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Post by thunderstrike78 on Oct 6, 2009 14:11:19 GMT -5
Okay, so I'm re-reading my Avengers collection from the post-Heroes Reborn era (including the solo books for Cap, Iron Man and Thor), and I just finished the Mandarin story IRON MAN 9-10. The story heavily implies that the entire scheme was nothing more than a test by the Mandarin to see if Tony was truly his "worthy opponent" or somesuch.
Did anything ever come of that? I know Kurt stopped writing the book shortly thereafter. Did the Mandarin ever make any appearances after that? Was that whole thread just dropped? I can't remember any more.
I will say that I'm really enjoying these Iron Man stories. For whatever reason, Tony Stark never really clicked for me, but Kurt made him very sympathetic and enjoyable. Too bad Tony turned out to be such a pr*ck later on.
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Doctor Bong
West Coast Avenger
Master of Belly Dancing (no, really...)!
Posts: 49
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Post by Doctor Bong on Oct 6, 2009 15:04:07 GMT -5
It was kind of a weird take on the Mandarin. I liked it a lot but the whole thing was dropped with the change of writers. Wasn't the Dragon of Heaven an awesome lair...? Later Temujin, the son of the Mandarin, was introduced. And he was wearing again the Rings of Power, which he received still on the hands of his supposedly deceased father! Then much later Temujin was dropped as well and the original Mandarin returned, albeit much older than before and without hands, so he bonded the Rings of Power to his spine. It seems as if the writer who introduced Temujin either ignored or chose to ignore anything which happened to the Mandarin after Byrne's Dragonseed Saga (the best Mandarin's characterization ever, IMO). At the end of said storyline the Mandarin had lost both his rings and his hands, but by the next time he shows up he has grown 2 reptilian-looking hands... so, as I said, the writer who created Temujin either wasn't aware of this or chose to ignore it , hence Temujin was presented with the Rings of Power still on the hands of his father. When the original Mandarin reappeared, they went along with that and he was lacking his hands as well... why everybody ignored or chose to ignore his last 2 previous apparitions, where he does have hands, is a mystery to me...
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Post by thunderstrike78 on Oct 7, 2009 11:44:10 GMT -5
Interesting.
One thing I did notice (just to play Devil's Advocate for a second) is that the Mandarin didn't actually use his rings of power in Revenge of the Mandarin. All of his attacks against Iron Man were via the Dragon of Heaven, utilizing either exterior weapons systems or interior weapons systems (although I admit that I have no idea why anyone would build a super-secret fortress with rocket-launchers designed to fire into the INTERIOR of your base, but I digress).
Anyway, methinks there be some wiggle-room on the issue of whether or not that was actually the Mandarin with his actual rings of power in Revenge of the Mandarin. In retrospect, of course. Someone like Kurt could probably pull it all together and make it work.
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