Published to capitalise on the US kung fu craze, each issue mixes text articles about martial arts with black and white comic stories starring some of Marvel's martial arts heroes.
Shang-Chi is effectively the lead story, but other heroes such as Iron Fist and the Sons of the Tiger were also recurring features.
The Shang-Chi stories were initially written by Steve Englehart, then later by Doug Moench, the same authors as Shang-Chi's Marvel comic, Master of Kung Fu, and fit into the same continuity. However, they tend to be standalone stories with few recurring characters, so most of the supporting cast from Master of Kung Fu don't appear.
The first issue was published on February 5, 1974.
Tropes appearing in the Deadly Hands Of Kung-Fu Shang-Chi stories:
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: San Francisco martial artist Johnny Chen insists on fighting Shang-Chi, just to prove who's better.
- Bad Boss: Fu Manchu is definitely in this category, perhaps more so than his other Marvel appearances.
- He has one of his trainee concubines surgically modified to impersonate a dead woman Shang-Chi had previously met, sends her out to entrap Shang-Chi and the woman's surviving friends, then has the Si-Fan kill her along with the others.
- Brain Transplant: Judging by the scars and stitches, this was the fate of Si-Fan assassin Chow Loo. He tries to lie to Fu Manchu about his failure against Shang-Chi - when he next appears he’s somehow in the body of a monstrous ape.
- Murder by Mistake: One gang member accidentally knifes his own girlfriend while trying to kill Shang-Chi.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Quite a few of the American toughs and gangsters that Shang-Chi clashes with are overtly racist, taunting him with racial slurs.
- Surgical Impersonation: One of Fu Manchu's trainee concubines is surgically altered to impersonate a woman Shang-Chi previously met.
