Marvel Solves A 9 Year-Old Problem With Awkwafina’s Shang-Chi Role

Awkwafina’s character in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Katy Chen, solves a problem that Marvel has had for 9 years in regards to comic relief. Since the MCU's Phase 1, it has dominated pop culture with successful superhero films that culminated in 2012’s The Avengers, which instantly changed the landscape of blockbuster films. Almost overnight, the superhero film became a cultural juggernaut, and shared universes became one of the most marketable endeavors for film studios. Despite its success, the MCU is not without its criticisms, however. One of the more common complaints is an overabundance and unbalanced use of comic relief. While not all viewers take issue with the MCU’s humor, the issue was solved by Awkwafina’s performance, which was heartfelt, down to Earth, and consistently hilarious.

2012’s The Avengers is celebrated for numerous aspects, aside from succeeding in the lofty task of combining four separate film franchises and balancing the main cast of six powerful Avengers. Among many other things, the film won over audiences with quick, witty, dialogue that often cut the tension of borderline apocalyptic events with humor and a reminder that most of the heroes are, after all, ordinary people who became superheroes thanks to extraordinary circumstances. Like its Phase 1 predecessors, however, The Avengers didn’t let its occasional levity undercut its most serious moments, maintaining a balance between drama and humor.

Starting with Phase 2, MCU films began employing comic relief far more frequently. While most ensemble casts relegate the role of comic relief to one or two characters (while, ideally, giving them agency and characterization alongside this), the MCU began using all available characters for this role. In some films, like Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man, which are action-comedies with plenty of serious moments, this is appropriate, but the MCU took it too far in Thor: Ragnarok, whose attempts at comedy left it entirely lacking in gravitas and basic understanding of its characters. Shang-Chi, refreshingly, had a perfect balance of humor and drama, thanks to Awkwafina being the primary source of comic relief, but not at the expense of characterization.

Katy looking confused on the bus in Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Awkwafina plays Katy Chen, the lifelong best friend of Shang-Chi and the character responsible for most of the film’s humor. Though she lacks superpowers and fighting skills, Katy is as tenacious as any superhero, protecting a young Shang-Chi (aka Shaun) from bullies in high school and improvising methods to fend off The Ten Rings’ most dangerous assassins. She’s also the source of the film’s best gags, taking sportscars for joyrides as a valet, chiding Shang-Chi's “Shaun" disguise, and ending the film with an abrupt cut to her, Shang-Chi, and Wong singing karaoke. One of the best aspects of Awkwafina’s performance, however, is that she was likable and had a clear arc, in addition to being one of the MCU’s best comic relief characters.

In addition to providing comic relief, Katy has plenty of conflicts and character development of her own. After witnessing “Shaun’s” near-superhuman fighting skills against a small squad of Ten Rings enforcers, Katy chooses to follow her friend to Macau and discover what he’d been hiding from her. Even more importantly, Katy reveals later in the film that she’s struggled with deciding on a career and lifestyle for years, despite her competence in previous endeavors. Katy’s character arc sees her forced by a life-or-death scenario to quickly pick up a skill and stick with it. The skill, as it turns out, is archery, which she uses to great effect against the Dweller-in-Darkness, making her essential to the heroes’ victory in the final act.

Katy is notably not the only source of humor in the film, with characters like Wong, Jon Jon, and Shang-Chi himself providing notable comedic moments. Even the antagonist, The Mandarin, sarcastically mocks his moniker in one scene. By having Awkwafina’s role be the main comic relief character and mixing humor with plenty of serious moments, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is the first Marvel film in years to properly balance its humor.

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