A young Shang-Chi will embark on his very first adventure in the new graphic novel “Shang-Chi and the Quest for Immortality.” Marvel shared some insights from writer Victoria Ying on the new graphic novel coming in October.
- The new graphic novel will follow a twelve-year-old Shang-Chi and and his younger sister, Shi-Hua, the only children in the grand palace of the Five Weapons Society. Their father, Zheng-Zu, is a harsh master, and all Shang-Chi wants is to prove himself in his father’s eyes.
- When Shang-Chi overhears that his father’s powers may be waning and discovers an ancient scroll that might be the key to helping him get those powers back, Shang-Chi knows exactly what to do. For the first time in his life, he sneaks out of the palace and into the outside world, hoping to return with one of the legendary Peaches of Immortality to gift his father.
- But the world beyond the palace is very different from everything Shang-Chi has been taught, especially a boy called Lu, who knows more about Zheng-Zu than he should. With his home and father’s health on the line, Shang-Chi cannot fail in his quest—but does his father deserve to be saved?
- Writer Victoria Ying discussed the new graphic novel and explained her reasoning for the story she chose:
- “One of the things that intrigued me the most about Shang-Chi as a character was his complicated relationship to his father. I wanted to explore what it would be like to be a young person and what it felt like to constantly crave and strive for approval, before throwing it all away and rejecting the need for understanding from his father. It's a journey I can relate to and I wanted to show Shang-Chi in the years before he set out against his father.”
- Ying also shared her excitement for telling a story about a younger version of the character:
- “I love writing for young people because the issues that they face are ones that we can all relate to. Preteens and teens are figuring out who they are. They're out in the world and trying to define who they will be. That journey is deeply fascinating to me, and even more so with a character like Shang-Chi, who has to do a hard thing and break away from the traditions of his family.”
'Shang-Chi and the Quest for Immortality' interior artwork by Victoria Ying and Ian Herring
- She also drew on a personal relationship for her inspiration for at least one aspect of the story:
- “I have my own younger brother and I drew a lot on that relationship. When you're siblings, you're team members; you're on a team you didn't necessarily choose, but you're both the only people in the whole wide world who know your parents as well as you do. I wanted to show Shi-Hua being a normal little sister, both in how annoying little siblings can be, but also in how essential they are as partners in crime.”
- “Shang-Chi and the Quest for Immortality” introduces a new character and Ying shared some information on him:
- “Lu is a character who shares a lot of Shang-Chi's feelings about his father, but from a different perspective. I wanted to show Shang-Chi an alternative version of his own life through Lu. Lu is a lot like Shang-Chi—more than he expected—but he's been through a lot and has to deal with his own journey of breaking away from expectations.”
- Finally, Ying shared some insight on her art for the graphic novel:
- “I wanted to use a brushy style of illustration for this book. My grandfather was a Chinese calligrapher, and I wanted to honor my heritage by drawing my comic book characters with brushes that emulated traditional brush strokes. Ian Herring is the colorist for this book and he did an absolutely incredible job pushing it to be even better than I could have imagined. His colors paired with the inks was a wonderful collaboration and I love how the artwork turned out for this!”
- “Shang-Chi and the Quest for Immortality” will arrive on October 3rd. You can preorder your copy on Amazon now.