Originally Posted by
Holt
I guess that's where the argument sort of falls apart for me. I've never viewed the Mandarin in the same light as someone like Loki or Red Skull or Green Goblin or Doctor Doom or what have you. I know Marvel has tried to push him as such, but he's never seemed like he actually earned that status. That's also why when the movie controversy happened in 2013, the people insisting it'd be like if the Batman movies turned the Joker into a charlatan never worked for me either. The Mandarin is about as far from the Joker's level as I am from Leonardo DiCaprio.
I mean, think about it. Has he been seen in the Iron Man books at all since the Fraction run, which ended in 2012?