EDITORIAL: Favreau Gets the Mandarin Wrong, Threatens to Ruin Character in Iron Man 3

So far, Jon Favreau's done well in the eyes of most True Believers. In both Iron Man films, the storyline has been solid, he didn't make a mockery of one of the greatest super villains of all time a la Tim Story's Fantastic Four or Sam Raimi's Spider-man 3. He's cast his character's well (again, unlike Story), and he hasn't needlessly killed off anyone, a la Brett Ratner's X-Men: The Last Stand. But based on a recent interview, Favreau is skating on very thin ice.

Fellow comicbookmovie.com writer Brent Sprecher unearths Favreau (during an interview on MTV) commenting about the potential problem of bringing the Mandarin, one of Iron Man's greatest, and most popular foes, into Iron Man 3:

"The problem with the Mandarin is that the way it's depicted in the comic books, you don't want to see that. He has 10 magical rings — that just doesn't feel right for our [franchise]. So it's either tech-based, or the rings are not really rings."

Of course, there's only one problem with what Favreau is saying. All of it is completely, 100% wrong. Perhaps Favreau has been so busy designing technology for Iron Man to use, he hasn't bothered using real technology to surf the internet and find out a little about the actual Mandarin from the comics. The following quotations are direct from MarvelDirectory.com.

"He displayed scientific aptitude at an early age and used his inheritance for education in various sciences in China and abroad."

"The Mandarin then subjugated the villages around the Valley, and, through his science, rapidly became a power that not even the Chinese Army could successfully challenge."

"The Mandarin saw technology as the surest means to achieve his goals."

"Other of the Mandarin's early technological achievements was the launching of a small orbiting satellite whose "death-ray" he aimed at Stark Industries, and the building of Ultimo, a 30-foot android"

"The Mandarin's teleportation technology, derived from Makluan science, enabled him to kidnap people at will"

"The rings' operations cannot be explained by contemporary Earth science, but it is known that they served as near-limitless energy sources for the warpdrive engines of the starship of Axonn-Karr, a dragon-like alien of the Makluan race."

And well, you get the idea. In fact, MarvelDirectory even explains how EVERY ONE of Mandarin's rings are tech-based and not magic based. Kinda sounds like the PERFECT villain just the way he is huh?

And even so, Mister Favreau, who are you to say the supernatural can't exist besides technology? Marvel has been doing it for decades, and all of a sudden you come along and say it can't be done? Tell that to Dr. Strange fighting beside Spider-Man, and Agatha Harkness working with the Fantastic Four. Here's hoping an army of True Believers can set you straight, before its too late and we have another Tim-Story-Doc-Doom on our hands.