Deadly Hands Pitch

Milestone Media, Inc.
Deadly Hands
Proposal for a continuing series
Confidential Draft
6/26/95

There are fifteen of them and they attack as one but Shang Chi has faced more and better men countless times before. Each uses a different style, but Shang Chi responds in kind, meeting each assailant on his own ground. Fist for fist; weapon for weapon. In less than a minute, fourteen men have fallen, buying the fifteenth enough time to draw a Czech M52 – a sleek 7.62mm automatic pistol with a muzzle velocity of 1600 feet per second.

Shang Chi is faster. Before the deadly 7.62mm slug grazes him, he has drawn his own Makarov and put four neat holes into his opponent.

The Master of Kung Fu has changed his ways...
Deadly Hands

Just as the Hong Kong filmmaker, John Woo, breathed new life into action cinema, we plan to blaze a new trail for Marvel's reigning martial-arts master. DEADLY HANDS will tailor Hong Kong gangster action to the Marvel Universe, in a style reminiscent of Koike and Ikegami's CRYING FREEMAN. This unique mix is designed to strike the eye of new generation of readers the way Jack Kirby struck us. That is to say, "Damn!"

Since his retirement from "games of deceit and death," Shang Chi has been leading the quiet, contemplative life of a fisherman, continuing the "rising and advancement of the spirit" that he is named for. But his spiritual journey is far from ended. He feels a vague dissatisfaction in himself. When a group of deadly assassins tracks him down to try and kill him, he defends himself as only the world's greatest martial artist can.

The quickly-defeated assassins prove to be victims of his late father, an evil crime lord. Shang Chi's father ruined their lives; it's now up to him to go out into the world again and make amends. It becomes clear to the hero that the lack of balance he feels in his center comes from his unwillingness to accept that violence is sometimes necessary. Shang Chi takes upon himself the impossible task of systematically shutting down his father's Si Fan organization. Only then can he really retire.

As the series progresses, each issue takes him to exotic locales in both the East and West – wherever there is organized crime. New villains meet him at every turn, and every issue will contain a splashy, exciting, set-piece action sequence. As he grudgingly begins to accept the next stage in his spiritual development, Shang Chi will add the use of firearms to his other finely-honed martial skills.

DEADLY HANDS will play like an entirely new series, but occasionally will draw on the wealth of characters and situations from Shang Chi's established past in the Marvel Universe. A year into the series, he will discover that his "late" father still lives, adding new complications to his task. Their confrontation will give readers their first-ever glimpse of the true face of Dr. Fu Manchu.

-DM

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