Who is Iron Man’s archenemy now

[Tony Stark]

I don’t see The Mandarin being in Shang-Chi’s movie changing Tony’s relationship with his arch nemesis. It’s just for the movies.

[MichaelC]

It is sort of interesting that arguably one of the most powerful heroes (Iron Man) and arguably one of the least powerful (Shang Chi, no offense to Shang fans) are likely going to to share the same arch nemesis pretty soon.

Well the Mandarin combination of Bond villain scheming, superhuman martial arts abilities, and rings actually give him a lot of flexibility in who he fights.

The Bond villain scheming can be a plausible threat to, yet also be plausibly defeated by, anyone from Shang to the Avengers and the Winter Guard at the same time. It's just a matter of fiddling slightly with the resources he has available on a particular day.

The superhuman martial arts abilities really should put him above Shang's weight-class, but it doesn't take much fiddling to keep him on Shang's level. Maybe Mandarin just hasn't had time to meditate that day, so his supply of mystic chi is low, reducing him temporarily to human level.

The rings should put him above Shang's level as well, but he doesn't always have them in every story. There have been times when he's lost them for an extended period of time.

The blend of money, chi-mysticism, organization, science, and rings that make him a threat are so variable that it's pretty easy to insert him in a wide variety of stories and have it be plausible that he's a threat, or beatable.

[TheRay]

It has to be The Melter.

[Frontier]

I don’t see The Mandarin being in Shang-Chi’s movie changing Tony’s relationship with his arch nemesis. It’s just for the movies.

Yeah, it's not like Ghost is a woman now or suddenly going after Ant-Man.

[Tony Stark]

Yeah, it's not like Ghost is a woman now or suddenly going after Ant-Man.

It didn’t change in the books though.

[TheRay]

At the moment, I think it's Ultron.

What about Jarvis? Is Jarvis important enough to have his own rogues gallery?

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

What about Jarvis? Is Jarvis important enough to have his own rogues gallery?

In the movies JARVIS's rogues would be ULTRON and Thanos with his Black Order. He technically would be against whoever the Avengers are fighting at the current moment.

[Michael Watkins]

Yeah, it's not like Ghost is a woman now or suddenly going after Ant-Man.

no. but they did resurrect Darren Cross and give him the Yellowjacket armor from the movie; even though he logically should not even fit in the armor because of his abnormal bulk.

[Vordan]

Man when was the last time the Mandarin even showed up in an Iron Man comic? Feels like forever. I still see him as Tony’s arch but it’s been so long since the two have clashed in any meaningful way.

[Michael Watkins]

Man when was the last time the Mandarin even showed up in an Iron Man comic? Feels like forever. I still see him as Tony’s arch but it’s been so long since the two have clashed in any meaningful way.

he was the architect of a lot of Tony's misery in Fraction's run. but then came all of that crazy "Tony isn't really a Stark" nonsense. Mandarin's rings were given to 10 different characters or something. i stopped reading for a while.

[MichaelC]

Yeah, I hated that story where a bunch of characters got his rings so much it was painful. You can't just give the rings to a different person and have that be The Mandarin. The Mandarin is dangerous primarily because he is perfect in mind, body, and spirit, a genius in every field relevant to conquest and a superhuman martial artist and chi-mystic. The rings are like Doom's armor: they are the cherry on top of a man who is supremely badass via innate abilities. The way the rings were written in that story is just fundamentally not getting what makes the character work to begin with.

[Cmbmool]

Iron Man's real archenemy is Himself given the many things he has been through to nearly kill himself and those around him.

[Mutant God]

If you're talking comics the closest villain to an arch was the Mandarin.

In the two cartoon series, they do a good job of making the Mandarin his arch-nemesis, but it hasn't felt like he's had an arch-nemesis for years in the comics.

If you're talking MCU he doesn't have one, plus he's dead now.

Then I guess everyone is his enemy now, cue the Black Sabbath:
Vengeance from the grave
Kills the people he once saved


Anyway I guess Crimson Dynamo is the big villain on IM's list, either him or Count Nefaria

[Agent Z]

Yeah, I hated that story where a bunch of characters got his rings so much it was painful. You can't just give the rings to a different person and have that be The Mandarin. The Mandarin is dangerous primarily because he is perfect in mind, body, and spirit, a genius in every field relevant to conquest and a superhuman martial artist and chi-mystic. The rings are like Doom's armor: they are the cherry on top of a man who is supremely badass via innate abilities. The way the rings were written in that story is just fundamentally not getting what makes the character work to begin with.

They weren't trying to make the new characters the Mandarin (I think a few of them even tried being superheroes). It was just a story about Tony having to deal with villainous technology in the wrong hands.

[Killerbee911]

I don't know about being arch nemesis but Dr Doom feels equal match for Iron Man and a sort of mirror. He is who I would want see Iron Man match with the most.