Even in my most devoted comic-book reading days, I never read a book that featured Shang-Chi. So, going into Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings -- the 25th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- I had no expectations. In fact, I wasn't really planning to see it on the big screen until I caught a trailer and thought, damn, that looks good.

It's good.

The movie is spectacular, visually, and the story -- while a fairly straightforward Hero's Journey at its core -- draws you into the lives of Shang-Chi, aka Shaun (Simu Liu), his sister Xialing (Meng'er Zhang), his parents Xu Wenwu (Tony Chiu-Wai Leung) and Li (Fala Chen), his aunt Ying Nan (Michelle Yeoh) and his best friend Katy (Awkwafina).

And their lives are ... complicated, although they might not seem so when we first meet twenty-somethings Shang-Chi and Katy working as car valets in San Francisco.

Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that Xu Wenwu is maybe a thousand years old, having discovered and mastered the mysterious Ten Rings and used them to extend his life and consolidate power. Seeking even more power, he seeks entrance to a magical village in another dimension; he's blocked by its guardian, Li, but they fall in love and she abandons her home to marry Xu Wenwu and raise two children with him.

He discards his villainous ways for his family -- until his past comes back seeking retribution and his wife dies. Soon, Wenwu is back to old tricks, and he trains his young son -- his daughter, he thinks, isn't worth the effort -- to be a highly skilled assassin. Eventually, Shang-Chi flees.

Cut to the present. Wenwu has decided it's time to bring Shang-Chi back into the fold -- and he needs a certain pendant given to his son by Li because ... well, Wenwu has gone a little crazy. One flight and a super-powered fight club later, Shang-Chi, Katy and Xialing are battling to save an extradimensional village and dojo from a soul-eating kaiju and its winged demon minions.

It's all really, really good.

The fights mostly have superpowered aspects to them, but at their core they're pure martial-arts mayhem pumped up to 12. The artistry of the fight choreography cannot be ignored -- some of the battles go on long enough that you might start to think they'd get tiresome, but no, these are well-crafted scenes that leave you wanting more. I mean, that one on the bus....

Simu Liu is excellent as the titular hero, providing good character growth as he steps onto an unexpected path, and he's surrounded by a strong cast -- particularly Awkwafina as the sidekick/potential romantic interest who comes along for the ride and ends up playing a major role in events as they unfold. Tony Leung gives his villainous role an emotional arc that is much more nuanced than the usual comic-book megalomaniac.

Michelle Yeoh, Fala Chen and Meng'er Zhang round out the main cast with strong performances throughout. Chen, in particular, does that "serene bad-ass" really well.

Jayden Zhang and Arnold Sun play Shang-Chi at younger ages, and Elodie Fong is the child version of his sister Xialing. Ben Kingsley returns for a delightful turn as Trevor Slattery, the Liverpool actor who was hired to portray the international terrorist Mandarin in Iron Man 3. And you can't overlook Benedict Wong as Wong, a supporting character from Doctor Strange and a couple of Avengers films, who is here only briefly but definitely makes his mark.

Although there are a few definite ties to the greater Marvel universe, Shang-Chi stands alone, not leaning on other stories or characters so much that it becomes burdensome to the plot. Also, the film delves deeply into real and imagined Eastern cultures -- a treat to explore, as much as Wakanda was in Black Panther.

All in all, Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings is a solid win for Marvel, taking a C-list character from their stable and turning him into box-office gold.