chi faces a haunting reunion with his past when his childhood friend M’nai—now the deadly assassin Midnight—comes seeking revenge under Fu Manchu’s command. Written by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin, with art by Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom, this gripping tale unfolds in the shadowy streets of New York, where loyalty and violence collide. The cover by Jim Starlin captures the tension of a duel between old friends, rendered in stark, dramatic lines.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 19 grades ▾
This exact issue on ebay
CGC 9.6 ▾ $185–$325 3 listings
CGC 9.4 ▾ $112–$195 4 listings
Raw — NM- ▾ $35–$320 6 listings
Raw — FN/VF ▾ $39.99–$40 2 listings
Raw — FINE ▾ $24.99–$31.99 3 listings
Raw — FN ▾ $14.5–$98 10 listings
Raw / ungraded ▾ $9.99–$165 30 listings
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Writer Steve Englehart and artist Jim Starlin originally pitched a comic adaptation of the TV series Kung Fu to DC Comics, which declined; they then brought a kung fu-focused original concept to Marvel, where editor-in-chief Roy Thomas agreed only on the condition that the series incorporate Marvel's licensed Sax Rohmer property Fu Manchu and that the protagonist be half-white. The first issue (Special Marvel Edition #15) launched the character, and issue #16 — cover-dated February 1974, with an on-sale date recorded as November 13, 1973 — continued the run with the same creative team of Englehart, Starlin (co-plotter and layouts), inker Al Milgrom, letterers Tom Orzechowski and June Braverman, colorist Linda Lessmann, and editor Roy Thomas. Englehart would depart after one more issue due to editorial disputes with Thomas, while Starlin left out of embarrassment after learning of the racist underpinnings of Rohmer's source novels — a discomfort that arose while working on this very second issue of the series.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: February 1974 (on-sale date recorded as November 13, 1973); published by Marvel Comics as Special Marvel Edition #16.
- Story title: 'Midnight Brings Dark Death!' — written by Steve Englehart, with Jim Starlin on co-plot and layouts, Al Milgrom on inks, and Roy Thomas as editor.
- First appearance, origin revealed, and death of Midnight (M'Nai) — Shang-Chi's adoptive African-born brother, raised alongside him by Fu Manchu (Zheng Zu) in Honan, China, and depicted here as Fu Manchu's foremost assassin.
- First appearance of Hell's Ryders (biker gang antagonists: Ripper, Mr. Clean, Chevy) and T'Maka (in flashback only).
- Second appearance of Shang-Chi (his debut was Special Marvel Edition #15, December 1973), with the story set in New York City's Central Park and a construction-site climax where Midnight dies after his cloak snags on a crane hook.
- This is the final issue published under the Special Marvel Edition title — with issue #17 (April 1974) the series was retitled The Hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, continuing the same numbering.
- M'Nai's body was later recovered by the Kree, whose scientist Kar-Sagg transplanted his brain into a superhuman clone body, renaming him Midnight Sun — debuting in that form in Silver Surfer vol. 3 #29 (November 1989) — making this issue the origin point for a character who later fought across both the kung fu and cosmic corners of the Marvel universe.
- The story has been reprinted in The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #15 (1975), the Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu Omnibus vol. 1 (2016), and the Master of Kung Fu Epic Collection vol. 1: Weapon of the Soul (2018).
Cast · 5 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Mästaren på karate #1/1974 (1974), Relatos Salvajes Artes Marciales #2 (1974), The Avengers #31 (1974), Kung-Fu #2 (1974), Meester der Kung Fu #[1] (1975), Mestre do Kung Fu #1 (1975), The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #15 (1975), Eclipso #65 (1979), Mästaren på karate #1/1993 (1993), Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu Omnibus #1 (2016), Master of Kung Fu Epic Collection #1 (2018), Maître du Kung-Fu #2, Μάστερ Κούνγκ Φου [Master of Kung Fu] #4, Shang-Chi Maestro del Kung Fu #2
Key issues in Special Marvel Edition
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.