For the longest time I thought that there were two Razor Shi
crossovers – Shi’s first appearance in Razor Annual #1 (1993) and a
sequel that appeared in Razor and Shi Special (1994) and I was kinda
right and kinda wrong.
Razor Annual #1 has the story Death Watch over 18
pages (pages 2-19) and the story is to be continued.
The Razor and Shi
Special reprints those original 18 pages and an additional 6 pages making a
complete 24 page story.
So, kinda right and kinda wrong – there’s no text explaining
this anywhere in the Razor and Shi Special. I had the Special for ages and spent forever
tracking down a reasonably priced copy of Razor Annual #1 only to find
that I already had the story. A little annoying.
But let’s look at the story itself. It opens with a young runaway on the streets
of Queen City at 4am. The runaway is flirting
with a couple of gang members, who decide that they’d rather beat up the young
girl.
Razor attacks the pair to protect the girl and in the
ensuing scuffle Razor is shot and more gang members appear.
The Balls gang members chase Razor and she escapes into an
abandoned building, which she discovers is the headquarters of the gang.
Razor prepares herself for the final stand when an Asian
woman with her face painted white appears with a katana and throwing darts and
defends Razor.
There is a scuffle and Razor pulls out some flash-bangs and
the pair start their assault. Razo refers
to Shi as “China Doll.” Shi decapitates a guy.
This is where the story ends in the annual, a cool action
shot with our two heroines in action.
The story continues with the pair killing the rest of the
gang members. Shi offers to tend to
Razor’s wounds but Razor tells her she can look after herself.
The pair talk and Shi introduces herself as Shi, which means
… DEATH! With a skull reflected in her eye. (great panel)
Razor says “Hey China Doll, thanks for saving my life.” Shi replies that Razor is welcome and Shi is
Japanese.
The story ends with Razor realising that she is not alone and
Shi is a friend.
It’s a simple story that shows us what Razor and Shi are
about.
From what I could gather this annual was published in
December 1993 between issues 4 and 5 of the regular Razor series. Razor appeared in issue 0 in July 1991 and
the first issue appeared in October 1992 and subsequent issues appearing
quarterly.
As a Shi fan, her actions here feel a little out of character. Also in her first two panels (pages 12 and 13
of the story), Shi has a grey circle around her right eye (it’s a black and
white comic), which disappears for the rest of the story.
The soon to be published Shi: Gatecrasher revives
Billy Tucci’s original concept for Shi was a character named Ran (Japanese for
Rebellion) who had a red circle over her right eye exactly like the one seen in
those first panels.
It’s crazy how late in the process that Shi’s appearance and
attitude wasn’t fully locked down. We
don’t even find out her name until Shi #1 (later retitled Shi: Way of
the Warrior) in March 1994. The Razor
and Shi Special was published in July 1994.
This is an interesting introduction to Shi that certainly
makes me want to know more about both Razor and Shi. Interestingly Razor and Shi never cross paths
again but both would go onto have many crossovers.
It’s a solid start for Billy Tucci in both art and writing it’s
a simple story but it’s well told. With the
exception of Ran becoming Shi – all characters stay on model and are easy to
identify. It’s not perfect but it’s
clear that Tucci has talent and one of the joys of this reread is to see his
growth as both a writer and artist and his ability to work with other creatives.
