Who is The Mandarin exactly?

[King Billi]

First up I want to say that I already know the answer to that question I just asked but just bare with me for a moment...

The Mandarin is a comic book villian and enemy of Iron Man.

He recently made his big screen debut in Iron Man 3 played by Ben Kingsley.

The film version of The Mandarin was altered significantly from his comic book counterpart who was some kind of sorcerer who used magic rings to fight Iron Man and was apparently a racist asian stereotype.

Finally and most importantly he is apparently the single most prominent villian in Iron Mans entire rogues gallery... his archenemy in fact, the Lex Luthor to his Superman, the Moriarty to his Sherlock Holmes.

So here we finally come to my question...

Why this guy?

I honestly don't get what the connection is between these two characters, I know comic books have long and convoluted backstories so theres likely some significant story from way back when that properly outlines the cause for these two characters rivalry but right now I just don't see what connection there is between "this guy" and "that guy".

I suppose this question could be leveled at other fictional characters, specifically comic book heroes and villians, maybe just popularity and exposure is enough to make someone a memorable archenemy...

Thanks for having the patience to sit through my rambling query just now.

 

[Iron_will]

and was apparently a racist asian stereotype.

From what little I've read of the comics, he was far, far from that.

 

[Fappy]

Iron Man's character was a product of the Cold War. Where he represented free enterprise and the American way, many of his enemy represented power-hungry/delusional Soviets. The Mandarin was a representation of a repressive Chinese dictator and in some ways... he still is. As for why they are consistently at each other's throats...

The Mandarin has a superiority complex (as does Stark to a certain extent) and has been, since the beginning, thwarted time and again by Stark. This is all the motivation he needs to want to ruin Stark's life forever. The Mandarin is Stark's only enemy (as far as Iron Man-only enemies go) that has the intellect and resources to truly challenge Stark on all fronts. Battles between the two often result in a chess match of sorts where Iron Man's other enemies frequently act as disposable pawns only to reveal that Mandarin had been pulling their strings all along.

He was a bit of a racist stereotype in the beginning, but now he's just a damn-good villain.

 

[King Billi]

Iron Man's character was a product of the Cold War. Where he represented free enterprise and the American way, many of his enemy represented power-hungry/delusional Soviets. The Mandarin was a representation of a repressive Chinese dictator and in some ways... he still is. As for why they are consistently at each other's throats...

The Mandarin has a superiority complex (as does Stark to a certain extent) and has been, since the beginning, thwarted time and again by Stark. This is all the motivation he needs to want to ruin Stark's life forever. The Mandarin is Stark's only enemy (as far as Iron Man-only enemies go) that has the intellect and resources to truly challenge Stark on all fronts. Battles between the two often result in a chess match of sorts where Iron Man's other enemies frequently act as disposable pawns only to reveal that Mandarin had been pulling their strings all along.

He was a bit of a racist stereotype in the beginning, but now he's just a damn-good villain.

Wow... thats actually very interesting.

Just after hearing so much during the build up of Iron Man 3 on the significance of this character and seeing how he was ultimately presented in the film I was just curious about what the real deal with this guy was.

Thanks.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

I admit that I know nothing of the comic history of Iron Man, but if he used magic rings, like you say he did, it makes me believe (along with what Fappy said) that it's a magic versus technology thing. The point of an arch enemy is to be the opposite (yet still compliment) everything the main character represents.

Look at Batman and the Joker, both are insane, but the way they vent that insanity is opposite. The joker uses tricks and commits crimes, while Batman fights criminals and is straightforward in his tactics. If the hero is street smart, the arch enemy will be book smart. If the hero is a warrior, the arch enemy is a mage. In the case of Tony Stark, Iron Man uses technology, the Mandarin uses magic.

 

[Fappy]

I admit that I know nothing of the comic history of Iron Man, but if he used magic rings, like you say he did, it makes me believe (along with what Fappy said) that it's a magic versus technology thing. The point of an arch enemy is to be the opposite (yet still compliment) everything the main character represents.

Look at Batman and the Joker, both are insane, but the way they vent that insanity is opposite. The joker uses tricks and commits crimes, while Batman fights criminals and is straightforward in his tactics. If the hero is street smart, the arch enemy will be book smart. If the hero is a warrior, the arch enemy is a mage. In the case of Tony Stark, Iron Man uses technology, the Mandarin uses magic.

The fact that he uses magic is kind of an... exaggeration. Technically the Mandarin's rings are powered by alien technology and while they may possibly be comprised of magical energies (not sure on this one) they don't function like magical artifacts. The Mandarin himself is decently tech-savvy, but knows very little about magic. The rings are just a means to an end for him and have actually kind of fallen to the wayside over the last decade or so. Tony's suit tech had surpassed the Mandarin's rings quite awhile ago, so he has to come up with other methods to beating Stark.

 

[Vivi22]

The Mandarin has a superiority complex (as does Stark to a certain extent) and has been, since the beginning, thwarted time and again by Stark. This is all the motivation he needs to want to ruin Stark's life forever.

It even goes quite a bit beyond just having a superiority complex from what I've seen of him in comics. Granted, my only major exposure to Iron Man backstory is Matt Fraction's Invincible Iron Man run, but there was an issue I quite liked which had the Mandarin basically kidnap a renowned Asian film director to make a movie detailing the events of his life. It starts off with him being forced to make a movie which has events which are already quite unbelievable and contradictory to details which are known about his life, and he constantly revises it with even more ridiculous tales of how awesome he is to the point of even contradicting scenes they've filmed. He also eventually decides to play himself, basically starts directing the film, and wants to cap it all off with killing the fictionalized Iron Man on screen.

So yeah, there's a superiority complex there, but he's also so obsessed with being superior to everyone, especially Stark, that he will essentially rewrite his own history to make it seem like he is a God among men. But even worse was that the story left me with the impression that he may actually have believed his own bullshit.

 

[Reevesith]

Was sad that there was no mandarin chicken being eaten or used as a joke in the movie ;-;

 

[Golden_Ocelot]

Ahh, the Mandarin..one of my all time favorite villains.
It's funny it should get mentioned the science vs magic thing- While the Mandarin uses 10 Alien Rings of power, each with their own special effect, he sees technology as the surest way to reach his goal of World Domination. This is why he comes into conflict with Iron Man/Tony Stark- he recognizes Stark's superior tech and wants to make it his own.

For those who would know, The alien rings Mandarin uses belong to the race of space-faring dragons, Makluans, that Fin Fang Foom is a part of...

But it does all boil down to the Mandarin seeking world domination through any means necessary (in a few cases, literally trying TO TALK TO the Hulk to get him to serve.. haha). Separately from his rings, he can use martial arts and magic, as well as being pretty tech-savvy on his own. With the rings, he has become bound to them, making them much stronger when he uses them than when others get a hold of them. Which happens a lot more than he would like, since his soul and memories are bonded to the rings, so when they go away, so does his mind ^^

Another good stereotypical villain to look into along these lines is Shang-Chi's father- Fu Manchu.

 

[hermes]

Simply put, because it catches on. The Mandarin was a racial stereotype of superstitious and mystical Eastern, as Iron Man represented North American science and technical ingenuity. With time, fans liked him more than other Iron Man villains, so he was expanded to became THE nemesis of Iron Man.

Its similar to the case of Batman and the Joker... not many people remember it, but the Joker was far from a rich character when it was first introduced: he was only a burglar with a clown gimmick. In fact, Batman killed him on his first appearance (another one of Batman's features that changed over time). However, fans responded so well to the character of the Joker that he returned and it was eventually rewritten to be some sort of Hyde to Batman's Jeckyl.

 

[Madgamer13]

I would not be suprised that there could be little doubt that the recent Iron Man movies are radically difficult from comic book iterations of the character and the particular universe, but the character of the Mandarin was well played in the latest movie I think, for one very important reason. The omg-i-look-like-osama Mandarin talking about terrorism, holy war and them gosh darn Amerikans was not the actual Mandarin. He was a double, an actor, a target for kill teams to go to work on.

The real Mandarin, who was revealed later by his own words, was one who used everyone else. If the comic book iteration of the Mandarin used everyone else and did wtfmagic with his rings of power to rule them all, then I invite any fan of the comics to replace those magical rings with biotechnology and you might see what the Iron Man movie's writer may have been aiming for.

Hurrah, I say!

 

[Scarim Coral]

While I don't know the full origin to the Mandarin (I also forgot his origin story in that Iron Man cartoon other than that dragon alien Fin Fang Foom was somehow involved) but I always assume one of the themes with the whole good vs evil in superheroes was kind of like Magic (Mandarin) vs Tech (Iron Man) which is sort of like Joker being chaos againt Batman order (in his fight against he corruption in Gothan city).

 

[Crispee]

I've read a couple of SIlver Age comic books with The Mandarin in it, he seemed to me like he was just Ming the Merciless with magic powers, also apparently he owned a space station. He seemed like a generic evil overlord villain and it was honestly a refreshing change what that did with him in Iron Man 3.

As for why he's Iron Man's ultimate foe, I assumed it's because he's chinese and presumably America was quarrelling with China at the time of writing maybe, at a guess.

 

[Urgh]

The Mandarin was a representation of a repressive Chinese dictator and in some ways... he still is.

What? No he wasn't. He was an aristocrat who spent all of his fiefdom's money on scientific and martial arts training. In the end, he was this perfect in mind and body super-soldier but his fiefdom was broke. He had no money left to pay taxes, so the government seized his fiefdom and made him homeless. So declared war on civilization.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

From what I've gathered he's the Joker to Stark's Batman (i.e. his arch-enemy) and something of a Fu Manchu stereotype.

 

[Fappy]

The Mandarin was a representation of a repressive Chinese dictator and in some ways... he still is.

What? No he wasn't. He was an aristocrat who spent all of his fiefdom's money on scientific and martial arts training. In the end, he was this perfect in mind and body super-soldier but his fiefdom was broke. He had no money left to pay taxes, so the government seized his fiefdom and made him homeless. So declared war on civilization.

I specified "representation". Obviously he's not a Chinese dictator, but back in the 60's and 70's that's the idea he was supposed to represent. These days he's actually more applicable to a North Korean dictator. In the issue sighted by another user in this thread (the film making issue) there's an extremely obvious allegory linking the Mandarin to Kim Jong Il.

 

[Urgh]

Don't know where the idea that he is a wizard comes from. He's a mad scientist with superhuman martial arts abilities, Dr Frankenstein meets Remo Williams. He's not a wizard. And he's not like Fu Manchu either. Fu Manchu is this sickly, wizened, and highly logical in a cold, evil way. The Mandarin is more of a raging ape type, highly athletic and prone to maniac rages where he tries to karate-chop everythin to pieces. If there's someone at Marvel like Fu Manchu, it would be Yellow Claw.