Shi: Before the Way of the Warrior
Shi: Senryaku, Shi: Year of the Dragon.
We start with 2 miniseries that tell stories of Ana’s
adventures before she became Shi.
Senryaku was a three part miniseries with 36 short stories
from Ana’s youth and training illustrating the 36 stratagems of the art of
war. The stories bop around in time, so
you get a story set when Ana is 6, to one at age 17, then 13, followed by a
story with no date clues. These are
paired with gorgeous artworks of adult Shi in action by some of the best
artists in the business.
I had the original 1990s three issue comic but I picked up
the 2023 Omnibus which separates the text from the art and it looks amazing. It’s a cool experiment and worth reading as
an insight into Shi and to look at the beautiful artwork (the Omnibus is worth
getting for the virgin art as well as some extra artwork) When I bough the omnibus, the guy at the
comic store warned me that it was not a comic story and asked several times if
I was sure. I explained that I had the
original editions so I knew what I was getting.
Year of the Dragon is an actual three issue comic set in
1988. It retells a couple of the stories
from Senryaku but makes changes. Ana is 18
years old and Tucci is wearing some of his influences on his sleeve with much
of the artwork inspired by Patrick Nagel. The story features an 18 year old Ana
going out into the world and hanging with the wrong people and not following
either the Christian faith or the Way of the Warrior. It’s a good prequel that shows Ana rejecting
the call before embracing her destiny.
Next up we have what I like to call “the dimension hopping
saga” of Cyblade/Shi & Shi/Cyblade, Funnytime Features, Lethargic Comics,
Lethargic Lad, Gen 13, Shattered Image and Weirdsville. (these all take place after Razor Annual #1/
Razor Shi Special)
It starts in Cyblade/Shi with Ana encountering Cyblade of
Cyberforce in a cross company crossover with Witchblade making her first
appearance. It’s a slightly more
fantastic story than the relatively grounded Way of the Warrior, with robot
shock troopers and ends in a cliffhanger of an explosion.
In Shi/Cyblade, we discover that the explosion seems to have
sent the two women into another dimension where they encounter a large number
of independent comic book characters.
Toto we are not in Kansas anymore, and it’s a completely bonkers story
- to the point I wonder what the
planning meetings between the two publishers was like.
Both Funnytime Features and Lethargic Lad had part one of
their story run as a back up feature in Shi Way of the Warrior (6 & 7
respectively) and part 2 in their own title.
Both have Shi interacting with wacky characters in their own worlds.
Shi appears in a brief cameo in Gen 13 #13C, helping Grunge
fight off a team of bad girls. Another cameo in Shattered Image #4 telling
members of Cyberforce that they could join her as an independent, and that she
had met their teammate Cyblade.
Our final cameo, has Shi appear in the main character’s
cupboard in Weirdsville #5.
Most of these are fun stories but don’t really add anything
much to Shi mythos as a whole and can be skipped.
Grifter/Shi & Horseman
And Shi is back in reality, teaming up with Grifter from
WildC.A.T.S to stop an attack on America on the 50th anniversary of
the bombing of Hiroshima. It’s a good action piece that pairs Ana with a man
who worked with her father.
Horseman follows directly on from the events of Grifter/Shi
and has Ana meeting an immortal Korean horseman. The Horseman would later appear in his own
series.
One thing I love is the fact that the independent smaller
publishers all seem to be happy to allow the crossovers between their series as
well as giving each other a forum to debut new characters. The Horseman debuted in Shi, Shi debuted in
Razor and Razor in Sade.
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