One of the newest Marvel Cinematic Universe heroes is Shang-Chi. Raised by a power-hungry father who trained him to be an elite fighter, the hero broke away from his family to find his own path in the world, only to be pulled right back into his family drama by his father.
While there aren't a lot—if any—TV heroes who have Shang-Chi's exact same story, there are plenty who run from their pasts, have fraught relationships with their families, and even who might be the bad guy without really knowing they are. He would find a lot in common with a number of TV characters.
10 Kate Runs To Explore A New Life (Batwoman)
Before Kate Kane opts to use her skills as Batwoman, she spends years as her father's prodigy. She learns to fight like him, goes through military training, and just wants to be good enough to join his elite crime-fighting organization. When her plans crumble, however, Kate runs.
Prior to the TV series' start, Kate spends years traveling the world, developing her skills further on her own, and maintaining radio silence with her family. Though she and her family have their differences when she returns, Kate starts repairing her relationship with them, including one member who turns out to be a supervillain. Kate's running away and returning isn't all that different from Shang-Chi, except that she never has to change her name.
9 River Becomes Very Different Than What Her Family Expects (Firefly)
Shang-Chi never has to go through the process of a secret organization playing with his brain as River Tam does in Firefly, but that doesn't mean they don't have quite a bit in common. Like Shang-Chi, River is something of a prodigy. While he excels in his father's style of fighting, she excels in all manners of math and science.
River's journey takes place largely far from home as she finds herself while someone powerful is after her, not unlike Shang-Chi living out his life as Shawn while his father keeps tabs on him. She also uses the skills she's learned to become a hero, saving countless lives and revealing truths to the world. Shang-Chi fights a mythical being while River fights off bounty hunters, but they both take a long path to become a hero, and they do it by reuniting with a sibling. River's brother saves her from a facility while Shang-Chi's sister helps him in his quest.
8 Eliot Uses A Dark Past To Find A New Future (Leverage)
Like Shang-Chi, Eliot Spencer has been trained from a young age to be a weapon. That's why he's labeled as the "hitter" in a team of criminals in Leverage. He uses every skill he has to make sure that he never loses a fight, but more than that, he uses his skills to protect others.
Eliot devotes his time to helping people who can't help themselves. A former "retrieval specialist" who used to work for the biggest payday, when he becomes a member of the Leverage team, his priorities shift. Just as Shang-Chi embraces a civilian lifestyle in his teens and twenties, Eliot lives a life for himself before he starts fighting for others. He never meets a dragon, but he does go up against some powerful enemies with weapons that should have destroyed him.
7 Jennie Gets A Big Power From Her Father (Stargirl)
Jennie doesn't grow up with her family. Instead, she spends most of her formative years in a group home before searching for her family legacy. That's where she and Shang-Chi differ, but they both end up with an incredible power thanks to the fathers they spend years away from in their own origin stories.
Jennie's father is a Green Lantern, and Jenny ends up with the power he had to use with an actual lantern inside of her, carrying on his legacy. Shang-Chi, on the other hand, earns his power while in combat with his father. His father passes the 10 Rings onto him, making him as powerful as his father, able to carry on his legacy as well, though without the more villainous aspects.
6 Nicky Finds Her Destiny Through Her Training (Kung Fu)
When Nicky is a child, she's called the golden child by her siblings. She's the one pushed in specific directions by their mother, and Nicky's the one whose future is seemingly all planned out in the Kung Fu series remake. Much like Shang-Chi, she feels trapped by her mother's plans for her. While her mother never sends her into the world as an assassin, Nicky still ends up running away from home for years, cutting off contact with her family while she trains in a monastery.
Like Shang-Chi, it's actually her training that ultimately helps her find purpose in life. Shang-Chi's training is what allows him to save a mystical village and utilize the 10 Rings. Nicky's training (along with a lot of research) also allows her to utilize mystical weapons and find a path to help other people.
5 Bruce Follows His Heart To Help People (Gotham)
Bruce Wayne commits to training to be a vigilante because he wants to bring the person responsible for his parents' death to justice. That's true in any version of Batman's story. In Gotham, however, he does try to step away from his quest for a while, becoming a bit of a partier as he tries to live a normal life and have fun. That's not unlike Shang-Chi becoming Shawn when he runs away from his father's life.
Ultimately, both characters find a kind of balance in their lives. They maintain friendships and are able to have fun activities, but, they also feel a duty to help people and save lives.
4 Eli Tries To Change Who He Is (Cobra Kai)
Eli and Shang-Chi both try to change their lives, but in opposite directions. While Eli embraces rage and violence when he becomes "Hawk," Shang-Chi tries to rid himself of it when he becomes "Shawn."
Both young men develop deep friendships with the people around them. Hawk hides the Eli aspects of his personality from his teammates in Cobra Kai just as Shawn hides his past from Katy. Their worlds are turned upside down due to one particular fight sequence. For Shawn, it's when he and Katy are attacked on a bus. For Hawk, it's when he sees his Cobra Kai friends ready to seriously injure another. They both make big changes and have to rediscover who they really are.
3 Nick Runs From His Past But Wants To Make Amends (Nancy Drew)
When Ned "Nick" Nickerson debuts in Nancy Drew, it's with some surprising backstory: he spent a few years in jail for the accidental death of another young man at a party. When Nick is released, he doesn't return to his old life, taking on a new nickname and building a life for himself somewhere else. Like a lot of TV heroes, Nick thinks he can just outrun his past and make a new life.
Like Shang-Chi, he can't help but help people. While Shang-Chi commits to helping a mystical village and stopping his father, Nick gets embroiled in the supernatural, helping to save Horseshoe Bay's residents from ghostly threats on a regular basis.
2 Alex Is The Family Rebel (Wizards Of Waverly Place)
In Wizards of Waverly Place, Alex Russo has a great aptitude for her family's magical legacy, but she also wants to do things her way. That leads to her making a lot of mistakes that nearly cost her family their magic time and again. It's only when Alex truly buckles down and learns more about magic that she's able to merge her own desires with her family's legacy.
Like Shang-Chi, the magical side of Alex's family comes from her father. Alex rebels in small ways at home rather than running from it. When Shang-Chi returns home, he learns more about his family legacy than he knew to begin with, and it's then that he's able to embrace his power.
1 Zuko Steps Out Of His Father's Shadow (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
Zuko spends his formative years trying to live up to his father's expectations after his mother's disappearance. He and Shang-Chi share that complicated family relationship that originally leads them down a dark path.
If Shang-Chi hadn't run from his father's thumb, he could have ended up as a militant dictator of the secret organization just like him. It takes Zuko a little longer than Shang-Chi to come to terms with his own decision to abandon his father's quest for power, and he doesn't have his sister to back him up, but he does make new friends along the way.