Lotus Shinchuko

Context

Deadly Hands of Kung Fu was a mid-1970s B&W comics exploitation mag.

The goal was to cash in on the success of action movies featuring East Asian martial arts choreographies. Which started in 1973, when 唐山大兄 (distributed in English as Fists of Fury then The Big Boss), starring Bruce Lee, was released in the US.

When I first saw Lotus Shinchuko during the early 1980s I thought she might be a cool character to develop. As it happens, this youthful intuition was correct… and unfortunately, it remains so.

Background

Powers & Abilities

Lotus is a skilled athlete and martial artist, trained in an unrevealed style.

Though people often treat her like a naïve lil’ flower, Lotus is actually fairly smart, wise and observant.

She originally lacked life experience, but has since caught up.

Daughter of the tiger

She’s not world-class or anything, but she can handle multiple armed thugs in a street brawl. On the other hand she doesn’t have that much combat experience, since she’s not looking to get into fights.

Not being the largest, she uses a lot of kicks. Her jumping kicks in particular are deceptively fast, and she knows a number of objects-smashing techniques. Lotus once cut through thick cables with the edge of her hand.

But she’s noticeably better on offence than defence, and can’t take too many blows.

Budge also trained her with firearms. If the situation’s awful and it makes sense, Lotus may grab assault weaponry and fight with that instead.

Soundtrack

Some 1975 sounds and looks for those who want ’em…

Eh, The Captain & Tennille. Because this specific song is ironic in the context of the Sons of the Tiger, see ?

History (part 1)

Lotus’ mother sold her off to the Silent Ones conspiracy, in exchange for food. This woman and the rest of her village were apparently slain by Silent Ones agents a year later.

What were the Silent Ones ? Ooooh boy. Some sort of ancient, lost, variant humans – with evil psychic energy. They had been forced off Earth and were trying to return. The last Silent One on Earth ran a depraved conspiracy/drugs dealing operation to facilitate that.

Servants of the Silent Ones were routinely kept in the dark about their masters. Lotus herself saw the Silent One survivor but once during her childhood, and was never given any information about the conspiracy.

Secret origins

Lotus is from… an unclear area.

I assume that her given name is the translated version. Since her mum likely wasn’t speaking English when she told the buyers her daughter’s name.

So for instance, if Lotus is from a Mandarin Chinese-speaking area, her actual first name might be 蓮 (“LEE-ehn”).

But in any case, she uses “Lotus”.

Likewise, “Shinchuko” doesn’t sound familiar. But :

Exploitation and suffering

Another agent of the Silent Ones was one Harrison Budge. He proved to be a particularly versatile and successful hitman.

As part of his payment for his first big hit, the Silent Ones threw in 13-year-old Lotus as a slave.

The child endured for years as a sex slave and general servant. She likely also was intended to become a junior assassin working with Budge.

Now some y’all might be going “waitaminute, isn’t that the same sex slave story as with Starfire, another beautiful East Asian lass in 1970s US comic books ? And wasn’t Mantis, another beautiful East Asian lass in 1970s US comic books, a prostitute for a while ? And now that I think about it, how about Chen, a beautiful East Asian lass in 1990s US comic books who worked as a “hostess” for some time ?”.

Ayup. This kind of objectification has been around since at least the 1800s. And the wars (Philippines, Imperial Japan, Korea, Việt Nam…) only made it worse  .

Moving on.

Rising up, back on the streets

In 1975, Lotus was promised by the Silent Ones a shot at freedom. She seemed maybe 19 at this point.

Budge had been unsuccessfully clashing with the Sons of the Tiger (Lin Sun, Abraham Brown, Robert Diamond). If he were to fail in his last attempt on Welfare Island (now Roosevelt Island  ), Lotus would press a hidden button. Which would kill the Sons, earning her her freedom.

This was a lie. What the button actually did was blow up the 39^th Street Bridge, collapsing it onto Lotus and the Sons.

The lass froze in shock over this betrayal, but good ol’ Abe got her out of the disaster just in time.

Just a gal…

The Sons took Lotus in, since she had nowhere to go.

Bob Diamond almost immediately started putting the moves on her. Ladies, if that doesn’t convince you to never date Bob Diamond, I don’t know what will. Swipe left.

Not knowing any better, Lotus did date Robert. She also familiarised herself with life in New York City.

This took a while – she had been kept captive for so long that she knew next to nothing about the world. Such as, say, hot dogs.

… and her will to survive

As it turned out, there was another layer of death and deceit. Lotus had circuits implanted over the back of her neck. These could take control of her, and enhance her strength.

She thus ambushed Bob then Abe, beating them within an inch of their life.

But Lin Sun realised what was going on. He destroyed the mind control circuit.

Soon after this incident, the Sons of the Tiger destroyed the last Silent One on Earth.

Face to face…

From there, Lotus simply lived with Bob Diamond, travelling with him when he was filming outside of New York City.

Mrs. Dalwoody, a diminutive and cranky New Jersey super, helped her adapt to NYC. And warned her about ’em men havin’ no respec’ for goils.

Lotus once helped repel a Chinatown street gang in a brawl. Bob was at this point investigating a series a murders on the set of his current movie.

… out in the heat

Later on, the Sons of the Tiger infiltrated a penitentiary suspected of prisoner abuse. They did so under the cover of a kung fu demonstration show. Lotus was part of the team, and thus acquired a Sons-style costume.

The Sons and Lotus exposed corrupt, racist guards. But the warden had the National Guard roll in, and did everything he could to turn the situation into a bloodbath. At least a score of men died.

One guard cruelly gunned down an elderly prisoner Lotus was trying to protect. In anger, she grabbed a submachinegun and shot the corrections officer dead.

If you’ve ever wondered how much hot dogs cost in 1975 New York City…

New school

Bob then bought a run-down business in a depressed part of the East Side  . Perhaps a former dance studio. The idea was to open a free martial arts school for neighbourhood kids.

The Sons and Lotus repaired the premises.

As they were finishing they had to intervene in a row between the gangs of the Big Man (Janice Foswell) and the Crime Master (Nicholas Lewis, Jr.). The Sandman (William Baker), Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and the original Enforcers were also involved.

The good guys eventually prevailed, but the Big Man was slain by the Crime Master.

Tiger heart

Within months, Lotus came to realise that Bob was all flash and little substance – whereas Lin was the other way around.

Lin and Lotus started developing feelings for each other, which left them awkward and embarrassed.

Diamond realised this, which led to an ugly confrontation among the Sons.

The tiger amulets were found hours later by one Hector Ayala.

History (part 2)

Distraught, Lotus and Lin started a relationship… and job-hunting, since Robert had always bankrolled the Sons’ operations.

Soon, Abe was reported missing and likely dead in Northern Africa — as was Bob in Canada. As they had no travel money, Lotus and Lin were powerless to help.

1977

They later learned that Diamond had willed his considerable wealth to them and Brown. But the meeting with Bob’s slimy, racist agent went poorly – and Lin and Lotus refused the money.

The agent manipulated Harmony Killdragon, a Chinese mistress of the martial arts, into attacking Lotus and Lin. He wanted them dead, to seize Robert’s fortune.

But this backfired. Harmony ended up fighting alongside Lotus, Lin, the White Tiger (Hector Ayala) and Blackbyrd (Nathaniel Byrd).

They were also reunited with Robert. Mr. Diamond had narrowly survived, though he was confined to a wheelchair for a time.

(At this point, it seemed like the Sons would return in a new configuration, presumably with White Tiger as a member. But Deadly Hands of Kung Fu soon ceased publication, leaving some storylines — including Abraham Brown’s desert adventures — hanging.)

Out of the spotlight

From there on, Lotus was mostly seen in the background.

By 1979, Abe had returned to the US. Bob let Abe, Lin and Lotus set up a martial arts school in the East Side facilities he had once bought.

This dojo was named after the Sons of the Tiger, and likely offered a mix of free and paying lessons.

By 1980, the three would occasionally run sparring sessions with Robert and his friend Iron Fist (Daniel Rand-K’ai). The ex-Sons of the Tiger were among the few people Fist could genuinely train with.

In 2005, Lotus, Abe and Lin were at the Night Nurse (Linda Carter)’s medical centre, to help protect a badly wounded Luke Cage. It seems likely that it was Misty Knight who asked them to help.

In 2016, Lin and Lotus again showed up to help the Cages – this time Luke’s wife Jessica. They may have been called in by Colleen Wing, who was also helping Jess determine who was keeping the Cages’ flat under surveillance.

One 2016 outfit.

Description

Her Sons of the Tiger-style outfit is a yellow silk wraparound top, knotted in the front. Plus dark blue dance leggings.

I suppose her shoes are dark blue tabi, not readily distinguishable from the leggings.

She’ll also wear a red sash, red bracers, and jade amulets representing a tiger’s head and paws. These are smaller than the Sons’ – and not magical.

Out of uniform, Lotus does a decent job of staying up with current New York City boho, artsy fashion. She often wears decorative glasses.

Personality

Lotus often talks like a book, highly enunciated and with neat grammar. This presumably is because she had little exposure to everyday, real-world English before the Sons helped her escape.

For instance she almost always says “Robert”, not “Bob”.

She also likes using dry, polite sarcasm.

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Marvel Comics.

Helper(s): Darci.

Writeup completed on the 6^th of June, 2021.