Jiang Li is the hero
Shang-Chi's mother who debuted in
Shang-Chi (vol. 2) #4 (September 2021). The character was created by
Gene Luen Yang and Dike Ruan, and is based on the
Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) character
Ying Li, portrayed by
Fala Chen in the film
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021). As a Qilin Rider, Jiang Li is blessed by the
Xian with the power of innate
archery and to
psionically link with
qilin. Jiang Li can also extend her psionic abilities to other individuals, including humans and aliens. She is also proficient in martial arts. In the early 1970s, writer
Steve Englehart and artist
Jim Starlin developed the character
Shang-Chi, a master of kung fu and a previously unknown son of
Dr. Fu Manchu. Shang-Chi's mother was a white American woman, per mandate by then editor-in-chief
Roy Thomas. She was selected by Fu Manchu to be the mother of his progeny for her genetics. The name Jiang Li was originally used for Shang-Chi's mother in
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, in which she is depicted as an Asian woman, although the name for the film character was ultimately changed to Ying Li. Following the film's release,
Shang-Chi comic writer
Gene Luen Yang incorporated several concepts introduced in the film into the Shang-Chi mythos, including the character Jiang Li as Shang-Chi's real mother, who was based on
Shang-Chi's mother Ying Li, retconning Shang-Chi's white American mother and his mixed-race heritage; the heavenly realm
Ta-Lo, which was previously introduced by writers
Mark Gruenwald,
Ralph Macchio and artist
Keith Pollard in
Thor #310 (1980); and the
Ten Rings weapons.
Refinery29 reviewer Leah Marilla Thomas praised the newer incarnation of the character for the "mythical (and devastatingly romantic) backstory", which makes her a "real character" as compared to the brief appearances in earlier comics.
Fictional character biography Jiang Li was born into one of
Ta-Lo's few communities of mortals known as the Qilin Riders who were appointed by the
Xian as guardians of the gateway connecting Ta-Lo to Qilin Island in the
East China Sea. While on patrol, Jiang Li rescued a shipwrecked
Zheng Zu from pirates. Jiang Li nursed Zu back to health and the two fell in love. However, Jiang Li's father, Chieftain Xin, was outraged over her harboring an outsider and ordered her to return to Ta-Lo with Zu's head. Instead, Jiang Li and Zu fled to Zu's House of the Deadly Hand in
Hunan, where Jiang Li discovered Zu's true identity as the leader of the
Five Weapons Society, a criminal organization. Jiang Li attempted to leave him, but Zu pleaded with her to stay, promising to change his dark ways. True to his word, Zu rediscovered his own humanity from Jiang Li and the two married and had two children: Shang-Chi and Shi-Hua. However following an attack by
Hydra against the House of the Deadly Hand, Zu became cold and distant towards his family, as he felt that his love for them made him weak. Out of loneliness, Jiang Li sent a letter to her father and a few weeks later was drawn to a confrontation between Xin and Zu in the latter's personal tower, where it was revealed that Zu had constructed a makeshift portal to Ta-Lo to steal the realm's sacred weapons to bolster the Society. While Zu fought his wife and father-in-law, Shang-Chi happened upon the scene, just as the portal's connection to Ta-Lo became disconnected and Jiang Li was accidentally pushed through to her presumed death. Instead, Jiang Li was sent to the
Negative Zone, where she used her psionic abilities to mentally link with the native
mantid creatures, who protected and sheltered her. Jiang Li resided in the Negative Zone for many years, occasionally using her psionic abilities to reach out to her children. After Shang-Chi took over the Five Weapons Society following Zu's death and began reforming it as a heroic organization, he began receiving Jiang Li's messages through his dreams and travelled to the Negative Zone with his half-siblings to rescue her. While she recuperated at the New House of the Deadly Hand in
Chinatown, Manhattan, she is secretly visited by her father. Despite claiming to being overjoyed to see her again, Xin is consumed by his rage towards Zu and his bloodline since his earlier confrontation with them and believes Shang-Chi to be as evil as his father, vowing to put an end to his grandson. Due to being mentally linked to insects for many years, Jiang Li takes a while to recover her mental health but spends time with her son and his half-siblings. After she fully recovers, Jiang Li begins telling Shang-Chi their family history but the two are attacked by several enemies of the Society. Jiang Li uses her psionic abelites to realize that they are being led by Xin. Xin returns with Shi-Hua's severed right hand, which he uses to create
taotie masks for himself and the Qilin Riders. Jiang Li escapes by psionically bonding with a nearby qilin and travels back to Earth to help the Society defend the House of the Deadly Hand from the mask empowered Riders. Jiang Li briefly faces off against her father, who is empowered by his own mask and several of the heavenly
Ten Rings but helped by the arrival of Shang-Chi and his siblings. When Shang-Chi succumbs to his inner darkness to take the Ten Rings from Xin and defeats him and the Riders, he attempts to sever Xin's hand in retaliation for what he did to Shi-Hua but Jiang Li and his siblings talk him down, bringing him back to his senses. Jiang Li and Shang-Chi return to Ta-Lo for Xin to face justice and to return the Ten Rings to the Jade Emperor, who appoints Jiang Li as the new Chieftain of the Qilin Riders, which requires her to remain in Ta-Lo. ==Jigsaw==