So you've just watched #BatmanSoulOfTheDragon and like everyone with a modicum of taste, you've already started counting the minutes until a sequel. BUT... how about filling those minutes with some damn fine comics instead?

This is the SOUL OF THE DRAGON: FURTHER READING THREAD!

Your first stop should be pretty obvious: RICHARD DRAGON: KUNG-FU FIGHTER issues #1-18, published from 1975 to 1977. Written by Denny O'Neil and drawn by Ric Estrada (after a couple of early issues by other artists), this is where it all began.

Issue #1 introduces Richard Dragon, Ben Turner and the O-Sensei. And issue #5 has the senses-shattering debut of Lady Shiva, who just like in the movie, promptly proceeds to steal the entire friggin' show every time she shows up.

And she shows up a LOT.

Now, this is normally the part where I tell you that this super niche 70s comic that didn't even get to 20 issues has never ever been collected, but in a wonderful twist of fate, an HC with all 18 issues plus a couple of hard-to-find bonus stories is coming out on February 9th!

Once you've finished this run and picked your jaw off the floor, you may be wondering if this can POSSIBLY get any awesome. And I got good news: it can. And it does.

Richard Dragon and Lady Shiva show up in O'Neil and Denys Cowan's legendary run of THE QUESTION from 1986...

... which lasted 36 issues and two annuals. The first of these, from 1988, was actually a part of a trilogy called FABLES witih the Detective Comics and Green Arrow annuals that had Shiva take center stage and also introduced the post-Crisis version of the O-Sensei.

These ones are a biiit harder to find, since the trades are out of print (and Fables has never been reprinted at all in English) but it's a run worth hunting down. Not only does it feature the best Lady Shiva to this day, but it's also one of DC's finest comics of all time.

And Ben Turner was not slouching either! After a couple of guest appearances in DETECTIVE COMICS 485 and 489, he went on to become a staple of John Ostrander, Kim Yale and Luke McDonnell's unforgettable run of SUICIDE SQUAD!

So the 80s treated our Kung-Fu Fighters pretty well indeed. Then the 90s happened.

... it wasn't exactly the best time ever for any of them, although of the three, Shiva definitely had the biggest profile, appearing in the last third of Knightfall and a bunch of other titles.

There's nnnot a lot that's particularly good or worth hunting down either, although BATMAN #534 has a pretty meh story gorgeously elevated by Jim Aparo and Bill Sienkiewicz, and OUTSIDERS V2 #14 is of interest to anyone wanting to know where the Katana/Shiva rivalry started.

The 2000s picked up right away, with Shiva appearing in Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott's BATGIRL run and Richard making a surprise appearance in Greg Rucka and Rick Burchett's BATMAN/HUNTRESS: CRY FOR BLOOD #3. Both of which are very good stories well worth reading.

Shiva went on to appear in two arcs of Gail Simone's BIRDS OF PREY run (#62-67 and #92-95) while Richard got a new lease in life and a new ongoing in 2004 written by Chuck Dixon that's... not... really good. That one is completionists only in my book.

Later in the '00s, Ben would rejoin the Suicide Squad along with Ostrander for an 8-issue miniseries collected as RAISE THE FLAG, while Shiva would return to BATGIRL, this time under writer Andersen Gabrych, for its last arc (#65-73) where it was revealed she was Cass' mommy.

And rounding up this era, we have 2010's THE QUESTION #37, a Blackest Night special by O'Neil, Greg Rucka, Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz that's more of a Question thing, as the name implies, but does feature the last time O'Neil would ever write Shiva.

It's great.

About a year later, Shiva also showed up in BIRDS OF PREY V2 #6 which was... less than great. Killer cover tho'.

Then the New52 happened.