Here' the article on Zub's book.
https://www.newsarama.com/46878-iron...ame-story.html
Here' the article on Zub's book.
https://www.newsarama.com/46878-iron...ame-story.html
"We live in a world of cowards. We live in a world full of small minds who are afraid. We are ruled by those who refuse to risk anything of their own. Who guard their over bloated paucities of power with money. With false reasoning. With measured hesitance. With prideful, recalcitrant inaction. With hateful invective. With weapons. F@#K these selfish fools and their prevailing world order." Tony Stark
"We live in a world of cowards. We live in a world full of small minds who are afraid. We are ruled by those who refuse to risk anything of their own. Who guard their over bloated paucities of power with money. With false reasoning. With measured hesitance. With prideful, recalcitrant inaction. With hateful invective. With weapons. F@#K these selfish fools and their prevailing world order." Tony Stark
"We live in a world of cowards. We live in a world full of small minds who are afraid. We are ruled by those who refuse to risk anything of their own. Who guard their over bloated paucities of power with money. With false reasoning. With measured hesitance. With prideful, recalcitrant inaction. With hateful invective. With weapons. F@#K these selfish fools and their prevailing world order." Tony Stark
Mandarins rings.
https://www.cbr.com/iron-man-mandari...er-best-worst/
"We live in a world of cowards. We live in a world full of small minds who are afraid. We are ruled by those who refuse to risk anything of their own. Who guard their over bloated paucities of power with money. With false reasoning. With measured hesitance. With prideful, recalcitrant inaction. With hateful invective. With weapons. F@#K these selfish fools and their prevailing world order." Tony Stark
Personally I judge the rings more on how well they synergize with his superhuman martial arts abilities and deviousness, so my list would be very different.
(1)Mento-Intensifier
This ring allows him to create, for example, multiple copies of himself so the enemy doesn't know who to attack or dodge, allowing him to get in suckerpunches/cheapshots with the martial arts. It's very possible for him to literally decapitate you with a chi-amped karate-chop without you getting in a single move of useful defense or offense because you were fighting illusions while he just strolled up behind you and HI-YAAed!!
In non-combat situations, it allows him to trick people into giving him useful information or aid, such as when he tricked Maya Hansen into helping him with Extremis by convincing her he was Stark with an illusion.
To me this ring is just the epitome of The Mandarin for both its combat and non-combat uses. In combat it makes one the ultimate cheap-shotting, sucker-punching, backstabbing savage. Out of combat, it makes one the ultimate con-man, able to assume the image of a friend while talking you into giving him everything.
(2)White light ring. It can blind an opponent or make them so heavy they can't move while Mandarin strolls over and goes Joe Pesci on them with the martial arts. It is both a high-tech version of a throwing dirt in your eyes, and a high-tech version of a ninja throwing bolas around your ankles and tripping you.
(3)Tie between freezing and matter-rearangment rings. Both allow him to trap people's legs in material so they can't move while Mandarin strolls up and wails on them with the superhuman martial arts abilities. Both are basically high-tech versions of a ninja throwing bolas around your ankles and tripping you.
(4)Vortex ring. It both partially immobilizes a foe and makes them dizzy, allowing Mandarin to go kung fu Joe Pesci on a dizzy opponent. Would be higher, but still leaves a foe as versatile as Iron Man with lots of options.
(5)Black light ring. It blinds people. By itself it is a glorified smoke-bomb. It would be even lower, except it synergizes nicely with the white light ring, since it can be used right after Iron Man has darkened his eyeshields to protect against the light, giving Mandarin a few more seconds to go Joe Pesci on Iron Man with the martial arts.
(6)Influence ring. The magnetism is useful immobilizing someone metal like Iron Man, or yoinking metal objects from the environment and making them bean him in the back of the head, giving Mandarin more chances to go Joe Pesci on Iron Man with the mystic chi amped martial arts when Iron Man spins around to dodge/block this. Mostly just does stuff other rings can do better and less situationally, so it is fairly low on the list.
(7)The fire and lightning rings are tied at seven. They don't synergize with his martial arts at all, and pretty much succeed or fail on their own.
(8)Disintergration ring. Complete garbage. Too long a recharge time, doesn't synergize with his martial arts, doesn't synergize with his overall themes of deviousness, just feels like a ring added because they needed to give him SOMETHING for his tenth finger.
Last edited by MichaelC; 09-11-2019 at 04:02 PM.
I don't blind date I make the direct market vibrate
"We live in a world of cowards. We live in a world full of small minds who are afraid. We are ruled by those who refuse to risk anything of their own. Who guard their over bloated paucities of power with money. With false reasoning. With measured hesitance. With prideful, recalcitrant inaction. With hateful invective. With weapons. F@#K these selfish fools and their prevailing world order." Tony Stark
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