Mandarin (Marvel)
The Mandarin is a male comic supervillain who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
According to one account, his father was descended from Genghis Khan himself but had married beneath his status by being wedded to a high born Englishwoman. Upon his son's birth, his father died when an idol fell on him thus killing him whilst his mother died shortly afterwards of a broken heart. The orphaned child fell under the care of his fathers sister who resented the boy as he was heir to her brothers fortune and could not inherit it as a result. (Tales of Suspense v1 #62)
Whilst exploring the vessel, he found a helmet that contained a mental-impulse log from its pilot who was Axonn-Karr of Maklu-4 who claimed to be an explorer. From these recordings, he had learnt of the worlds the alien being had visited and his fate as his alien dragon-like form saw him being attacked by humans leading to him being mortally wounded with him dying in the process. Thus, the legend of dragons was said to had come to the lands of China with these stemming from Axonn-Karr and his vessel that had resided in the Valley of Spirits. whilst exploring the vessel, he came upon its power source that were ten gems that resided in ring-shaped constructs that the Mandarin took them for himself as he sought to use their power to become the master of Earth. He then set up his base at a nearby castle where he studied the science of Maklu-4 and went through the logs of the alien pilot as well as applied his newly developed knowledge on the rings. The Mandarin determined that each of the rings contained a separate power and he utilised them in dominating nearby villages through the use of the power of the mind control ring. (Tales of Suspense v1 #62)
He came to be the patron for a number of revolutionaries in the region. (Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin v1 #1) This included operations in south-east Asia where he was a benefactor to the warlord Wong-Chu. (Iron Man v1 #267) It was claimed that it was his support which led to the man being turned from a nobody into a fearsome force in the region. He had Wong-Chu capture the scientist Ho Yinsen in order for him to unlock the secrets of the rings in the Mandarin's possession. When Yinsen failed to produce results, the Mandarin drew in industrialist Tony Stark into the area and had Wong-Chu capture the man in the belief that both him and Yinsen could produce better results. (Iron Man v1 #268)
The Mandarin
After Iron Man joined the Avengers, the Mandarin came to consider the superhero team to be his enemies by extension. As part of his plans against them, he became aware of the mercenary known as the Swordsman and had use of his services. Thus, he teleported him away from the scene when he was ready to be captured by the Avengers. The Mandarin had a need of the Swordsman as he wanted to eliminate the heroes. He wanted the mercenary to infiltrate the Avengers and destroy them from within where he intended to upgrade his sword. However, the Swordsman refused to work for anyone but he was helpless before the Mandarin's power rings that forced his compliance. (Avengers v1 #20)
Travelling to Chinatown, he navigated its narrow streets to find the shop of Chen Hsu in order to claim the last ring. The shopkeeper willingly gave it to the Mandarin who lost consciousness after all rings were active once more. (Iron Man v1 #260) Upon regaining consciousness, Chen Hsu offered to aid the Mandarin in achieving his goals and used his mystical knowledge to remove the shadows over the warlords memory. The Mandarin then returned to the guarded Valley of the Sleeping Dragon in order to enter into through the mountain doorway to seek an audience with the ancient dragon Fin Fang Foom. (Iron Man v1 #262) He then offered a pact with the awakened dragon where the two of them would work together to shape the world. (Iron Man v1 #263)
Return
The aged khan later came to be a prisoner deprived of his rings and kept at the An Hu Po State Psychiatric Facility where he was chained in his cell in the Nei Mongol Province in China. He remained in a meditative state where he spoke to no one when he was approached by a terrorist who broke into the site named Karim Mahwash Najeeb. Najeeb had brought with him the ten rings and offered them back to him in exchange for him joining their cause though he only received silence as a response. This led to Karim ordering his men to kill the old man as he was angered at being rebuffed but the Mandarin broke himself free under his own power where he killed the majority of the terrorists with one killing Najeeb as he supplicated himself to the Mandarin. (Iron Man v4 #16) He then proceeded to fuse the rings to his spine as he lacked hands to wield them and left the facility where he began to rebuild his power base over the next five months. (Iron Man v4 #17)
At some point, he cam to establish a new persona as Tem Borjigin who was a Chinese businessman from Hong Kong where he joined the biotech market and became the CEO of Prometheus Gentech. By this point, his epiphany over heralding the evolution of humanity and restoring the balance to mankind could be achieved through the Extremis Enhancile. He had intended to weaponise the virus and release it into the world where it would kill billions whilst the millions that the necessary gene would survive where they would become stronger as a result. The Mandarin himself would die in the great culling but he believed this to be a necessary sacrifice to usher in a world where humans would become god-like beings. For his goals, he required the services of Extremis's creator Dr. Maya Hansen and thus enlisted the services of Secretary Jack Kooning of the Defense Department. Kooning believed that the partnership with Prometheus would bring about a new generation of supersoldiers for the U.S. and arranged for Dr. Hansen to be delivered to Borjigin whilst being unaware of his true identity. (Invincible Iron Man v1 #25) Thus, CEO Tem Borjigin was present as Dr. Hansen was delivered to him where he offered her an invitation to the project to perfect Extremis that was seemingly done so for the goal of national defense. (Invincible Iron Man v1 #18) He had Dr. Hansen perfect Extremis where it could be dispersed into the air but she began to worry about it becoming a pandemic leading to her encoding programmed cell-death into the virus. This was a safeguard with her not being aware of Borjigin's true intentions with her actions being an obstruction to his plans. (Invincible Iron Man v1 #24) Tem came to claim that their employers at the Defense Department insisted on an open source on Extremis and attempted to force her to undo her safeguards. Maya attempted to confront Jack Kooning about this matter where he came to be horrified at Borjigin's intentions of using Extremis as a W.M.D. (Invincible Iron Man v1 #25)
Rings of the Mandarin
In the aftermath of his death, the Mandarin's rings were confiscated and placed in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Weapons Vault Omega alongside other dangerous weapons. (Iron Man v5 #20) The artificial intelligence of the rings was then upgraded leading to them developing sentience. (Iron Man v5 #28) This saw the majority escaping captivity in order to seek wielders whilst the Liar Ring remained behind to project a telepathic illusion to make everyone believe the rings remained in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s custody. (Iron Man v5 #20) Each of the rings sought out wielders to destabilise the planet and had a hatred of Tony Stark with them seeking users that sought revenge against him. This was until one came upon Malekith the Accursed who began claiming each of the rings for himself with him typically murdering the other ring wielders. (Iron Man v5 #23) This act threatened the plans of the rings who decided to unify their Mandarin wielders in fighting their common threat posed by the Dark Elf leading to them attacking him in his native realm. (Iron Man v5 #25) The other Mandarin wielders united in attacking Malekith who discarded the ring with these individuals looking to continue their own respective schemes. (Iron Man v5 #26) The Mandarins then began to work together where they embarked on their respective schemes against the world and also targeted Tony Stark. However, Iron Man had come to find their base of operations located underground and used a specially made Master Ring to shut down the rings that were contained with most of their users being apprehended. (Iron Man v5 #28)
Despite his seeming death, the Mandarin himself returned and formed into an alliance with Baron Zemo who was looking to turn the island of Bagalia into a sovereign state. To that end, as Tem Borjigen he was assigned as the country's foreign representative where he used his ruthless talents to convince ambassadors in the United Nation's to recognise the state. Those that refused were murdered by the Mandarin which brought some tension between him and Zemo who wanted to appear more legitimate. He later attended a press conference in New York as part of the efforts at getting Bagalia recognised where he was shot in the head by the Punisher armed with a sniper rifle with a bullet able to pierce his personal shield. (Punisher v12 #1)
Overview
Personality and attributes
On one occasion, he was referred to as the Master Khan. (Iron Man v4 #16) An identity he once used in order to operate in society was that of Tem Borjigin. (Iron Man v4 #18) Under this persona, he was a Chinese man who defected to Hong Kong decades ago where it was claimed that he was a businessman that specialised in biotech. (Invincible Iron Man v1 #25) Initially, he preferred to operate as a legend as he did not want the world to be aware of his plans to dominate it. (Avengers v1 #20)
The Mandarin was said to had been a proud man as the blood of the Khan's resided in his veins. (Tales of Suspense v1 #62) He considered himself the living embodiment of earthly power and that all men feared him. (Iron Man v1 #260) To the Mandarin, power and the accumulation of power was all that mattered in the world. (Iron Man v1 #267)
At one point, he felt aimless in life as despite his untold power he found that his dreams crashing one after the other. This made him question himself until he had an epiphany where he looked to his ancestor Genghis Khan who ruled a vast empire based on a meritocracy. He believed that like the balance of nature that the power that was wielded was based on in-born strength, speed ruthless ingenuity. Under this system, the strong survived and the stronger came to rule. As such, he came to believe that this perfect order was somewhat subverted when he gained the Malukkian ten rings where he foolishly was convinced for decades that he was destined to rule over mankind. The Mandarin then concluded that the cosmic wisdom of the Malukkians was that he was to be a living example of the next step in the evolution of the human species. In that role, he believed his true destiny was to restore the balance of mankind through elevation rather than enslavement. He was even prepared to die in the great culling that would see billions die whilst millions would grow stronger as they became god-like beings. (Invincible Iron Man v1 #25)
He was raised by his aunt who was his fathers sister where she taught him to hate the world the way she had hated everyone. She came to die the moment the family's fortune was stripped from them by the government thus leaving the Mandarin all alone in the world. Despite her death, he did not mourn for her as he had been taught not to shed tears as per his status as a nobleman. (Tales of Suspense v1 #62)
Powers and abilities
In his youth to adulthood, much of his fortune was used to teach him the sciences of the world and the art of warfare along with the crafts of villainy. (Tales of Suspense v1 #62) He was noted for his intelligence but also for his seeming superhuman strength. He had been trained in a number of martial arts among which included Karate. (Tales of Suspense v1 #50) The Mandarin was said to be the one man on the planet to had deciphered Malukkian script. (Invincible Iron Man v1 #21)
From the Maklu-4 spacecraft, he discovered ten small rings that contained gems within them which had powered the vessel allowing it to travel cross galaxies. Each were said to contain unlimited energy where each had a separate power. (Tales of Suspense v1 #62) These power rings each represented a different mighty weapon and thus contained a different power. (Tales of Suspense v1 #50) Among the rings included:
- Incandescence Ring : the incandescence ring contained the miniature heart of a star that could scorch the air around it. (Invincible Iron Man Annual v1 #1) The incinerator was a portal to the heart of a star with its abilities ranging from simple fire projection to solar flare emission. (Iron Man v5 #23) With this power, the user could generate a solar flare and an electromagnetic pulse as a side effect. (Iron Man v5 #20)
- Remaker Ring : it shattered and re-imagined the relationship of matter on a subatomic level. (Invincible Iron Man Annual v1 #1) This gave it the capacity to operate functionally as alchemy by freely remaking any substance subatomically. (Iron Man v5 #23)
- Liar Ring : able to create world upon world of illusionary fables that were able impossible to escape but could also affect the wearer. (Invincible Iron Man Annual v1 #1) These operated by crafting telepathic illusions that could fool organic beings such as humans though not artificial intelligences. (Iron Man v5 #20)
- Lightning Ring : created directable electrical atmospheric discharge. (Invincible Iron Man Annual v1 #1) The ring could tap into electrostatic energies on a planetary scale. It could generate an electron purge that used all available ring energy to negate an attack and took five seconds to recharge. (Iron Man v5 #23)
- Zero Ring : forms a beam of nothingness from the cold of outer space which also created a deafening boom as the vacuum was filled. (Invincible Iron Man Annual v1 #1)
- Nightbringer Ring : manipulated a malleable darklight of darkness. (Invincible Iron Man Annual v1 #1)
- Influence Beam Ring : created various forces that caused a body to undergo change. (Invincible Iron Man Annual v1 #1)
- Daimonic Beam Ring : utilising the irresistible urge that propelled into the unknown. (Invincible Iron Man Annual v1 #1)
- Spin Beam Ring : deaccelerated time around the user and made it appear the wearer was operating as superspeed. (Invincible Iron Man Annual v1 #1)
- Spectral Beam Ring : winded up and warped the air itself with it able to appear ghostly or disappear entirely. (Invincible Iron Man Annual v1 #1) This allowed it to disguise itself by warping the surrounding environment. At high power, it could generate a single shot disintegrated beam making it useful as part of an assassin suite of tool. (Iron Man v5 #23)
It was said that the rings were not truly rings but that they took on the shape of something understood by the user in that they were something that could be worn. They were actually vessels that contained the essence of long-dead warriors of cosmic legend that were trapped in a phantasmal state contained in a form of a hard drive. As a result, the user became a vessel for their flesh as they sought to means of resurrection. (Invincible Iron Man v1 #522) Each ring also contained a quarantined Makluanian artificial intelligence weapon for when they were separated from their wielder. Their programming was to analyse the situation on a planetary scale and attempt to influence it to something more favourable to general cosmic principles. (Iron Man v5 #28) They were able to engage in time dilation where they slowed reality running for their user to give them time to make their decisions. A ring could also run the nervous system of a host in order to fulfil desired functions with maximum efficiency. Reaction speed, however, did not allow the user faster reflexes thus meaning that they could respond to an attack but not evade them. (Iron Man v5 #20) A virtual communication nexus for the ring sentience's existed in a place called the Ring of Rings. (Iron Man v5 20.INH)
After losing his hands, he was once known to had fused the rings directly into his spine. (Iron Man v4 #17)
He was able to upgrade the equipment of other supervillains thus increasing their power with them being similar to his own rings. However, he introduced a feature that caused them to turn against the user if they were ever wielded against him. (Avengers v1 #20)
At one point, he made use of a giant highly advanced and heavily armed dragon-themed aircraft called the Dragon of Heaven. (Iron Man v3 #9)
In the guise of Tem Borjigin, he came to be the CEO of a company called Prometheus Gentech that specialised in biotech research. (Invincible Iron Man v1 #18)
Among his followers were a team of superpowered agents who were known as the Avatars of the Mandarin. (Force Works v1 #6)
Notes
- The Mandarin was created by Stan Lee and Don Heck where he made his first appearance in Tales of Suspense v1 #50 (February, 1964).
- In Agents of Atlas v1 #6 (2007), it was said that the Mandarin was likely a descendant of the Khan's alongside Fu Manchu.
Alternate Versions
In other media
Television
- In The Marvel Super Heroes, the Mandarin appeared in the Iron Man segments of the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Henry Ramer.
- In Iron Man, the Mandarin appeared as the primary antagonist of the 1990s animated television series where he was voiced by actor Ed Gilbert in Season 1 and by actor Robert Ito in Season 2.
- In Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Gene Khan appeared in the setting of the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Vincent Tong.
- In Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers, the Mandarin appeared in the setting of the anime television series where he was voiced by actor Taiten Kusunoki.
Films
- In The Invincible Iron Man, the Mandarin appeared as the primary antagonist in the setting of the animated film where he was voiced by actor Fred Tatasciore.
- In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Mandarin was referenced in the setting of the shared continuity setting:
- In Iron Man 3, the Mandarin identity was used in the setting of the live-action film. It was created by Aldrich Killian who hired an actor named Trevor Slattery to portray a terrorist that was targeting the United States.
- In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the Mandarin was a name given to Xu Wenwu (a composite character with Zheng Zu, father of Shang-Chi) who was portrayed by actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai. He was revealed to had been an ancient warlord who came to find 10 mysterious rings that he wore on his arms that made him immortal along with gave him great powers. In that time, he came to form a secret empire called the Ten Rings that ruled the world from the shadows until the 1980s when his search for the mythical land of Ta Lo saw him falling in love with one of its natives. This saw him abandoning the life of a warlord as he and his wife had children until she was killed by his enemies in the Iron Gang. Around this time, he learnt that an American had used his reputation to make a foreign enemy for the United States with this being the Mandarin.
Video games
- In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, the Mandarin appeared as a boss antagonist in the setting of the video game where he was voiced by actor James Sie.
- In Marvel: Avengers Alliance, the Mandarin appeared in the setting of the Facebook video game.
- In Marvel Heroes, the Mandarin appeared in the setting of the MMORPG video game where he was voiced again by actor Fred Tatasciore.
- In Marvel: Future Fight, Wenwu appeared as a playable character in the setting of the mobile video game.
- In Marvel Super War, Wenwu appeared as a playable character in the setting of the mobile video game.
Appearances
- Tales of Suspense v1: (1964)
- Iron Man v1:
- Avengers v1:
- Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin v1:
- Iron Man v4:
- Invincible Iron Man v1:
- Punisher v12:
External Links
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