Shang-Chi Secretly Hinted At A Korean Avenger

Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings hinted at a Korean Avenger, White Fox. There's a sense in which setup is the secret to Marvel's success; 2008's Iron Man ended with the promise of an Avengers Initiative, a shared universe in which various superheroes would team up to take on a greater threat. Every successive MCU blockbuster has been packed with setup - sometimes explicit, sometimes much more subtle, and Shang-Chi's latest hint is no different.

Take Iron Man 2, for example. One memorable scene featured a SHIELD hazard map in the background, which set up the fictional African nation of Wakanda - eight years before Black Panther would bring that country to life on the big screen - as well as Atlantis, home of Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner. There was another apparent Namor Easter egg in Avengers: Endgame, with dialogue calling out an underwater earthquake that most viewers assumed was a setup. The film's directors, Joe and Anthony Russo, seemed more than a little amused when they were asked about it on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, suggesting the setup may sometimes be in the eye of the beholder. "Some people may interpret it that way," said Anthony Russo, while his brother Joe offered a cryptic "Maybe" with a smile. This highlights how even the suggestion of a future set-up is intrinsic to the MCU.

Although it hasn't been commented on as much as that underwater earthquake, Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings features another more subtle potential MCU Easter egg. The film introduced viewers to a secret dimension called Ta Lo, inhabited by creatures from Chinese mythology such as the húlijīng, a mythical nine-tailed fox. These fox spirits - sometimes malevolent, sometimes benevolent - are common in Chinese folklore, and neighboring countries adopted the traditions surrounding them with their own twists. In Korea, the húlijīng became the rather more sinister kumiho - and Marvel Comics tapped into the legend of the kumiho when they created the character of White Fox, a superhero who serves as one of Korea's Avengers.

Both the húlijīng and the kumiho are traditionally portrayed as shapeshifters, and in Marvel Comics lore the kumiho were master illusionists who seduced human beings in order to feast on their hearts. White Fox is the daughter of a human male and a female kumiho, and she grew up in a remote kumiho village in the province of Chungcheongnam-do. One day, she unwisely tried to play some games with human children, and her nine fox-tails showed; they panicked, told their parents, and the result was a tragic massacre. This early experience of hatred did not break White Fox's spirit, however, and she went on to become leader of Korea's Avengers, Tiger Division. Marvel Comics created White Fox in an attempt to increase its reach with Korean readers, and she made her debut in the webtoon Avengers: Electric Rain. It didn't take the publisher long to bring her over into mainstream American comics, and Marvel seems to be pushing her quite strongly at the moment; she's recently had a team-up with Black Cat, as well as a tie-in to the Death of Doctor Strange event.

The MCU's setup probably isn't intentional - the visit to Ta-Lo featured a lot of other mythological Chinese creatures - but it nonetheless means there is indeed the potential to bring White Fox to life as part of this shared universe. The first three phases of MCU blockbusters were focused on the United States, but Phase 4 is international in scope, with Shang-Chi himself serving as Marvel Studios' first Asian superhero protagonist. It would be great for Marvel to follow up the success of Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings, introducing other characters like White Fox and members of Tiger Division.

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