The Persistence of Memory

Now

The Mandarin is having the same nightmare he has had for days. In it, he is fleeing an ancient Chinese temple in fear. Once out in the courtyard a massive statue of Avalokiteśvara collapses on him. That’s when the Mandarin bolts awake with a scream. This draws the wizard Chen Hsu into his room to ask what happened. When the Mandarin explains his dream, Chen explains that the dream is reminding him of his own mortality. When he points out that the Mandarin’s death in his dream is a similar fate that his father suffered.[1] The Mandarin remembers, but dismisses his father as a pathetic commoner that did not understand the need for absolute power.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Iron Man is attempting to stop Vibro’s rampage through the city. This would be an easy task if not for the fact that Tony Stark’s nervous system has been left in ruins after his recent clash with the Marrs Corporation.[2] Eventually, Iron Man is able to defeat Vibro by launching two magno-coupler drones which lift Vibro into the air. Then, using his repulsors, Iron Man causes his opponent to spin violently in the air until he surrenders. With Vibro turned over to the authorities, Tony suddenly feels something touch his mind and it causes him to think back to the past…..

Years Ago[3]

Tony Stark had arrives in Southeast Asia to oversee the operations of a new factory that Stark Industries had opened in the region. Upon arriving at the airport, Tony was greeted by Toshi Kanada, who is in charge of operations. As he is being driven out to the factory, Tony learns from Toshi that supply chains are continuing to be interrupted by deliberate attacks by a local mercenary named Wong Chu. In response, the Stark factory has beefed up security to prevent further interruptions to their operations.

Little do they know that their approach is being observed by Wong Chu through a sophisticated monitoring device provided to him by a mysterious benefactor. Confirming that Tony Stark is in the country, Wong Chu is ordered to capture him at all costs for his master.[4] Wong Chu sends his soldiers to attack the jeep carrying Tony to the factory. While the factory security exchange gunfire, both Tony and Toshi flee into the jungle to find cover. It is here that Tony accidentally steps over a trip mind and both men are caught in the explosion.

Tony survives the blast but blacks out as enemy soldiers carry him away. When he wakes up he’s being cared for by the long lost scientist Ho Yinsen who was long believed to be dead. Yinsen tells Tony to be careful as there is shrapnel lodged close to his heart, warning him that it will eventually kill him if something isn’t done. He also tells Tony that they are prisoners of Wong Chu who wants to force them to build super weapons for his private war. When a woman enters the room and tells them that Wong Chu wishes to meet them, Yinsen tells Tony to play along for the sake of survival.

They are brought to Wong Chu who tries to be hospitable but Tony isn’t buying it and is openly rude to the warlord. Angered by his insults, Wong Chu orders his men to beat Tony into submission. When Stark tries to fight back the strain causes the shrapnel in his chest to move closer to his heart causing him such blinding pain he blacks out again and collapses to the floor.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Jim Rhodes, Bambi Arbogast, Mandarin, Fin Fang Foom, Chen Hsu, Vibro, (in flashback) Ho Yinsen, Wong Chu

Continuity Notes

1. In Tales of Suspense #62, the Mandarin has stated that his father was killed when a lightning strike caused a state to topple on him. It’s later revealed in Invincible Iron Man Annual #1 that this is all a lie. In reality, the Mandarin’s mother was a Caucasian sex worker who got pregnant by accident and that he was treated as an outcast due to his mixed race heritage. The Mandarin made up his backstory (including his alleged direct descendancy from Genghis Khan) to make himself seem more “purely” Chinese than others.

2. TL;DR: Tony was shot in through the spine in Iron Man #242 leaving him disabled from the waist down. He cured himself with an experimental bio-chip in issue #248. This chip was used by the Marrs twins as a backdoor to override Stark’s nervous system with an artificial one that allowed them to take control of his body. Iron Man uncovered and foiled this plot over the course of Iron Man #258-266. Tony’s condition will persist until Iron Man #290.

3. What follows is a retelling of Iron Man’s origins adapted from Tales of Suspense #39. However, this story has been updated in many ways. See below for details. Per the Sliding Timescale, these events took place about 8 years prior to the main story.

4. This mysterious benefactor is revealed to be the Mandarin next issue. It is later revealed in Iron Man #274 that the Mandarin had Yinsen kidnapped in order to unlock the secrets of his newly acquired power rings.

Topical References

• In the flashback, Tony’s private jet is depicted as a McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft. This should be considered a topical reference as they stopped building new aircraft in 1999 and airlines have been actively retiring their MD-80 fleets in 2020.

Updating Iron Man’s Origins

This is the first time that writers have updated Iron Man’s origins. Originally Tales of Suspense #39 was set during the Vietnam War. In the original story, Tony was giving a demonstration of his new transistorized weapons to the military when he accidentally walked across an enemy trip wire, setting off the explosive that sent shrapnel near his heart. He is then caught by Wong Chu and his guerillas who were part of the Viet Cong army.

In this version of events (which tells the first half of the origin story), a number of details are changed. Primarily, all references to the Vietnam War are gone. Instead, the geographical location is kept vague merely stating that Tony is somewhere in Southeast Asia. Secondly, rather than giving a demonstration of his weapons, Tony has come to inspect a munitions factory that his company had set up in the region. Wong Chu’s organization is not an opposing army but a group of mercenary dissidents funded by the Mandarin. In this version of events, Tony isn’t the only one who is caught in the tripwire explosion as it kills one of his employees, Toshi Kanada.

Years after this story was published, Marvel put out History of the Marvel Universe #2, which created the fictional war called the Sin-Cong Conflict. Sin-Cong is a fictional nation that exists near Vietnam in the Marvel Universe. This fictional conflict was created in order to avoid the constant retconning of early Marvel stories that made references to characters being involved in the Vietnam War. This would allow for minor revisions to explain why the American military was in Vietnam in the Pre-Modern/early Modern Age.

The Iron Man profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #5 makes references to the origin story above (and other contradictory ones that are told in later issues) as well as refers to Wong Chu as a Sin-Cong revolutionary.

As such modern readers should consider the following: Tony Stark’s trip still took him to Vietnam but during the Sin-Cong Conflict. His visit had more than one purpose the original munitions testing from Tales of Suspense #39 and to check out his factory with Toshi Kanada in this story. Events that occurred in Tales of Suspense #39 that aren’t repeated here happened behind the scenes and/or between panels. Likewise any events that took place in later telling’s of Iron Man’s origins which are not told here (with the exception of Iron Man (vol. 4) #1) should be stated as having took place behind the scenes between the panels of this issue as well.

Because Iron Man (vol. 4) #1 completely changes Tony’s origin story to fit a War on Terror narrative that ignorers all previously established continuity it should be, at the very least, ignored. However, we’ll talk about that another time.

There are more differences to be discussed but they happen next issue so we’ll talk about them there.