General Marvel Legends

On the topic of is Mandarin racist I went to his character profile on the Marvel character fan wiki and found out he was apparently born in an opium den to an English prostitute and.... hoo-boy... that's sure an origin story...
I thought his mother was an English aristocrat? Of course I only looked it up on Wikipedia. I could easily be mistaken.
Huh. The entries on marvel fandom and Wikipedia give completely different accounts of his early life.
 
I think the only "guarantee" is we won't get a Silver Age Mandarin. And almost more for the fact his costume/mask is a bit underwhelming.

Frankly as a lifelong Iron Man fan, I'm not even all that interested in Mandarin. I don't think he's really had too many memorable stories. And his character seems all over the place with motivations, other than "hate Iron Man, hate the West." I believe he was initially against technology but was using alien technology. I don't know. He just never felt fully focused as a character. I do like some of his costumes though. And having different powers available to him through the rings is interesting.
 
I think the only "guarantee" is we won't get a Silver Age Mandarin. And almost more for the fact his costume/mask is a bit underwhelming.

Frankly as a lifelong Iron Man fan, I'm not even all that interested in Mandarin. I don't think he's really had too many memorable stories. And his character seems all over the place with motivations, other than "hate Iron Man, hate the West." I believe he was initially against technology but was using alien technology. I don't know. He just never felt fully focused as a character. I do like some of his costumes though. And having different powers available to him through the rings is interesting.
He’s not one of my favorite characters, but he is pretty important to the Iron Man mythos. So I’m probably one-and-done with him. And the modern version won’t do it for me. If I never get a more classic version, then so be it.
 
Sex work is valid work, y’all.
The “born in an opium den” part is way more problematic.
Maybe she was doing some kinda community outreach thing, trying to get the people there off the pipe, then her water broke.
Hey, Blade’s mom was a sex worker too.
Hmmmmmm.
Well yeah now I'm seeing the pattern.
 
On the topic of is Mandarin racist I went to his character profile on the Marvel character fan wiki and found out he was apparently born in an opium den to an English prostitute and.... hoo-boy... that's sure an origin story...
I just ran a few detailed searches through google and according to our AI overlords, Mandarin had 2 origin stories? In the original, his father was a wealthy descendant of Genghis Kahn and his mother was from English nobility. In the later retcon, the Mandarin claimed his mother was an opium-addicted prostitute but he was likely fabricating that story?
Here's one of the search results...

"The original comic book origin of the Mandarin describes his mother as an English noblewoman and his father as a wealthy Chinese man descended from Genghis Khan. A later, short-lived retcon in the Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. comics suggested that his mother was a prostitute, and he killed her pimp after discovering she was dead. This origin was not widely adopted and is not the current or widely known version. The Marvel Cinematic Universe retcon in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings establishes the "Mandarin" as an alias for a character named Xu Wenwu."
 
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