Origin
Lin Lie is a young college student, who came into possession of a mystic sword. It was given to him by his archeologist father right before he and Lin’s older brother disappeared. Now, Lin uses the sword to ensure Chiyou, God of War remains sealed away, as is his family’s sacred duty.
Creation
Sword Master was created for the Chinese Market by artist Gunji and writer Shuizhu and first appeared in the Chinese Marvel comic Warriors of Three Sovereigns Vol 1 1 (2018). His first American debut was in War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas issue 2, although he already appeared on the cover of War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas issue 1 one month earlier. The original Chinese Warriors of Three Sovereigns comic would later be published or “reprinted” in the American Sword Master series.
Major Story Arcs
War of the Realms
Malekith has brought his War of the Realms to Midgard, and a band of heroes from the Pacific Rim stood in the way of Sindr and her Fire Demons. In Shanghai, Sword Master held the line with the elementals, Aero, Wave, and Pele. This got the attention of Jimmy Woo and Amadeus Cho, who teleported them to Korea to join their new Agents of Atlas.
Cho’s new plan meant defending Arctic, despite Sword Master’s belief that they were all needed in their home nations. However Sindr’s plan to melt the polar ice caps would affect them all. Sword Master was part of the squad to confront Sindr directly. After defeating the fire demons, the new Agents of Atlas help with the clean up in the Pacific region.
Portal City
Lin was in New York training with Shang-Chi when The Agents of Atlas were called together once again when a tech mogul, Mike Nguyen, opened portals in all major Asian cultural centers linking them together as one multinational city, Pan. Pan came with its own designated superhero, The Protector of Pan (Isaac), but when the Agents intervened on a group of dragons attracted by the portalsâ energy signatures, Nguyen spun them as corporate approved guardians as well.
Isaac sought out the Agents because he had his own suspicions of his boss and why so many dragons are attracted to his tech. Looking into it, they find that the portals of Pan are powered from the magic of an enslaved dragon. If they were to free it, they would strand a number of refugees without a state and cut off many working class people from new revenue streams. Even worse, the dragon was stolen from Atlantis, and Namor is angry.
Atlantis Attacks
Namor gives the Agents one day to return the dragon. Jimmy Woo shows up with the previous Agents of Atlas. Cho, 3-D Man, Uranian, and M-11 are tasked with finding a way to replicate the power of the dragon so they can release it, while Lin and the rest prepare for a fight. The big brains are successful, but the dragon has been tampered with. An implant causes it to attack Atlantis once it returns, convincing Namor that he was betrayed.
It was revealed that The Sirenas, ancient enemies of Atlanteans, were working with Mike Nguyen and were responsible for driving the dragon insane. With these new revelations, the team lost trust in Mike and split up. They united with the Sirenas and Atlanteans to solve their dragon problem and force Mike out of the shadows.
Unfortunately, when the team found Mike, he used a device to Hulk-out Amadeus and direct him at Atlantis. The new allies did their best to fight off Amadeus until Sword Master and Shang-Chi could rip the device from Amadeus. They were too late though. The shockwave from Amadeus’ last blow to Namor caused a tsunami to head toward Pan.
Aero and Wave used their powers to buy the land team time to evacuate the coastal regions of Pan. Amadeus was forced to Hulk out once more to try and counter-shockwave the wave, stopping it from causing too much damage. However, Mike Nguyen perished when he refused to evacuate.
In the wake of these events, Amadeus was sick of Jimmy Woo’s lies and secrets and left the team.
Death of Doctor Strange
When Doctor Strange is killed, ending Earth’s protection against other dimensions, Lin was fighting extra-dimensional threats in the Philippines as an Agent of Atlas with teammate, Wave. Woo interrupts him with a new mission. He is to go to Korea and check in with White Fox after a Kumiho is discovered. White Fox was believed to be the last of their kind.
Lin and Fox investigate this new sighting only to find an evil twisted Kumiho that was bound in another dimension by an ancient Sorcerer Supreme. During the fight, this Kumiho was able to break Lin’s sword with her mighty jaws. Lin was in shock over its destruction leaving himself open for an attack. The Kumiho was able to knock him off a cliff and into a river.
After White Fox defeated the Kumiho, she went searching for Lin with the help of both her team, Tiger Division, and Lin’s. However, they did not find him.
Fox was able to collect the shards of the sword and pledged she would defend the world from Chiyou in Lin’s absence.