Iron Man #311
Hands of the Mandarin Part III: The Conqueror
This story continues from War Machine #9…
The Mandarin has returned and using the power of the ancient Heart of Darkness, plots to use its magic to revert the world back to its feudal past. With a mystical “anti-technology” barrier around mainland China, Iron Man finds himself trapped inside the Mandarin’s castle.
With his armor no longer function, Iron Man is at the mercy of the Mandarin and his minions, the Avatars. Blasting Iron Man with his rings of power, the Mandarin explains how he survived their last encounter and that has renounced technology and is using the magic from the Heart of Darkness to remake the world in his own image.[1] To demonstrate his power, he uses the Heart of Darkness to create a magical mask that transforms one of his loyal servants into a new Avatar named Termoil.
He then orders the Avatars to leave him in private with Iron Man so he can finally unmask his arch-nemesis and see his true face once and for all. The Mandarin grabs his incapacitated foe and uses his power rings to cut through Iron Man’s helmet. Removing his mask, the Mandarin is unsurprised to discover that Iron Man has been Tony Stark this whole time, something that he has suspected for quite some time. The villain finds this richly poetic seeing their struggle as an ideological one between the old ways of the East versus the new world of the West.
Elsewhere, Century and War Machine are fighting against Chinese military forces, who have been reverted back to warriors of old wearing traditional Chinese battle armor and swords. Century tries his best to keep it together as his mind has been plagued by a strange dementia that has afflicted his mind.[2] When War Machine explains that they have come to China to stop the Mandarin, the commanding officer of the army decides to cease the battle to hear them out since he has no love for the Mandarin as well.[3]
Back in the Mandarin’s castle, Tony Stark begins to feel sick as the anti-technology field has begun to affect his artificial nervous system.[4] The Mandarin then gleefully uses his power rings to blast off the remains of his Iron Man armor, piece by piece. With time running out, Tony challenges the Mandarin to a one-on-one fight, man-to-man, with no weapons or technology. The Mandarin agrees, figuring that this will be an easy victory. Tony does manage to hold his own at first, but as his body begins to fail him, the Mandarin ends up trouncing him in battle. He demands that Stark beg for his miserable life, but Tony refuses to give him the satisfaction.
At that same moment, Force Work’s Hex-Ship has passed through the anti-technology field, causing the vessel to shut down in mid-air. As the plane begins to fall out of the sky US Agent tells the Scarlet Witch and Spider-Woman to hold on as he pilots a crash landing into the Mandarin’s castle. Once inside, US Agent leaps out of the wrecked ship to face off against the Mandarin’s army.
By this time, the Mandarin has defeated Tony in combat and hearing more enemies approaching wraps his hands around Tony’s throat intending to choke the life out of him before help can arrive.
… this story continues in Marvel Comics Presents #172.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Force Works (Scarlet Witch, Spider-Woman, US Agent, Century), War Machine, Mandarin, Avatars (Butterfly, Deluge, Foundry, Lich, Old Woman, Q’Wake, Termoil, Warfist), Chu Lo Yan, Recorder RE-404
Continuity Notes
The Mandarin was blasted into a coma and lost his original hands during the Dragon Seed Saga which took place in Iron Man #270-275. He remained in a coma until Iron Man #306. Since then he grew new reptillian hands, recovered his rings, found the Heart of Darkness, and created his Avatars. This was all chronicled over the course of Iron Man #307-310, Marvel Comics Presents #169-170 and War Machine #8.
At the time of this story, Century’s weakness was being separated from his weapon Parallax his mind would be begin to deteriorate. This has been his status quo since Force Works #1. Century was separated from Parallax in War Machine #9.
It’s interesting to note here that the commanding officer refers to the Mandarin as the “Pretender to the throne of Khan”. Since his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #50, the Mandarin has claimed to be a direct descendant of Genghis Khan. We’ll later learn in Invincible Iron Man Annual #1 that this was all a lie, the Mandarin was actually the son of a Caucasian prostitute that worked out of one of China’s opium dens.
Tony’s nervous system was completely replaced with an artificial one. It’s a whole thing. He got crippled by a gunshot, got a bio-chip installed in his spine, the bio-chip was hacked and it destroyed his nervous system forcing him to have an artificial one created. See Iron Man #242, 248, 258-266, 284 and 289-290.
Topical References
The commander of the Chinese army states that he is the great grandson of Pu Yi, the last emperor of China. This is in reference to Aisin-Gioro Puyi who was indeed the last emperor of China. His reign ended in 1917 and he died in 1967. References to this guy being the great grandson of Pu Yi should be considered topical due to the Sliding Timescale. Modern readers should interpret this to mean the Pu Yi was a direct ancestor of this guy and no longer part of his immediate family.
Hands of the Mandarin Reading Order
Force Works #6, Marvel Comics Presents #169-171, War Machine #9, Iron Man #311, Marvel Comics Presents #172, Force Works #7, War Machine #10, Iron Man #312