Mandarin (comics)

The Mandarin is a fictional supervillain that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is the archenemy of Iron Man.

The character was created by Stan Lee and designed by Don Heck, first appearing in Tales of Suspense #50 (February 1964). The character is described as being born in China before the Communist revolution, to a wealthy Chinese father and an English aristocratic mother, both of whom died when he was very young. He is characterised as a megalomaniac, attempting to conquer the world on several occasions, yet also possessing a strong sense of honor.

The Mandarin is portrayed as a genius scientist and a superhumanly skilled martial artist. However, his primary sources of power are ten power rings that he adapted from the alien technology of a crashed space ship. Each ring has a different power and is worn on a specific finger.

In other media, the Mandarin has been shown in several forms of animation and computer games. The character loosely serves as the main villain of the 2013 film Iron Man 3. In 2009, Mandarin was ranked as IGN's 81st Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

Publication history

The Mandarin first appeared in Tales of Suspense #50 (February 1964), written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Don Heck.

Fictional character biography

Origins

The Mandarin's late father was one of the wealthiest men in pre-revolutionary mainland China (and a descendant of Genghis Khan), while his late mother was an English noblewoman. Their son was born in an unnamed village in mainland China before the Communist revolution. The boy's parents died soon after his birth, and he was raised by his (paternal) aunt, who was embittered against the world and raised him with much the same attitude. Every last bit of the family fortune was spent obsessively training the Mandarin in science and combat, with the result that he was penniless by adulthood. Without the wealth to pay the taxes on his ancestral home, the Mandarin was evicted by the government.

Hoping to find a means of avenging himself upon the civilization that had taxed him and rendered him homeless, the Mandarin explores the forbidden Valley of Spirits, where no one has dared to set foot for centuries. There he finds the skeleton and starship of Axonn-Karr, an intelligent dragon-like alien from the planet Maklu IV, who had come to Earth centuries ago and died. Over the following years, the Mandarin studies Makluan science until he masters it. He also learns how to use the ten rings he found within the starship, which are apparently its propulsion source, among other things. The Mandarin then becomes a conqueror, and subjugates the villages around the Valley, and through his advanced science, rapidly becomes a power that not even the Chinese Army can successfully challenge. He then embarks on a long series of attempts to achieve world domination. The Chinese, though fearing him, ask for his help, but he will not become subservient to them.

The Mandarin sees technology as the surest means to achieve his goals. Over the years, he frequently attempts to turn the weapons of various nations against them. Among the Mandarin's earliest schemes is the sabotage and theft of American missiles and spy planes built by Tony Stark. To restore public confidence in his workmanship, Stark dons his Iron Man armor and flies to China to investigate. Iron Man soon became the Mandarin's principal obstacle against his plans for world domination.

During three of their early confrontations, the Mandarin manages to take Iron Man (or his alter ego Tony Stark) captive, but fails to kill him. Similarly, Iron Man thwarts the Mandarin's various schemes, but is unable to bring him to justice. Some of the Mandarin's early technological achievements are the launching of a small orbiting satellite whose "death-ray" he aims at Stark Industries, and the building (later retconned as "the reprogramming, the refitting, and the recharging") of Ultimo, a 30-foot (9.1 m) android possessing vast destructive powers. The Mandarin will employ Ultimo four times over the years, but it is always defeated by Iron Man.

The Mandarin's teleportation technology, derived from Makluan science, enables him to kidnap people at will or teleport himself out of threatening situations. He teleports the Swordsman to his castle just before the Avengers capture him, plotting to use him to destroy the Avengers and adding technology to his sword to aid him, though the Swordsman betrays him and throws the bomb away. During his fifth encounter with Iron Man, the Mandarin teleports Harold "Happy" Hogan, a friend and confidant of Iron Man, to his castle in China half a world away. Hogan is wearing the Iron Man armor at the time to help protect his employer's secret identity, and the Mandarin mistakes him for his true foe. In rescuing Hogan, Iron Man physically bests the Mandarin in personal combat for the first time. Iron Man redirected the missiles that the Mandarin had launched so that they hit the Mandarin's castle, destroying it. The Mandarin escaped by means of his teleportation machinery, and he materialized aboard his orbiting satellite. There, he constructs a gemlike device capable of broadcasting "hate-rays" toward Earth. The Mandarin, using his teleportation technology, assembles several former enemies of the Avengers to perform missions for him: the Living Laser, who attacks Asia with Ultimo but is beaten by Thor and Hawkeye; the original Power Man and the Swordsman, who with an army of mercenaries attacked a South American country but are beaten by Goliath, the Wasp, and Iron Man; the Enchantress; and the Executioner, who lead an army of Trolls in Africa, but are beaten by Hercules and the Scarlet Witch. The Avengers manage to thwart the Mandarin's scheme after getting to the satellite, despite being hit by his hate-rays that make each of them attack the person nearest to themselves. However, the Wasp is nearest to the Mandarin and her attack on him shuts off the rays. The Mandarin is sucked into space and the Avengers are able to destroy his satellite.

The Mandarin then establishes a base in China's Gobi Desert, and turns his attention to the Hulk for a time, hoping to make the dull-witted brute an accomplice. Two attempts at controlling the Hulk proved futile. First he places a device on the Hulk's neck, hoping to use him to start a war which will allow the Mandarin to take over the world. However Nick Fury foils this scheme. Next the Mandarin allies himself with the American criminal the Sandman, who has just been beaten by the Hulk. The Hulk destroys the Mandarin's desert base and the Mandarin sends the Sandman into a hot vat, turning him to glass. The glass later shatters, and the Sandman has to recover slowly in the Mandarin's satellite den. When the Mandarin next attacks Iron Man, he employs an android in the Hulk's likeness rather than the real Hulk. The Mandarin sets up a makeshift base of operations in the United States, and attempts to discredit Anthony Stark publicly. Holding Iron Man captive for the fourth time, the Mandarin tries to learn if Iron Man is actually Stark, but Stark fools him with a rubber mask over his own features. His plans thwarted, the Mandarin tries to kill Stark's girlfriend, Janice Cord, but the Mandarin's betrothed Mei Ling saves her at the cost of her own life.

New bodies

Returning to China, the Mandarin seeks a means to increase his rings' power, and learns of the legendary Eye of Yin, a talisman of power created by an ancient group of Chinese sorcerers. The Mandarin manipulates the Royal Family of the Inhumans, who at the time, live in the nearby Himalayan Mountains of Tibet, into locating the idol for him. Yet before he can fully incorporate the Eye's power in his rings, Black Bolt, the ruler of the Inhumans, overpowers him, strips him of his ten rings, and hides them. Unable to find the rings, the Mandarin journeys back to the Valley of Spirits and the ruins of the Makluan starship, wherein he first acquired the rings. There he found a headband containing technology which enabled him to recover the rings. The Mandarin uses his newfound power to restore his castle to its original state. The Unicorn, another frequent opponent of Iron Man, seeks the Mandarin's aid in curing him of a progressive disease. The Mandarin and the Unicorn travel to the United States to attack their common enemy, Iron Man, but in the heat of battle, the Mandarin finds that the headband has somehow exchanged his consciousness with that of the Unicorn. The Mandarin is forced to flee, desperate to separate himself from the Unicorn's dying body.

When the Mandarin arrives at his castle in China, he finds that it has been taken over by the Yellow Claw, another professional criminal and warlord of Chinese origin. The Mandarin is forced to find another laboratory to try to restore his mind back to its rightful body, which he manages with the unwilling aid of the Japanese mutant Sunfire. In a subsequent battle with Iron Man, the Mandarin's interim headquarters is destroyed. The Mandarin then launches an attack on the Yellow Claw in an attempt to regain his own castle, but is fatally injured when the Yellow Claw robot he is battling explodes. As the Mandarin is dying, he uses the headband's mind-transferring capacities to transfer his consciousness into his ten rings. When the rings are confiscated by the Yellow Claw's power-hungry servant Loc Do, the Mandarin's consciousness enters his body, permanently driving out Loc Do's. Using his matter-rearranger ring, the Mandarin transformed Loc Do's body into a younger duplicate of his own original one.

The Mandarin returns to his castle, discovering that it has again been destroyed. After rebuilding it, the Mandarin attempts to capture Iron Man with his teleportation devices, but once again catches someone else clad in his armor. This time it is Michael O'Brien, later to become a friend of Stark's and second to wear the Guardsman armor. Iron Man flies to O'Brien's rescue, clad in an old set of armor, saves O'Brien, thwarts the Mandarin's attempt to bomb the United States, and for a second time bests him in personal combat. Perhaps due to the effect of the Mandarin's mental domination ring on him, Iron Man does not take the Mandarin into custody, but allows him to remain free.

The Mandarin later schemes to turn the Great Vibranium Mound of Wakanda into Type II Vibranium, which destroys the molecular cohesion of metals. He also tries to destroy China's entire rice crop with radiation in an attempt to force a starving nation into war. In the second of these plots, the Mandarin encounters James Rhodes during Rhodes' custodianship of the Iron Man armor.

Heart of Darkness

When Stark tries to set up a branch of Stark Enterprises in Hong Kong, Iron Man and the Mandarin once again come into conflict. The Mandarin has taken the name of Zhang Tong, and had become a financial leader in Hong Kong. As Tong, he controls a number of government officials and industry leaders of Hong Kong. The Mandarin thwarts all of Stark's attempts to set up a business branch, even resorting to murder. The Mandarin now employs a group called the Hand to do his dirty work. When on a mission, a Hand member is allowed to take one of the Mandarin's rings and use its powers. As a precaution, if the Hand member is to be captured, he will fanatically try to kill himself. If the Hand member is to be killed or knocked out, the ring will automatically teleport back to the Mandarin. The Mandarin's agents kidnap James Rhodes and several of Stark's other employees, forcing Iron Man into single combat in exchange for their lives. Iron Man defeats the Mandarin once again, and helps Stark's employees escape the Hand. The Mandarin's minions are left without their weapons when their master is knocked unconscious, causing his rings to teleport back to him automatically and leaving them unarmed and unable to stop Stark's employees from fleeing.

At one point, during a period in which the then thought-dead X-Men had disbanded, the mutant heroine Psylocke passes through the mystic portal known as the Siege Perilous. The portal relocates her to an Asian shore, leaving her an amnesiac. The man known as Matsu'o Tsurayaba finds her and believes he could save his brain-dead lover Kwannon by switching her mind with Psylocke.

He makes an arrangement with the Mandarin to help him with the switch, since his rings will be able to facilitate it. Working with the otherdimensional sorceress known as Spiral, they are able to do this successfully. Mandarin conditions Psylocke (now in Kwannon's body) to believe herself to be Lady Mandarin, the Mandarin's assassin. During this time, the Mandarin teams up with several other villains during the "Acts of Vengeance" storyline. He also confronted the Avengers.

After completing several assignments for him, Psylocke is eventually rescued by her X-Men teammates Wolverine and Jubilee. The three then defeat the Mandarin, causing events which lead to the severing of the Mandarin's relationship with the Hand.

Some time later, the Mandarin discovered that one of his rings is an elaborate counterfeit. One of his underlings had betrayed him, surrendering the ring to Chen Hsu, an ancient wizard who lived in San Francisco. Hsu, elfin in appearance but puissant in power, gives up the ring to the Mandarin, who collapses as soon as he put it on. Chen Hsu tends to him, removing the veil of confusion from his mind; soon the Mandarin realizes that his memories had been fragmented because of the theft of the ring, because the rings were still linked to his consciousness.

Next Chen Hsu makes the Mandarin an offer that involves them traveling to the Valley of the Dragons. There, Chen Hsu uses a magic herb to awaken Fin Fang Foom, an ancient and powerful dragon. Under the control of Hsu, the dragon obeys the Mandarin, laying waste to an army sent by the Chinese government to stop him. Soon the Mandarin claims a third of China's territory, and the authorities sent out a call for help to Iron Man.

When Iron Man confronts the Mandarin and Fin Fang Foom, eight other dragons appear. It is revealed that many thousands of years ago, a number of aliens from the planet Kakaranathara, fourth planet of the star Maklu, traveled to Earth to look for the conflict which was unknown in their culture, and which they craved. The ship crashed, stranding them on Earth for thousands of years, after which the Mandarin found the ship and claimed their rings. Now, they demand them back, but he refuses them. Iron Man forcibly combines his power with the rings, and manages to destroy the Makluan dragons. The blast vaporizes the Mandarin's hands, and renders him comatose.

For months, he lays in a state between life and death, in the care of a peasant woman who does not know who he is. Over time, his hands grow back, though they do so as reptilian claws, and the rings called to him again, to reclaim them.

The Mandarin next discovers the Heart of Darkness, an orb of apparently mystic energy; the alien Century believes it is an ancient artifact which acts as a "lens" to attract and focus all manner of dark power. The Mandarin uses its power to turn back time in China, and literally transforms it into a feudal nation again, one in which electronic equipment cannot not operate. Iron Man, with his team Force Works and ally War Machine defeat him, but not before the Mandarin discovers that Tony Stark is the man inside the Iron Man armor.

Iron Man infects the Mandarin with a techno-organic virus, and the Heart, seeing him infected with technology, rejects the Mandarin and implodes. Iron Man believes him dead, though in reality the Mandarin has been transported and transformed, by the last flare of the orb's magic, into a janitor in the Hong Kong branch of Stark Enterprises.

Eventually, the Mandarin's memories return to him. The Mandarin believes that the feudalism of yesterday has merely been transformed into the capitalism of today, leading him to set into motion plans to create a giant flying fortress, called the Dragon of Heaven, through which he can conquer Russia and eventually the world. During this time, Iron Man reappears after being believed dead in a battle against the psychic menace Onslaught. The Mandarin initiates a series of attacks on Iron Man, culminating in a battle with the Dragon of Heaven. Eventually it is revealed that the Mandarin's primary purpose is not to conquer Russia, but instead to test Iron Man himself, prove him worthy as a foe, and to justify the Mandarin's own thoughts on the feudal nature of capitalism. The Mandarin appears to die as the Dragon of Heaven explodes, but Iron Man is not convinced that his foe has truly met his end.

Temugin

Despite the uncertainty of his fate, it would be nearly ten years before the Mandarin returned to the pages of Iron Man. In the interim, Iron Man faces Mandarin's son, Temugin. Temugin has precious few memories of his father, and most of them involve his father taking him to the monastery where he was raised and trained by monks. Temugin is sensitive, spiritual, and extremely powerful because of his control of chi, the living force in all things.

One day, Temugin receives a package containing the severed hands of the Mandarin, bearing all the rings of power. Temugin knows that he is honor-bound to fulfill his father's wishes for him. He challenges Iron Man in order to avenge his father's death, and he proves a deadly adversary even without the rings.

After Tony Stark reveals a conspiracy for mass murder in his own ranks, Temugin appears to have forgiven Iron Man for the death of his father and to have turned to more lofty pursuits, but events indicate that the evil power of the rings has corrupted his soul.

Temugin had been named after his, and the Mandarin's, claimed ancestor Genghis Khan, whose birth name was Temujin (also spelled Temuchin, Temudjin, u also variates to ü).

Temugin is later contacted by the double-crossing Spot, who gives him a super-weapon that MODOK had been planning to steal. In this appearance, Temugin speaks of the Mandarin as "my late father", and bears the rings, one of which he uses to imprison Spot in another dimension with nothing but money. In the following issue, the Puma tears off at least one of Temugin's hands, but despite this, he retained at least half of the rings - and possibly all, as Nightshade, who used the rings on his lost hand, is not seen with them at the end of the story.

Nevertheless, he later reappeared without the rings, and with a cybernetic arm, as a member of the Atlas Foundation, having been selected as a secondary candidate for the position of its ruler by the ancient dragon Mr. Lao. In this capacity he is a constant irritant to Jimmy Woo, the head of Atlas.

Revival

The Mandarin is revived in a subsequent Iron Man story arc, in which he is revealed to have been in a prison in central China for some time. In is revealed that he has lost his hands (most likely the hands that were sent to Temugin were, in fact, actually the Mandarin's), and that he has been living with no food or water for years, an ability that is likely due to his mastery of chi. Despite being handless and starved, he is able to kill several men armed with guns via his mastery of the martial arts. His rings have been returned to him, and are reassimilated into his body by heating them and burning them into his spine.

After attacking Iron Man, via S.H.I.E.L.D. - with dozens of unwitting proxies in the form of extremist splinter groups, equipped by him with hyper-advanced biological weapons - he eventually resurfaces as Tem Borjigin (yet another name of Genghis Khan), now employing artificial hands.

Government infiltration

The Mandarin infiltrates the U.S. government via his role as CEO of Prometheus, a corporation specializing in bio-engineered weaponry. He appears to be using Tony Stark's former love interest Maya Hansen to produce an army of soldiers enhanced with Extremis, an artificial biotech virus created by Hansen that when introduced into a subject with a specific gene receptive to it (which only 2.5% of the population possess), grants that subject a super-boosted immune system and a greatly enhanced healing ability that can spontaneously generate new, improved organs, but which increases aggression and kills anyone injected with it who lacks the gene for it. Mandarin is also financing and arming terrorists around the globe, and plans to unleash the Extremis virus on the public, expecting the 97.5% fatality ratio to cause a mass catastrophe of deaths. The Mandarin admits to Hansen that even he will die in the outbreak, but she and those with the gene to survive will become free from disease and effectively immortal. Though he has his Extremis disabled, Iron Man defeats the Mandarin while wearing the Silver Centurion armor by tearing five of the rings out of the Mandarin's spine, blasting him with those rings, his unibeam, and repulsors at the same time, and then freezing him as he is engulfed in deadly concentrated Extremis virus. Iron Man then prevents the Extremis outbreak.

When the Mandarin's apparently frozen body is autopsied, all that is found is a blackened husk, not unlike an Extremis chrysalis.

Enter the Mandarin

In 2007, the Mandarin appeared in Iron Man - Enter the Mandarin, an expanded and modified retelling from his earliest appearances in Tales of Suspense. The series was written by Joe Casey and drawn by Eric Canete.

Mandarin: The Story of My Life

In Invincible Iron Man Annual #1 by Matt Fraction, a new updated origin of the Mandarin is offered. Here, the Mandarin kidnaps a young up and coming film producer to tell his life's story. He relates the same story he once told Iron Man in Tales of Suspense of his English noblewoman mother and his schooling at the finest boarding schools in the land. The director learns that much of what the Mandarin says is contradictory and false, and it is hinted that the Mandarin has used one of his own rings to make himself believe this tapestry of half truths. The director discovers that the Mandarin was the son of an opium den prostitute who went on to become a powerful underworld figure before discovering the Ten Rings of Power in an alien craft, the pilot of which he brutally slew to obtain them. The Mandarin slaughtered the Red Chinese army officials for daring to cross him while financing his operations with drug and gun smuggling, aided by the mercenary Raza. In this retelling, he is also said to have been at the camp in which Tony Stark constructed his Iron Man armor, though Stark is unaware of this fact.

Angered at the Mandarin holding his wife hostage, the director shoots the movie as he wishes not as the Mandarin dictates. The Mandarin denounces this telling of his past as lies and angrily destroys the theater in which it was being shown, before having the director killed. Later, he regrets murdering the director, noting that he really did love his films.

"Stark Resilient"

At the conclusion of the 2010 - 2011 "Stark Resilient" storyline, it is revealed that the Mandarin is the father of Sasha Hammer, as she introduces her boyfriend Zeke Stane to her parents.

With help from Zeke Stane, Mandarin recruits Blizzard IV, Chemistro III, Crimson Dynamo XIII, Firebrand IV, Firepower, Living Laser, Melter II, Mauler III, a Titanium Man, Vibro, and Whirlwind as well as building some new Dreadnought robots in a plot to take out Iron Man.

"Long Way Down", "The Future", and death

In the 2012 storyline "The Long Way Down", it is revealed that the Mandarin has gained some measure of mental control over Tony Stark, apparently established around the time of the "World's Most Wanted" and "Stark Disassembled" arcs, wherein Stark effectively wiped his own mind to safeguard critical S.H.I.E.L.D. data from Norman Osborn and H.A.M.M.E.R. How the Mandarin gained this control is as yet unrevealed, but it has been stated that he is "in [Stark's] head", and had been observing and influencing his actions since Stark's return to public life. Among these actions were implanted design ideas for "Titanomechs", huge squid-like war machines apparently capable of taking over the world (as seen in an alternate future in Invincible Iron Man #500).

This lead into the next storyline "The Future" in which the Mandarin kidnaps Stark, and brings him to Mandarin City to develop ten Titanomechs, which Mandarin plans to use as host bodies for each of his ten rings, which he reveals are actually vessels for the souls of ten alien beings. In truth, the Mandarin serves these beings, and has planned all along to "resurrect" them in this fashion.

Tony forms an alliance with others that Mandarin has imprisoned, including Ezekiel Stane, Whirlwind, Blizzard, and Living Laser. In a rebellion against Mandarin, Stark manages to alert his staff at Stark Resilient to find him, and manages to destroy the Titanomechs. In the ensuing battle, Mandarin is apparently killed by Stane, much to the dismay of Iron Man.

Rings of the Mandarin

In the Marvel NOW relaunch of Iron Man by writer Kieron Gillen, the Mandarin's rings managed to escape from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Weapon Vault Omega, the Mento-Intensifier Ring staying behind to create the illusion that the rings were still there. Each of the rings later started finding new hosts with the purpose of "saving Earth from Tony Stark", using persuasive language and mind-control to bend them towards the cause against Iron Man. Each one has been codenamed from Mandarin-One to Mandarin-Ten:

• The Matter-Rearranger Ring was taken by a Chinese gang warlord calling himself "Lord Remaker". He commanded numerous triads which protected the city from anyone who wanted to interfere. However, he was stripped from his power when Tony Stark decided to rebuild the city into a futuristic utopia. Upon obtaining the "Remaker" ring, Lord Remaker became Mandarin-One.

• Colin Sixty was part of the clone output created by A.I.M. He was created specifically to be sold to Cortex Inc. As "C. Anderson Sixty", Colin Sixty was put under the charge of the regional direction of Cortex Inc.'s Lunar operations in Tranquility Gulch. When Tony Stark, the governor of Tranquility Gulch went on a quest to kick out major competitors in the exploitation of Phlogistone, he revealed Anderson Sixty's true nature to the press, in order to discredit Cortex by having allied with A.I.M.. With his life ruined, Colin tried to kill Stark with a laser cutter, using his martial arts training, Stark disposed of Colin's weapon and maimed his hand in a tank of liquid nitrogen. He was found by Mandarin's Impact Ring and made Mandarin-Two.

• Alec Eiffel was a fascist who was chosen by Mandarin's Vortex Ring to be its host "Mandarin-Three" in order to help it and the other rings have revenge on Tony Stark.

• It is revealed that after reclaiming his kingdom Svartalfheim, Malekith the Accursed was approached by the Vortex Ring seeking a host becoming Mandarin-Four. Malekith bent its will to his rather than letting it control his mind. He has now begun a campaign to attack all other "Mandarins" and take their rings, desiring "the full set" before attacking Tony Stark. Though he is usually a foe of Thor and other magical beings, his opposition to Iron Man is rooted in Elves' traditional weakness towards iron.

• Victor Kohl is the black sheep of his family where he was the only member of his family that didn't go through Terrigenesis during the Inhumanity storyline. Victor was confronted by the Black Light Ring of the Mandarin which found him acceptable to be its wearer. With its power and still under the influence of alcohol, Victor attacked the Inhuman Nativity Center where Robert was apparently killed. Iron Man appeared to stop him and Victor had to flee after the Golden Avenger injured his shoulder with a laser. The ring teleported Victor to a safe place. While recovering, Victor suffered from Terrigenesis for his surprise. As soon as he resurfaced, Victor was found and confronted by Medusa. She showed to him the rest of the body of his father which was destroyed during Victor's rampage in the Nativity Center. She also explained to Victor that he didn't suffer from Terrigenesis not because he didn't have blood ties with his family, but because the level of exposure to Terrigen Mists to activate the Terrigenesis in certain individuals can vary. She exiled Victor from the Inhumans for his actions. Victor blamed himself for what he did, but the ring managed to make him blame Tony Stark from not stopping him when he was rampaging drunk. The Ring also suggested Victor's new nickname called the Exile. Exile was also referred to as Mandarin-Five. He was later killed by Arno Stark.

• The White Light Ring approached Mole Man in order to help it and the other rings have revenge on Tony Stark where he became Mandarin-Six.

• Abigail Burns is an English activist who believes the world needs to be saved from capitalism, corporate hegemony and the impotence of democracy for which among her activities she wrote columns. One night, the Fire Blast Ring approached her and decided she possessed the suitable will to become the Mandarin-Seven and her mission was to "save the world from Tony Stark." Besides being referred to as Mandarin-Seven, Abigail calls herself "Red Peril".

• Marc Kumar was a freelancer P.R. and marketing expert who met Pepper Potts in Las Vegas, during Tony Stark's absence in space, while he was handling a drunk client at a party Pepper was attending. After dating for months, Marc proposed to Pepper in Scotland. From the stories Pepper told him about Stark, Marc came to the conclusion that he treated her bad, and grew resentful at Tony. He was approached by the Mento-Intensifier Ring in order to help get revenge on Tony Stark where he became Mandarin-Eight.

• An unnamed Broadway director/composer/conductor was formerly in charge of a musical based on Iron Man's life called "The Man In the Iron Mask" which showed Tony Stark as a pervert. Under the orders of Stark himself, the director was replaced and he took it poorly. The Electro-Blast Ring latched onto an egotistical musical-theatre artist calling himself "The Lighting Conductor" and operated as Mandarin-Nine.

• The supervillain Endotherm was chosen by the Ice Blast Ring to become Mandarin-Ten and help to get revenge on Tony Stark. His ring was later stolen by Abigail Burns using a Master Ring.

However, all but one of these were later to meet their demise or mutilation at the hands of the dark elf Malekith the Accursed who beheaded Mandarin-One, beheaded Mandarin-Nine, and cut off Mandarin-Six's hands.

The rings of the Mandarin are defeated and capture all the remaining rings by Iron Man and his team. Iron Man realized the recovered Recorder 451's corpse from deep space was transmitting an alien frequency that had upgraded the rings become sentient.

Powers and abilities

The Mandarin is a superb athlete with tremendous skill in the various martial arts. Through repeated practice, he has toughened all the striking surfaces of his body, especially his hands, which are covered with thick calluses. He can even split Iron Man's magnetic-beam reinforced alloy armor with repeated blows. So great is the Mandarin's martial arts ability, that he can even survive years without food and water, apparently sustaining himself purely via his mastery of chi. The precise degree of The Mandarin's martial art powers has been the subject of multiple implied retcons by Marvel Comics. Initially, Mandarin was portrayed as being such a superhumanly skilled martial artist that he could destroy Iron Man's armor with his bare hands.

The Mandarin is one of Marvel Earth's greatest scientific geniuses, and highly skilled in various sciences. Not only has he made himself into an expert authority on alien Makluan science, but he has also built upon this knowledge by making further discoveries based upon it.

The principal personal weapons of the Mandarin are the ten rings which he wears on the fingers of each hand. The rings' operations cannot be explained by contemporary Earth science, but it is known that they served as near-limitless power sources for the warp-drive engines of the Makluan starship of Axonn-Karr. The Mandarin learned how to convert the rings to his personal uses and to make them respond to his mental commands. The fingers on which he wears each ring, and the known functions for which he uses each ring, are given below.

As of writer Kieron Gillen's tenure on Iron Man, new names have been revealed for some rings which the rings - apparently sentient - use to identify one another. Capable of speech and inter-communication via telepathy, the rings demonstrate personality traits and are even capable of mocking and humiliating the Nightbringer ring for failing to find a host at the same time as its fellows.

Over the years through mental discipline achieved through meditation and long practice in use of the rings, the Mandarin has established a strong psionic link with his ten power rings, which was made many times stronger during the period in which his mind/spirit actually inhabited them. One result is that no one who wears the rings other than the Mandarin himself can command them without his permission. The Mandarin can now command the rings even when they are separated from him by vast distances. He can mentally monitor events taking place near a ring that has been separated from him. Continued exposure to the alien rings made his hands green and scaly. He can voluntarily give temporary control over a ring to his servants. If the servant dies or falls unconscious, the rings teleport back to the Mandarin. Conversely, if the Mandarin himself is knocked out, all the rings automatically return to him. On one occasion, this left the Mandarin's servants powerless to stop some of Tony Stark's employees, that the Mandarin had kidnapped, from escaping.

The Mandarin has also used a force field generator, but this is not part of his standard weaponry.

He has also used a head band enabling him to transfer his mind into his rings or into another's body, and a teleportation device hidden on his person, both examples of Makluan technology.

The Mandarin is a brilliant and brutal tactician and a gifted strategist. He also abides by a very strict code of honor. When he attempted to stop Stark Enterprises from establishing itself in Hong Kong, the Mandarin challenged Iron Man to a duel, stating that if he won, he would take control of Stark Enterprises' Hong Kong operations, and that he would cease hindering Stark's activities if he lost. When Iron Man defeated him in fair combat, he lived up to his end of the agreement. On another occasion, he killed one of his minions for attempting to drug him during a practice session, angry that one of his students would use such dishonorable tactics.

Other versions

In the Spider-Ham universe, there is a version of the Mandarin who is a Ring-tailed lemur named Mandaringtail.

In the Heroes Reborn reality created by Franklin Richards, a version of the Mandarin exists, but is revealed to be a robot created by Dr. Doom as a puppet to control HYDRA.

In the "House of M" reality, the Mandarin was a long-dead Chinese warlord famous for his supernatural rings. The rings (still bonded to the Mandarin's mummified hands) were apparently uncovered by Shang-Chi and his gang, but this was revealed to be a trap set by the Kingpin.

In the Ultimate Marvel Universe, the Mandarin appears in a flashback in Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates, with Tony Stark in an earlier armor prototype attacking Mandarin holding James Rhodes captive. This is actually not in continuity with the Ultimate Universe, as this is an Iron Man animated series which Nick Fury is watching; the Mandarin is a fictional character invented for the self-promoting cartoon.

Although the initial incarnation does not actually exist, a version of the Mandarin appears in Ultimate Comics: Iron Man as an organization rather than a lone supervillain. Mandarin International is a company that helped Howard Stark build Stark International into a successful company. Years later, they reclaim what was "theirs": Tony Stark and his legacy. Stark located them in Hong Kong, and came into conflict with their "caretakers" Taku and Jane stealing DNA from Stark and access their defense satellites. With help from War Machine and S.H.I.E.L.D., they were stopped and their facility was destroyed, although it sent a message to caretaker Li from an unknown individual.

In other media

Television

• Mandarin is a major foe of Iron Man in The Marvel Super Heroes voiced by Bernard Cowan.

• Mandarin appears as a central villain in the animated series Iron Man voiced by Ed Gilbert in Season 1 and Robert Ito in Season 2. Originally, he was archaeologist named Arnold Brock who stumbled upon an alien spaceship (from distant worlds) protected by grim clay warriors. Soon he finds a giant crystal with immeasurable power, underneath the jewel were ten magic gems which he fastened into his slayed wife's rings. In Season 2, he loses all of his rings and travels around the earth to find them. Eventually he reclaims his rings and uses the Heart of Darkness to rob the world of technology. Iron Man defeats him by turning his own energy against him (resulting in losing the rings on his right hand) and defeating him in his new exo-armor, giving him amnesia. Some desert bandits come and prepare to rob him of his rings. His screams were heard by Iron Man's group.

• Gene Khan/Temugin appears as the Mandarin in the animated series Iron Man: Armored Adventures voiced by Vincent Tong. His criminal stepfather Xin Zhang (also voiced by Vincent Tong) initially claims to be the "true Mandarin" until he is imprisoned by his stepson very early in the series. In this incarnation, Gene is revealed to be part Makluan due to genetic modifications bestowed upon his ancestor in order to wield the power rings, and while he mostly ends up opposing Iron Man, he is generally depicted as a misguided anti-hero who has noble intentions but executes them the wrong way. At the end of the series, Gene is faced with the results of his ambitions when the Makluans invade the Earth for the rings. After the Makluan invasion is repelled, Gene decides to become a protector to the Earth instead.

• The Mandarin appears in the Lego Marvel Super Heroes: Maximum Overload mini-series, voiced by Barry Dennen.

Film

• Mandarin is featured in the direct-to-video animated movie The Invincible Iron Man voiced by Fred Tatasciore. This version is an ancient ruler of a vicious Chinese dynasty that used some supernatural means (his servants were of each element: Air, Fire, Water, and Earth) and has two Guardians: the dragon Fin Fang Foom and the Ice Dragon Zhen Ji Xang. Another difference between this Mandarin is that he has five rings instead of 10 (and was left behind around the globe, should all rings be re-united, the Mandarin will rise and rule the Earth). He appears only briefly as a spiritual projection at the film's climax but was destroyed by his descendant, Li-Mei (voiced by Gwendoline Yeo) to save a wounded Tony Stark.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

• The Mandarin is referenced in the live-action film Iron Man via the name of a terrorist group, "The Ten Rings".
• Sir Ben Kingsley appears in promotional material as the Mandarin in the 2013 film Iron Man 3. It is implied that the terrorist known as the "Mandarin" is the public leader of the Ten Rings terrorist cell that appears in Iron Man and Iron Man 2. It is later revealed that the terrorist persona of the "Mandarin" is a fictional character invented by Aldrich Killian to mask his illegal activities while the idealized image is actually drunken British character actor Trevor Slattery. Inspired by Matt Fraction's Mandarin and the character Mallen, director Shane Black specified that Killian was the Marvel Cinematic Universe's version of the Mandarin as signified by the dragon tattoos on Killian's chest, while Slattery is supposed to portray the idealized image of the terrorist persona as Killian's proxy. In the film's climax, Killian reveals that he has adopted the mantle of the "Mandarin" as his own, and that he conspired with Vice President Rodriguez to eliminate President Ellis so that Rodriguez could become the new President under Killian's orders (in exchange for Rodriguez's daughter getting Extremis to restore her missing right leg). After Killian is killed, Slattery and Vice President Rodriguez are arrested.
• In interviews, Kevin Feige suggested that Killian built his idea of the Mandarin from legends he had heard, and hinted at the possibility that there may be an authentic Mandarin.
• Ben Kingsley reprises his role as Slattery in the Marvel One-Shot short All Hail the King. In this film, Slattery is an inmate at Seagate Prison being interviewed by Jackson Norriss, a filmmaker documenting his life. However in a plot twist, it is revealed that Norriss is a member of the real Ten Rings organization led, apparently, by someone else using the Mandarin mantle and that they are angered by Killian and Slattery making a mockery of their beliefs. He kidnaps Slattery from the prison, telling him that the real Mandarin wants to meet him.

Video games

• Mandarin appears as the third and last boss in stage 3 of the 1991 arcade game Captain America and the Avengers.

• Mandarin appears as a boss in the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance voiced by James Sie. In the game, he was originally a member of the Masters of Evil until he rebelled against Doctor Doom and left the group. Loki impersonates him in Atlantis, causing the heroes to be sent to his Palace to find out the plans of the Masters; he is guarded by Grey Gargoyle, Dragon Man and various versions of Ultimo, along with stone samurai warriors.

• Mandarin is featured in the Iron Man-themed table in Marvel Pinball.

• Mandarin is featured in Marvel: Avengers Alliance. He is mentioned a lot in the normal missions. In the 9th Spec Ops mission, Mandarin makes contact with Iron Man at the end of the 9th Spec Ops mission where he had sent Eric Savin to act as his proxy. He then ends his transmission with Iron Man stating that they will talk again soon.

• Fred Tatasciore reprises his role as Mandarin in Marvel Heroes.

• Mandarin appears in Lego Marvel Super Heroes, voiced by John DiMaggio. He and Aldrich Killian lead the Extremis soldiers into taking over Stark Tower. After Aldrich Killian is defeated, Mandarin hijacks Iron Man's Hulkbuster Armor to fight Iron Man and Captain America. Mandarin is defeated by Iron Man and Captain America and is then arrested by S.H.I.E.L.D.

Toys

• The Mandarin is the 94th figurine in The Classic Marvel Figurine Collection.

• A figure of the Mandarin and a variant chase were released in wave 2 of Toy Biz's 6" Marvel Legends Face-Off line. The regular version was in a green outfit and was packaged with Iron Man, whereas the variant was in a red outfit and was packaged with War Machine.

• The Mandarin was released in wave 1 of Toy Biz's 1994 Iron Man line, based on his appearance from the 1994 animated series.

• The Mandarin was released in Hasbro's 3.75" figure line based on the Iron Man: Armored Adventures animated series.

• The Mandarin, under the name "Zhang Tong," was released in The Danger of Dreadknight 4-pack from the Marvel Super Hero Squad line, packaged with 2 figures of Iron Man and one of Dreadknight.

• A figure of the Mandarin was released in wave 36 of the Marvel Minimates line.

• A figure of the Mandarin was released in wave 5 of Hasbro's 3.75" Iron Man 2 movie tie-in line. A red version came out in a Marvel Universe comic pack with a comic accurate Silver Centurion armor.
• A Lego minifigure of the Mandarin was released in Lego Marvel Super Heroes set 76007:Iron Man: Malibu Mansion Attack and 76008: Iron Man vs. The Mandarin: Ultimate Showdown, released by Lego in March 2013.

• A series of Mandarin figurines have been release by HeroClix - HeroClix is a collectible miniatures game that uses the Clix system that centers around the world of superhero comic books, especially the Marvel and DC Comics universes.

• A figure of The Mandarin was released by Hot Toys in 2013 based on his portrayal by Sir Ben Kingsley in Iron Man 3.

References

External links

• Mandarin at Marvel.com