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  1. #1
    Extraordinary Member MichaelC's Avatar
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    Default The Mandarin Appreciation 2020

    A tribute page for The Real Man of Iron: The Mandarin!


  2. #2
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    Happy New Year to the Master of 10 Rings and Iron Man's greatest foe .

  3. #3
    Extraordinary Member MichaelC's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frontier View Post
    Happy New Year to the Master of 10 Rings and Iron Man's greatest foe .
    The master of martial arts, science, political and financial subterfuge, and military tactics who permits Iron Man to live because Stark's naive idealism is so amusing, I think you meant.

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    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MichaelC View Post
    The master of martial arts, science, political and financial subterfuge, and military tactics who permits Iron Man to live because Stark's naive idealism is so amusing, I think you meant.
    Works for me .

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    Uncanny X-Men #256 Dec 1989
    Acts of Vengeance: Part 1 of 3. "The Key that Breaks the Locke!"
    In Hong Kong, Matsu'o Tsurayaba approaches the Mandarin with an offer of
    an alliance between his organization and the Hand, a ruthless clan of assassins.

    Matsu'o's deal is for the Hand to help the Mandarin build an empire unparalleled by any in the past,
    in exchange for gainful employment in its service. To begin their alliance, Matsu'o offers a gift; that of an ultimate assassin.

    This assassin is Psylocke.

    What follows next is a surrealistic "dream" sequence as Betsy relives details of her life,
    undergoes a physical transformation from British to Japanese at the hands of the Body Shoppe
    with nightmarish versions of Spiral and Mojo causing the transformation
    and her being set against her teammates, who she murders in order to obtain each of the Mandarin's ten rings.
    In the end, Psylocke defeats the Mandarin himself who takes the form of Slaymaster

    and it is revealed that the "dream" was a sensory deprivation brainwashing experiment
    that the Hand used to finalize their assimilation of Psylocke into their organization.
    In the end, she returns the rings to the Mandarin, to whom she pledges her undying loyalty.

    NOTE: First appearance of the ninja Psylocke.

    Story by Chris Claremont. Art by Jim Lee and Scott Williams.

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    Uncanny X-Men #257 Jan 1990
    Acts of Vengeance: Part 2 of 3. "Lady Mandarin!"
    In the service of the Hand and the Mandarin, the brainwashed Psylocke establishes herself as Lady Mandarin,



    re-establishing the Mandarin's control over the Hong Kong underworld.
    With that accomplished, her master, Matsu'o Tsurayaba,
    orders her to take care of a potential, recently-arrived enemy, Patch.
    Wolverine has come to Hong Kong with Jubilee's help, although he is
    still suffering both from his extensive injuries and from hallucinations.
    He and Jubilee visit Rose Wu, a friend of his working for Landau, Luckman & Lake.
    While shopping, Jubilee and Rose’ granddaughter are kidnapped by Psylocke.
    The Ninjas later confront Wolverine. Logan has the upper hand in the battle until
    he recognizes his teammate, Psylocke. She uses his confusion to take him out.
    In Cairo, Illinois, Storm, changed to a prepubescent child, is on the run from both the police
    and the Shadow King, not remembering her life with the X-Men.
    On Muir Isle, Banshee, who feels a wrongness, asks Forge to install a backdoor into the defense
    system he's installing, so that they can slip back in undetected, should something be wrong.
    Polaris fears that the wrongness is her fault. Before she can act on this,
    though, she is taken prisoner by the mentally instable telepath Legion.

    Story by Chris Claremont. Art by Jim Lee and Joe Rubinstein.

  7. #7
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    I would like to see what sort of team the Mandarin might form (but not actively be a part of, being more their 'Professor X' behind the scenes), to advance regional (and his own!) interests. Temujin seems like an obvious member (assuming he's still on speaking terms with his son, I'm unclear on how they left things...). Perhaps a new Swordsman, or similar characters based on his technology, or empowered by his mystical means. (Fin Fang Foom can be their secret weapon, since he has a not-publically-known connection to the Mandarin, through their Makluan origins/ties.)

    I like how he's become more rounded and less of an obvious 'super-villain' over the years (like many Russian or Chinese nationalist villains, from back in the day). He's no Captain America, but neither is he a Red Skull.

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    Uncanny X-Men #258 Feb 1990
    Acts of Vengeance: Part 3 of 3. "Broken Chains"
    Wolverine has been captured by The Hand, a mysterious ninja organization that works for The Mandarin.
    He is in a state of stasis as the mind controlled Pylocke monitors his psychic condition, which is not well.
    He is at a point of psychic despair, as he is in a similar state to the state he was in during Weapon X.
    His bestial form is about to come out due to the circumstances.
    Jubilee is also captured by Matsuo Tsurayaba.

    A brief escape attempt by Jubilee gets foiled by The Mandarin who also attacks Matsuo and the Hand,
    as they attempted to command him around in his own house. Matsuo apologizes and is rebunked.

    On Muir Isle, Banshee, Forge, Sharon Friedlander and Moira MacTaggert are training.
    All of them seem to be tired and wary of their situation.
    Lorna Dane is trapped in Proteus' old room,
    and cannot escape as Legion has trapped her there.
    Back in Hong Kong, Jubilee is presented to Mandarin.

    Psylocke is still fiddling with Wolverine's mind, showing him
    phantom versions of Marvel Girl, Mariko Yashida and Yukio.
    Wolverine defeats her in pyschic combat, and breaks free from the cage.
    After defeating him once more, Psylocke presents
    him to Mandarin, but Jubilee manages to get free.

    Psylocke reveals that it was all a ruse, and her and Jubilee attack Mandarin.


    With the help of Wolverine, all three of them defeat Mandarin

    and get on a ship, sailing to an unknown location.
    Psylocke reveals her story as well.

    Story by Chris Claremont. Art by Jim Lee and Scott Williams.

  9. #9
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    Everything we know about Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings!

  10. #10
    Cosmic Curmudgeon JudicatorPrime's Avatar
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    The Mandarin must have an unnaturally narrow neck and face. Or Wolverine has extraordinarily wide hand. (Or Jim Lee needed to do a better job of showing that Wolverine had a claw extended from each hand.) Still, I loved those early Lee issues. I only wish that Mandarin had used his psionic ring to temporarily control Wolverine into backing off so that the fight would continue for a few more pages.
    “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”
    ~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

    “If I love you, I have to make you conscious of what you don’t see.”
    ~James Baldwin

  11. #11
    Extraordinary Member MichaelC's Avatar
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    Eh, that ring is usually presented as much better at creating psionic illusions than it is at outright mind-control. It outright mind-controlling someone like Wolverine would have been a jobbing.

    On the other hand, Mandarin's martial-arts strikes have been shown as powerful enough to destroy Iron Man's armor. Going hand to hand with him should have been instant death for Psylocke. He should have literally karate-chopped her in half.

  12. #12
    Mighty Member Doombot's Avatar
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    Mandarin was awesome in the run that had Iron Man running SHEILD and he goes toe-to-toe in a bare handed fight with Tony in the Silver Centurion armor. It's been years since I read it, but man, that was a fun run.

  13. #13

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    He’s in my top 10. But how do they make him less problematic? I wish there were a name as cool sounding as ‘Mandarin’ that described him and wasn’t considered to be dismissive of Chinese people. His personality is fine. His m.o works. How to repackage him?

    The Magnate?
    The Counselor?
    The Imperial?
    The Mogul?

    eh, I’m fine with Mandarin. But I wouldn’t be the one with an issue. The dictionary says that it is synonymous with those other words.

  14. #14
    Extraordinary Member MichaelC's Avatar
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    The Warlord
    That describes what he actually does far more than Mandarin. Even going by its meaning as "bureaucrat", it simply doesn't describe him accurately. The Aristocrat would also work. The Conqueror, as well, though that's taken. He wages war, he conquers, he exploits. He's devious, savage, and exploitative. His name should fit an aristocratic conqueror who is devious, savage, and exploitative. Pity Vandal Savage is also taken.

  15. #15
    Jewish & Proud Feminist Shadowcat's Avatar
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    Isn’t it time that we got a Mandarin solo mini?
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