5. ULTIMATE FOE
In the Ultimate Marvel Universe, the Mandarin remains something of a mystery,  shown kidnapping James Rhodes and being thwarted by Tony Stark and the Iron Man armour. But he’s also been shown more recently as working with Sin-Cong revolutionary Wong Chu, who abducts Chinese genius Ho Yinsen and Tony Stark. Yinsen sacrifices his life to help Tony escape using the first Iron Man armour. Sound familiar?

6. TERROR TIME
While the Mandarin does not appear directly in the first cinematic Iron Man outing, his influence is felt. Stark is kidnapped by a terrorist group called the Ten Rings, and helped to escape by Yinsen (played by Shaun Toub and Afghani rather than Chinese here). The group is known to be working with The Mandarin. The villainous head honcho was set to feature directly in an older version of the film, developed in 2004 by New Line, with writers including Alfred Gough and Miles Millar making him an Indonesian terrorist.

7. FAVREAU'S VIEW
Like those earlier drafts, Jon Favreau’s take on Iron Man for Marvel Studios had originally tried to incorporate the Mandarin. But Favreau felt the character was too fantastical for his more down-to-earth take. "I looked at the Mandarin more like how in Star Wars you had the Emperor, but Darth Vader is the guy you want to see fight. Then you work your way to the time when lightning bolts are shooting out of the fingers and all that stuff could happen. But you can’t have all that in Star Wars to start with.” Post-Avengers and in a world where Thor exists, the Mandarin must now seem like less of a stretch.