Marvel’s Avengers franchise just upgraded an iconic MCU hero, giving them immense, game-changing new powers. But with this upgrade comes a dark price.
Shang-Chi’s New Powers Make Him the Avengers’ Big Gun
The Master of Kung-Fu Is Way Stronger as a Mutant
In today’s X-Vengers #1 – from Jason Loo, Sergio Fernández Dávila, Aure Jimenez, Rain Beredo and Joe Sabino – Shang-Chi gains godlike new powers. Having been exposed to the lethal ‘X-Virus’, the iconic MCU hero has been converted from human to mutant, unlocking the buried powers of the X-gene.
With his new powers, Shang-Chi shatters anything he touches, from bones to concrete. Already the world’s greatest martial artist, Shang-Chi is now capable of kicking down a skyscraper.
Shang-Chi’s new abilities are so vastly powerful, he has to consciously control his body at all times to avoid destroying the world around him. While Shang-Chi was always one of the most skilled Avengers, he’s now one of the most powerful too, with staggering feats of strength comparable to Thor.
Shang-Chi’s Transformation Goes Beyond New Powers
X-Vengers is set during Marvel’s Age of Revelation event, which has jumped forward ten years in Earth-616’s timeline. In the interim, the mind-controlling mutant Revelation has taken over most of America, while also unleashing a virus that kills the majority of victims while giving the survivors powers.
Shang-Chi is one such survivor, and while he’s become more powerful, he’s still suffering. Constant mastery of his powers takes extreme effort and concentration at all times, leaving the formerly balanced Master of Kung-Fu irritable and antagonistic. It’s no coincidence that his mutant form has a volcanic aesthetic.
Shang-Chi has long been one of Marvel’s most complex characters – a gentle man who spends his life in combat, constantly aware of his own potential for evil thanks to his father Zheng Zu’s abominable crimes. His new powers and their cost seem to have brought that inner darkness to the surface, leaving him quick to anger.
Our Take on the Avengers’ New Powers
It’s kind of mind-blowing that it took until 2025 for Marvel to reveal what powers the Avengers would have as mutants. Each ability is a comment on the hero’s personality, from Tony Stark’s iron skin to Scott Lang’s unreliable size-changing.
In the case of Shang-Chi, his mutant power embodies his potential for destruction. Shang-Chi has fought for years not to become his father, whose globe-spanning crime syndicate has destroyed countless lives. Now, every step could result in destruction beyond Zheng Zu’s wildest dreams.
The latest twist in Avengers history turns MCU icon Shang-Chi into a godlike powerhouse – and while being this strong is an advantage in a world gone mad, it also manifests his personal nightmare, turning him into an unparalleled force of destruction.
X-Vengers #1 is available now from Marvel Comics.