The Origin of the Sons of the Tiger - a Review from DHoKF 1

Deadly Hands of Kung fu #1 (April 1974)
"Sons of the Tiger!"
Gerry Conway-Dick Giordano

My first exposure to the Sons of the Tiger was in Marvel Team-Up #40 (December 1975 cover date), which was actually the 16th appearance of the team. But as I've mentioned, the Marvel (and other publishers') B&W mags were at the same time forbidden fruit and an economic barrier to me. C'mon... 75c for no color? What dope would do that when he could get three full-color comics? Yeah, this all falls into the "If I had a time machine, I'd..." conversation. Anyway, I liked what I'd seen in that MTU, but really had no other color outlet for these guys. I wasn't a Master of Kung fu or Iron Fist reader, so I wasn't going to bump into them there. Thus it was around 40+ years until I got the Deadly Hands of Kung fu Omnibus, volume 1, for Christmas 2016. Better late than never, I say!

What would you think about launching this with a 100-Word Review of the 15-page story? I thought so.

We open on the streets of San Francisco, where a young Chinese-American named Lin Sun is attacked by ninjas near his martial arts school. Dispatching them quickly, Lin goes inside the school to find it ransacked and his sensei, Master Kee, near death. But before the old man passes, he gives Lin a talisman shaped like a jade tiger. Lin seeks out his friends Abe Brown and Bob Diamond. Both men were also attacked, and evidence leads to the ninja school of Sui Ti Kama. A battle ensues, with the newly-christened Sons of the Tiger victorious. But drugs deepen the plot…

As is typical of my reviews, I'd like to organize my assessment of the story in a 3-tiered format.

The Good: If I actually had a category called "Best", I'd give it to Dick Giordano for his art in this story. Wow! Really, really nice, as I think you can see from the page and panel samples I've included. As most of you know, Giordano was closely tied to Neal Adams as the Silver Age turned to Bronze and it really shows here. Panel shapes, camera angles, the human form, the depiction of motion (the fight choreography is exciting) -- all of this is just top shelf. Emotion is conveyed, tension is built, backgrounds are present on every page... Giordano really treated his readers here.

And a tip of the hat to Dick G., too, for his illustration of our three protagonists. I've read criticisms of various artists through the years in regard to characters of various ethnicities generally looking Caucasian with the only differentiation coming from the color palette. Not so here. It seems great care was taken to differentiate not only the White, Chinese, and African-American protagonists, but the background players as well. Giordano has told a story with many individuals, every character looking unique and honoring those characters' backgrounds - no caricatures or stereotypes.

Gerry Conway's script is a revenge tale, with Lin Sun leading his classmates from Master Kee's dojo on a mission to bring some semblance of justice and retribution for the teacher's demise. In that regard, it might be considered a bit formulaic, but overall I felt that the effort to establish specific personalities for the characters won out. With only 15 pages to work with, as a reader I left feeling that I had a handle on these Sons of the Tiger, that the plot was indeed thickening, and that I wanted to read the next chapter. That all of this transpired alongside the kung fu action - the magazine's purpose - was a credit to both Conway and Giordano.

The Bad: Whenever I get to these last two sections, I am really hard-pressed to come up with anything if I've even generally liked the story. That's definitely my predicament here. So I guess if I have one complaint, I'll offer it toward the oath that was crafted by Master Kee. As he lay dying, he pointed Lin Sun to a a box across the room. Inside Lin found a 3-part talisman in the shape of a tiger's head and two paws. An inscription was written beneath the jade ornaments:

"When three are called
and stand as one,
as one they'll fight,
their will be done...
For each is born anew,
the Tiger's son."

It's not a bad little poem - certainly reminiscent of the oath of the Green Lanterns. My problem with it (and really, it's a minor quibble in the whole scheme of this solid origin story) comes on page 13. In the midst of battle against Sui Ti Kama and seven of his ninjas-in-training, our three young kung fu fighters pause to recite the verse. There's payoff, certainly - we're told that after a crackle of electricity, each hero fights with the strength and skill of three men. But man... sometimes it's just going to be tough to get everyone together and on the same page with that incantation in the midst of flying fists and feet.

The Ugly: Sui Ti Kama was pretty ugly, but that's about it. Fun story!

For those in the market for the Deadly Hands of Kung fu Omnibus (and there's a volume 2 out now, featuring Iron Fist and the White Tiger), you may be happy to know that the magazines are reprinted in their entirety. If you yearn for the articles that accompanied the comics stories, then you're in luck. They're all here. This is not true of other high quality reprints of the Marvel mags, notably Boom Studios's Planet of the Apes Archives (four volumes), and Dynamite Entertainment's Doc Savage Archives. The print quality from each of those companies is outstanding - don't get me wrong. But if you want the magazines complete as originally sold, you won't find that in those sources.