#The Mandarin

[vertigoartgore]

Fin Fang Foom & The Mandarin by John Romita Jr. and Bob Wiacek. From Iron Man Vol.1 #264 (1990). Source

[gunsandspaceships]

MCU Timeline: Iron Man 3

+ "All Hail the King" one-shot.

MCU Phase One

The main events take place in December 2013.

October 12, 1964 - Trevor Slattery lands his first role (Liverpool Royal Court Theatre).

October 6, 1968 - James Rupert Rhodes is born.

1986 - Slattery's mother dies while he is working on a rejected CBS pilot in the US.

Before 2000 - Pepper works with Aldrich Killian.

December 31, 1999 - January 1, 2000 - scientific conference in Bern, Switzerland. Tony, Yinsen, Dr. Wu, and Aldrich Killian meet for the first time.

2007 - Birth of Harley Keener's sister. Their father leaves the family.

2008 - Aldrich Killian injects himself with Extremis.

Note: it could also mean "5 years and then a few more years without them", but given the next date, it's unlikely that the time gap between injecting himself and testing others was significant. And I'll remind you that by the time of the test on volunteers, Killian already looked healthy.

June 25, 2009 17:30 - Project Extremis Injections tests Phase 1. The first human death as a result of Extremis explosion.

2011 - The Roxxon Norco scow spilled a million gallons of crude oil off the coast of Pensacola, and President Ellis let the culprits off the hook.

April 2, 2011 - Killian records a video of Trevor as "the Mandarin" somewhere in the Middle East.

2013 (most likely no more than a few months before the main events) - Chad Davis explosion in Rose Hill, Tennessee.

December 15-16, 2013 ~11 pm - 2 am - Tony's first night without sleep. He (most likely) woke up from a nightmare and avoided going to bed from then on.

December 17, 2013 - An Extremis soldier exploded at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait.

December 18-19, 2013, ~11 pm - 2 am - Tony implants 48 micro-repeaters for Mark 42 into his body and watches the Mandarin's TV broadcast.

Yes, I determined the date by the phase of the moon.

December 19, 2013 - presentation of Iron Patriot to the public.

December 20, 2013 - Tony and Rhodey at Neptune's Net restaurant. Tony experiences his first anxiety attack. He returns home and orders a custom rabbit for Pepper.

December 22, 2013 (Sunday):

4 pm - Killian's appointment with Pepper at SI.

I don't know why SI works on Sundays, guys. It must be illegal.

4:25 pm - Tony calls Happy via Skype, and Happy tells him that Killian is showing Pepper his big brain.

Note: wrong day of the week on the phone screen. It was Sunday, not Tuesday.

~6 pm - Tony and Pepper's "date". They go to bed, but are soon awakened by Tony's nightmare.

Night - Happy follows Savin to the Chinese Theater, where he is injured by another Extremis explosion.

Tony spends the night at Happy's bedside in the hospital.

December 23, 2013 (Monday):

Morning - Tony challenges the Mandarin upon leaving the hospital.

~4 pm - Savin attacks the Malibu mansion.

5-7 pm - Tony arrives in Rose Hill, Tennessee, sends a message to Pepper, and meets Harley Keener.

Pepper stays at the ruins of Tony's mansion. She finds one of Iron Man's helmets with the message from Tony. She and Maya head to a hotel.

8 pm - Tony and Harley go to downtown Rose Hill to investigate the explosion.

~8:30 pm - Savin and Brandt attack Tony. He kills Brandt and knocks out Savin. Tony almost dies sacrificing himself to save EJ (Harley's bully), but Harley saves him.

~11:30 pm - Tony hacks into AIM system.

Killian takes Pepper hostage. His agent captures Rhodey.

December 24, 2013:

Early morning - Tony makes weapons to storm the Mandarin's mansion.

Afternoon - he reaches Miami and storms the mansion. He meets Trevor and learns the truth about the Mandarin, but Savin knocks him out.

Tony wakes up tied to a bed in Maya's lab. Killian kills Maya.

Killian and Savin take the Iron Patriot suit. Tony escapes and reunites with Rhodey and Trevor. They head to Roxxon Norco.

Evening - Savin captures President Ellis. Tony kills Savin and saves the people falling from Air Force One.

Night - the Battle on the Norco.

December 25, 2013 - The Vice President and Trevor are arrested.

Last days of December 2013/First days of January 2014 - Happy comes out of a coma.

Happy still has bright bruises and scratches on his face when he wakes up, meaning it's been less than two weeks since the explosion.

Early 2014 - Tony stabilizes Extremis and removes it from Pepper's system.

May 2014 - Tony, in gratitude, remodels Harley's garage and replaces his sister's broken watch.

Why May: Harley is still in school, but there is green grass everywhere, some flowers, and his clothes hint that it is May.

~Late May 2014 - Tony undergoes surgery to remove the reactor and shrapnel from his chest in China and stays there with Pepper for some time for post-op rehabilitation.

Note: here Tony gifts Pepper with a necklace made of shrapnel from his heart. They are still in China (Shanghai).

Why it was most likely late May: judging by the weather and clothing, it was no earlier than April and no later than September. Since Tony arranged his gift to Harley in May, it's safe to assume that he did it right before such a risky procedure as open heart surgery (especially when doctors told us his chances were slim).

Second half of 2014 - an agent of the Ten Rings takes Trevor Slattery from Seagate Prison and delivers him to the real Mandarin.

Note: Don't forget about the time a trial takes! This will add months between Trevor's arrest and the one-shot events.

Late 2014 - Tony returns to the ruins of his Malibu mansion to throw the reactor into the ocean and pick up the damaged robots.

Note: look at the plants that have grown in the ruins. It would take them about a year, or even more, to grow.

Late 2014 or Early 2015 - Tony tells his story to Bruce, who fell asleep at the very beginning.

Some argue that the events of the movie take place not in 2013, but in 2012. Why it can't be December 2012:

The movie says it's December 2013.

The Official Timeline says it's December 2013.

Logic says it's December 2013.

All the evidence aside, let's think about it for a second. How long would it take to build all these suits? In The Avengers, Tony's newest suit was Mark 7. Between The Avengers and IM3, Tony created 35 suits, and from May 5 to December 18, 2012, there were 228 days. Creating a suit would take at least several days. That is, if that was Tony's main occupation. But it wasn't. He worked on them at night, and during the day he was SI's R&D department, was working on the redesign/rebuild of Avengers Tower, and was also busy dating Pepper. We can't say exactly how many days it would take to create a new Mark, but most likely at least 10 days (nights): 35*10=350 days minimum, which he would need to create them all. In 2012 we are already out of days. So in any case we get 2013, not 2012.

While searching for existing MCU timelines, I also found this attempt at creating a timeline that went horribly wrong because the author forgot about logic and didn't calculate anything correctly. Let's take this for example, "it's 2012 because Maya said the kid is 13." How old is "the kid" if it is December 23, 2012? Well, conception would have occurred on January 1, 2000. Now we need to add 9 months, don't forget about that! We get October 1, 2000. Now add 13 years and we get October 1, 2013. Before that, "the kid" would have been 12 years old, not 13. Case closed.

[tonydowneyjr]

"I wanted to repay you the selfsame gift that you so graciously imparted to me.... Desperation."

[graveltotempomp3]

Tony Stark 🤝 Odysseus

giving your enemy

your name and address

[cats-and-tats-14]

Iron Man 1: The threat isn't the scary foreigner, it's actually the rich white guy in a suit.

Iron Man 2: The threat isn't the rich white guy in a suit, it's actually the scary foreigner.

Iron Man 3: The threat isn't the scary foreigner, it's actually the rich white guy in a suit.

[redmangoshire]

Star Wars Incorrect Qoutes

Din: Great. Thanks, buir.

Din: Why is everybody staring at me?

Fennec: You just called the Daimyo of Tatooine "buir." You said,"thanks, buir"

Din: What? no I didn't. I said "Thanks, man"

Boba: Do you see me as a father figure, Djarin?

Din: No. If anything, I see as a bother figure, cause you're always bothering me.

Fennec: Hey. Show your father some respect.

Din: I didn't call him buir.

Boba: No no no, Djarin. I take it as a compliment.

[pat1dee]

Essential Iron Man Vol 1.

Cover by Bruce Timm

[wanderingmind867]

Magneto is almost openly murderous. Magneto's goal is literally enslaving humanity and making it so that mutants reign supreme. He is not a good guy, and reading these old comics has made me confused as to how anyone thought he was a good guy. Just because they have him a sympathetic backstory after the fact doesn't change how often he's tried to kill people, been verbally abusive toward his henchmen like toad, or how he's actively calling for the enslavement of humankind. He's not a good guy. In fact, I'd say a lot of other villians come off better than him. Because magneto is a mutant supremacist, a unique thing that makes him rank worse than even Doctor Doom or Loki or The Mandarin any other famous marvel villians.

[daily-spanish-word]

to send mandar

Imagine a high government official in China: a mandarin, sending a crate of very rare mandarins. Or: ‘The Mandarin’ in the Iron Man 3 movie (played by Ben Kingsley) sending these precious mandarins,.. or crating a Mandarin Duck.

He sent me a present. Me mandó un regalo.

Picture by Iryna Yeroshko on Flickr

[firelance2361]

What If...The Ronin Took The Ten Rings?

Following up on my recent train of What If…? ideas, here’s a cool design for an idea I had connecting a few different parts of the MCU together.

——————

[In this universe, after losing his family in the Snap and donning the Ronin persona, Clint Barton’s quest for vengeance as the Ronin led him into the sights of Xu Wenwu and the Ten Rings. While the other members found the Ronin to be a threat to their regime, Wenwu saw in the former Avenger a possible new means to return Shang-Chi and Xialing to him.

Setting up a fake hit job to lure in the Ronin, Wenwu approached Clint with an offer to join him, telling them they can protect the world better than his former allies did.

Clint points out his Ten Rings, recognizing him as the true Mandarin who was responsible for Tony Stark’s capture in Afghanistan. Wenwu laments to him about his family’s death, emphasizing with him over his wife Ying Li’s death. He tells him that he can help him clear the board and remove players like Kingpin and Power Broker from the table. Ronin accepts his offer, becoming Wenwu’s enforcer, but in secret forms ulterior motives to overthrow him.

——————

Over the course of a year and a half, Ronin works as the Ten Rings best assassin alongside Razorfist and Death Dealer, removing their enemies in places like Madripoor, New York, Hong Kong, etc. He clears through his targets one after the next, leaving nothing but death and bloodshed in his wake.

His warpath drew the attention of people like Wilson Fisk and Sharon Carter, who saw the potential threat of this assassin if he were to rise to power, as well as his former friend Natasha Romanoff who becomes worried for her friend’s safety and mentality as his rampage grows more dangerous.

All the while, as the Ronin rises in the ranks of the Ten Rings, he starts building his own group of followers within it, working towards his ultimate goal of overthrowing the Warrior King.

——————

During a mission to infiltrate the Power Broker’s operations, he spots her with Xu Xialing discussing the potential prospects of the new batch of Super Solider Serum. Seizing the opportunity, the Robin goes rogue; he knocks out the lights, takes out Sharon and her guards and corners Xialing, engaging her in a duel. While Xialing easily overpowers him and is prepared to kill him in a chokehold, Ronin breaks free by grabbing her by the arm, dislocating it, allowing him to knock her back down.

As he takes her away, Sharon, still groggy, puts in a distress call to Natasha, believing if anyone can stop him, she can. She relays the message to Fisk, who in retaliation sends Maya Lopez after him, knowing this could go south if the Ronin succeeds in his plan.

After locating and tracking down her brother Shang-Chi at his apartment in San Francisco, the duel lasts a bit longer than expected, with Shang-Chi managing to actually pin the former Avenger down for a killing blow, until Nat arrives, telling him that’s Clint Barton. Ronin uses this to his advantage, using Shang-Chi’s pendant as a projectile to activate Nat’s Widow’s Bites, before pushing Shang-Chi right in the line of fire, shocking him unconscious.

Nat tries to stop him, but Ronin throws a smoke bomb at the ground, blinding her. When it clears, he’s gone with Shang-Chi. Knowing where he’s likely going, she races off to try and stop him, unaware that Maya is watching and following her all the while.

——————

Back at the Ten Rings’ HQ, Wenwu and Razor Fist are looking over the scrolls of Ta-Lo, trying to find the gateway to it, when the guards start clamoring outside as something is happening. Wenwu armors up and steps outside, only to his horror to find both Xialing and Shang-Chi tied up, bloodied, and held hostage by Ronin and his loyalists.

A grief-fueled Ronin then calls out Wenwu for his actions, and that even a man over a thousand years could never understand what it was like to live as a mere mortal like him, one gave everything to the world despite having no powers or special abilities, yet was shunned and received nothing but shame, ridicule, and ultimately death. He challenges the Mandarin to a duel: One match against him for his children’s life, or else they die.

Remembering what the Iron Gang did to Ying Li on these very grounds, Wenwu ultimately accepts, wanting to put the Ronin back in his place for the sake of his family.

——————

Elsewhere, Nat is trying desperately to reach the fortress in a rainy blur, until she gets stopped by Maya Lopez, still hellbent on avenging her father and killing Clint.

As Nat fights to get there first, both factions of the Ten Rings gather around the palace; Shang-Chi and Xialing, still bound, are forced to watch the duel that will decide their fate and their family’s. Clint and Wenwu, both armored up, draw their weapons, the rain shimmering around the both of them.

The battle begins, the two warriors engage in an all-out melee, Wenwu’s power only being matched by Clint’s swiftness and agility, his sword clashing with the Rings’s in a cacophony of combat. Eventually though, Wenwu’s sheer strength starts to overpower Clint, beating him senseless, but Clint anticipated this, waiting for the moment when Wenwu would get more reckless in his attacks. Meanwhile, back outside, Nat manages to knock off Maya’s leg and stun her with a Widow Bite, apologizing for that before running off to stop Clint.

As Clint gets smashed into the ground, Wenwu raises his fist, readying his Rings to kill him, but in doing so gives Ronin the opening he needed. Clint manages to slip a piece of sharp debris into his glove when he was pinned, so now, using the same trick as he did with Shang-Chi with his deadly accuracy, ricochets his new projectile right into Wenwu’s median nerve, severing it.

Wasting not a second, Clint grabs his sword and stabs Wenwu in the leg, further crippling him. As he continues fighting, Wenwu’s strength begins to give, as the Ronin keeps hitting him at critical points to take him off the edge. Then the game-changer comes as Wenwu tries to blast Clint with the Rings, allowing Clint to knock him down as he calls them back to him. Whirring around, Clint manages to catch the Rings on his own arm mid-flight, before spinning back to finish off Wenwu with a downward slam, knocking everyone back. He continues beating into Wenwu, visions of his family, of his pain, of everything he suffered though, and yet even that was never enough.

——————

Nat sees the concentric bursts of power from the palace, knowing that either way, something’s wrong. As Wenwu lays bloodied and defeated, Ronin uses his new Rings to take the rest from Wenwu, claiming them for himself. Shang-Chi and Xialing try to break free to save their father, but Ronin uses the Rings to hold them in place and watch. Wenwu looks over at them, accepting that his goal of reuniting his family was somewhat successful in the end, telling them both to avenge their family.

Wenwu accepts his fate, surrendering to the Ronin as Shang-Chi and Xialing are left helpless to watch. Clint then channels the Rings’ power into his blade, preparing to finish off the Mandarin for good.

Nat then barges in, witnessing the unfortunate scene before her. Clint glares at her, the friend she once knew gone, now replaced by a madman. As Ronin unmasks himself, Nat tells him she’s sorry she failed him, that she knows why he’s doing this but that he needs to stop, but Clint isn’t having any of it. As Nat begs for Clint to see reason and asks what will it take for him to listen, he simply tells her the same thing he’s told all his enemies:

“What I want…you can’t give me.”

He stabs Wenwu, as Nat, Shang-Chi, and Xialing watch in horror. Nat leaps in to try and stop him, but Clint just throws the two at her, before ordering his men to take them captive. Razor Fist breaks through and holds Ronin’s loyalists back, allowing them time to escape, but sacrificing himself in the process.

As the three make their escape, they find Maya on the ground still reeling from the Widow Bite. Nat removes it and tells her that if she wants to live, then they all need to go. As the group escape the oncoming convoy of troops after them, The Ronin watches on, not even fazed. He admires this new strength and commands the rest of his troops to submit to him or die, gesturing to Wenwu’s and Razor Fist’s dead bodies. The other troops submit to him, declaring the Ronin as their new leader.

——————

As both groups report to their higher-ups - Nat, Shang-Chi, and Xialing to the other remaining Avengers; Maya to Wilson Fisk and Sharon Carter - both sides receive a message from Ronin, informing them that Wenwu’s death was just the beginning. He tells them all that a new era has begun, one from which only reckoning will come for all who bar him from his goal.

With that, the Ronin assumes his new throne as the ruler of the Ten Rings, his aim and his empire now secured as one, all while forces beyond watch in preparation.

——————

Sorry if the bio’s a bit lengthier than most, but I thought it would be an interesting concept for a future What If..? scenario plus a fun way to revisit a more unexplored part of Marvel’s past with the Blip.

Hope you like it!

[vertigoartgore]

1989's Marvel Age Vol.1 #81 cover by cover artist John Byrne.

[thingsasbarcodes]

What If...? 2x09 - What If... Strange Supreme Intervened?

[random-movie-ideas]

Essential Characters to Include in an Iron Man Series

These are the most important to include if you want an in-depth series:

Tony Stark AKA Iron Man

James Rhodes AKA War Machine

Riri Williams AKA Ironheart

Pepper Potts AKA Rescue

Bethany Cabe

Happy Hogan

Edwin Jarvis

Howard Stark

Steve Rogers AKA Captain America

Natasha Romanoff AKA Black Widow

Nick Fury

SHIELD

Obadiah Stane AKA Iron Monger

Justin Hammer

Justine Hammer AKA The Crimson Cowl

Anton Vanko AKA Crimson Dynamo

Boris Bullski AKA Titanium Man

Count Luchino Nefaria

Giuliette Nefaria/Whitney Frost AKA Madame Masque

Mark Scarlotti AKA Whiplash

Milos Masaryk AKA Unicorn

George Tarleton AKA M.O.D.O.K.

A.I.M.

The Mandarin

The Ten Rings

Fin Fang Foom

[boborock789]

Moodboard// The Mandarin

[pierre-reads-comics]

Avengers (1963) #20 — Stan Lee, Don Heck

"Well, I'll be--! You did it, Mandy!"