If I Wrote 'Em: The Mandarin

The Mandarin is indisputably Iron Man's greatest foe. The others born of Cold War paranoia, like the Crimson Dynamo, among others have lost their reason, lost their conceptual bite. Obidiah Shane was a strong contender there, for a while, but it's hard to be much of a threat when you're dead, even for a comic book character, and none of the "corporate" villains who've followed in his wake, like Justin Hammer, have the same visceral impact to rise about the level of ocassional menance. Why is the Mandarin the one left standing in Tony Stark's Nightmare Cage Match?

You could argue it's because he's Chinese and he fits into the growing American anxiety about the Rise of China which is fueled by neo-con dreams of eternal warfare over the oilfields. And racism, the fear of the other, of course. But I think the Mandarin is too far divorced from the "Communist" China of today to represent it much. He walks right out of a historical kung fu film, not in step with Chairman Mao.

It could be just tradition. The Mandarin is still around for the same reason that characters like the Ghost or the Spymaster or the Titanium Man keep showing up. Because they're classics and recycling them for a new time, for a new generation is an age old tradition in comics. Or, to be uncharitable, because no one's capable of coming up with a good idea so they trot out the hits of the past for a jolt of cheap nostalgia. But that doesn't account for how central the Mandarin is to Iron Man. How everyone recognizes that if Iron Man has one villain, it's the Mandarin just ike Batman has his Joker and Superman his Luthor.

But I'd suggest the reason for the Mandarin's staying power is the same as those other archenemies. Like the best villains, he reflects something about the protagonist, throws some aspect of the hero's character into sharp relief by being thematically opposed on a fundamental level. If Iron Man is the ultimate self-made man, one who's gotten everythign in life through hard work and sheer effort, then the Mandarin is one who's been gifted by some outside power.

Sure, in th backstory it's aliens but it might as well have been pixies or the gods who gave the Mandarin those rings. It's a device, an unkowable, inscrutable force beyond human comprehension. And it descends from the heavens and bestows upon him power unimaginable. It's all external, it could have been anyone who stumbled on that spaceship and those aliens. Iron Man has to create his tools, but the Mandarin had them created for him. As such, he highlights the dark side of tony Stark's past. His days as heir to his father's fortune. As a lazy playboy galavanting around the world, not accomplishing much, because everything had been handed to him on a silver platter. The Mandarin's arrogance, his imperial nature, his greed, all play into this aspect.

This, by the way, is why I'd play down the martial artist aspects of the Mandarin. Or make it so that his ultra-ass kicking powers stem from the rings, the power he's drawn from them to empower his own feeble skills. Because the kind of martial arts training needed for someone who can crack Iron Man's armor with his bare hands takes the kind of hard work and dedication that the Mandarin shouldn't be showing. He should be a character all about the lazy way, about taking the shortcut. there's nothing special about the Mandarin except, of course, that he's the sort of driven, vile personality to use that power for his own, selfish ends. It's that hubris that is the Mandarin's fatal flaw. His reliance not on himself but on what's external is what allows Iron Man to triumph against him time after time. The Mandarin lays the seeds of his own defeat because he's overly confident, because he assumes his grandiose title is accurate and he's master of all he suveys while Iron Man, wh would seem to be defined by that armor he wears, is all about not taking one's gifts for granted.

And while the Mandarin is, in some way, what Tony Stark might have been, he also resonates because he represents magic to Iron Man's science. Clinging to the old ways in contrast to marching towards the future. Tradition instead of progress. The Mandarin is a character obssessed with the past, with recreated the might and glory of an Imperial China long since gone. He's a campy villain, as broad and as extravogent as the big bad out of a martial arts flick. And who's plans and ambitions make about as much sense when you stop to think about them. But it doesn't matter because he's got those all-powerful weapons on his hands so people tend to, at least, humor him about his delusions. But if Tony Stark is about using one's intelligence to transform the world, then the Mandarin is about using willpower to distort reality. He's from a fairy-land where things are the way they are because he says so.

Of course, villains tend to be more flexible than their heroes. More affected by the shifting winds of time. Probably because they can spend more time off-stage being revamped before their next appearance. So the Mandarin's gone through a lot of changes over the years. From a Fu Manchu stand-in, to a martial arts master and beyond. And my interpretation certainly isn't the only one.

But, in this day, in this time, I think this is how you approach him. As a mystical figure. A spirtual, almost quasi-religious leader at the center of a movement for the return to traditional values. Not as catspaw of the Chinese government but one who's deeply opposed to it. And the threat he represents to that government and to the businesses invested in China who'd be thrown out of the country in the wak of his revolution, well, that's how Iron Man gets drawn into yet another conflict with him. Then you get to play off Tony Stark's desire to keep his company afloat, his employees paid, with the distrust, the uncertainty, he feels towards the Chinese government even as he's forced to work with them thanks to the looming threat of the Mandarin.