| “ | I told my men they wouldn't be able to kill you if they tried. Glad I was right. I missed you, my son. Let's go home. | „ |
| ~ The Mandarin's most famous quote as he reunites with his son Shang-Chi. |
| “ | I gave you ten years to live your life. And where did that get you? You walked in my shadow. I trained you so the most dangerous people in the world couldn't kill you. Son, it's time for you to take your place by my side. | „ |
| ~ The Mandarin convincing Shang-Chi to rejoin the Ten Rings. |
Xu Wenwu (Chinese: 徐文武), nicknamed The Mandarin, is a major antagonist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, serving as the unseen overarching antagonist of both the Iron Man trilogy and the Marvel one-shot All Hail the King, and the main antagonist of the 2021 film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
He is an ancient warrior who wields a set of mystical rings, which are able to grant him immortality and a wide assortment of abilities. He is also the supreme founder of his terrorist organization, the Ten Rings, as well as the father of both Xu Shang-Chi and Xu Xialing - conceived by their mother and Xu Wenwu's late wife Ying Li.
Originally, he founded the Ten Rings organization before embarking on a thousand-year-long crusade to gain as much power as he could. Though he ended up abandoning his crusade upon finding love and settling himself with a family, Wenwu resumed his crusade following the death of his wife at the hands of his rivals affected by his prior exploits. Between this and his children's subsequent defection from the Ten Rings, Wenwu became desperate to bring his family back together and avenge his late wife - all the while being influenced by her "voice".
It was also noted that Wenwu expressed resentment towards Aldrich Killian after the latter appropriated his legends to create a character known as "The Mandarin", hiring Trevor Slattery to portray and present the persona to the world; in response to this, Wenwu arranged for Slattery to be abducted and taken into the Ten Rings custody following Killian's death. Wenwu is dismissive of the "Mandarin" moniker, laughing about how America was brought to its knees by an orange.
He was portrayed by Tony Leung Chiu-wai in his Hollywood debut.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
- It's implied that even before he discovered the Ten Rings, he was already a notorious and sadistic warlord who slaughtered countless lives and committed war crimes even though this was offscreen.
- After stealing the Ten Rings that gifted him with unmatched power and immortality, he uses them to conquer the world in the shadows, which makes him responsible for the deaths of many people as well throughout the ages. He probably has a higher body count than Arnim Zola.
- Being unsatisfied with his conquests, he decides to invade Ta Lo, a dimension filled with mythological creatures from the Chinese Culture, so he can obtain their magic and become more powerful than ever.
- When he destroyed the Iron Gang, he then trained his son Shang-Chi into becoming an assassin in the ranks of the Ten Rings in order to avenge his mother, yet he decided not to train Xialing as the latter reminds him of her mother.
- He sent Shang-Chi to assassinate the Iron Gang Leader to avenge his mother Ying Li. While it was a way to give his son peace for his mother’s death, it was still a murder as the latter was 14 years old.
- He made a deal with Obadiah Stane to send Raza and his unit to capture Tony Stark in Afghanistan so that he can create weapons for mass destruction to preserve his conquest for power. This action led to the events of the Iron Man trilogy in the first place. However, Stane betrayed the Ten Rings after Stark created his armor and planned to use the arc reactor for his selfish goals.
- He sent an agent from the Ten Rings to hire Ivan Vanko, son of late scientist Anton Vanko to assassinate Tony Stark/Iron Man in Monaco, but the attempt ended in failure.
- Being furious (albeit in a justifiable way) that his image was twisted by Trevor Slattery (who was hired by Aldrich Killian in order to cover his Extremis attacks), he sent his loyal agent and assassin Jackson Norris to break Slattery out of prison so he can kill him for impersonating him, however, he spared his life due to Slattery’s portrayal for Macbeth, so he decides to take him as his Court Jester.
- He then sent Razor Fist to retrieve Shang-Chi’s pendant in San Francisco, almost endangering many lives of innocents in the process.
- He then sent Death Dealer and the Ten Rings to Macau in order to retrieve both his children and the pendant from Xialing in order to enter Ta Lo.
- After hearing Ying Li’s voice (which turned out to be the voice of The Dweller-In-Darkness) Wenwu decided to travel to Ta Lo to save her from the gate, even willing to burn down the whole village to do so if the elders refused to release her (which is false as the Dweller manipulated Wenwu in order to escape the gate), something his children were up against.
- He arrives at Ta Lo with his army and orders the Elders to let go his "wife”. When they refuse his demands, he has his men attack the village.
- By the time he confronts Shang-Chi, Wenwu insulted his son saying that he spent his entire life afraid - always running and always hiding, even blaming him for Ying Li’s death, despite both the fact that it was his fault for having conflicts with the Iron Gang in the first place and that Shang-Chi was just a defenseless kid when that happen.
- When Shang-Chi told his father that even if Ying Li was on the other side, she wouldn't want to take him back, Wenwu angrily retaliated by using the full force of the rings and launching him into the lake with incredible force.
- Despite the MCU’s Heinous Standards, the Mandarin easily passes them due the fact that he lived for thousands of years conquering lands with many human casualties on the way, making him one of the most heinous human villains in the entire franchise, alongside NPEs Crossbones and Erik Killmonger or PEs Red Skull, General Dreykov, Mysterio and Arnim Zola. He has a higher body count of thousands (or millions) as his thousand-year conquest caused many casualties as mentioned above, not along the fact that his actions turned Tony Stark into becoming Iron Man, thus kickstarting the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the first place. It can be said that he is in the same level as Namor in terms of heinousness.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- Despite initially trying to reach Ta Lo in order to capture the creatures, he instead fell in love with the gate’s guardian Ying Li, which prompted him to abandon the Ten Rings so that he can grow old with her.
- He loved his son and daughter deeply, having happy moments with them. When they both left the Ten Rings, he tracked them in their respective locations but respected their decision to leave the Ten Rings, only needing them when the time was right. He also adopted Mattias, as he reminded him of Shang-Chi and even respected his decision to call his prosthetic arm whatever he likes.
- He is very affable and kind to his allies and enemies alike, asking Katie's Chinese name and casually telling her the story of how Aldrich Killian used his identity for a terrorist plot.
- He has a sense of honor as he respected his children’s decision to leave the Ten Rings and spared Trevor’s life, despite twisting his image.
- He has a genuine tragedy as he lost his wife because of the Iron Gang wanting revenge against him for his past sins, and reclaimed the Ten Rings to avenge her killers in a mad rage, becoming The Mandarin once again.
- He is a scapegoat, as he genuinely believed his wife was trapped by her people in the gate of Ta Lo, only to realize he was manipulated by the Dweller-in-Darkness so he can escape his imprisonment.
- He eventually redeems himself by sacrificing his life to save his son from the Dweller-In-Darkness, but not before giving him the Ten Rings to stop the Dweller, also remembering the good times he spent with his family, finally going to the afterlife to die in peace with his wife.
Trivia[]
- He is the first Inconsistently Heinous from Phase 4 to come from a movie.
- His What If…? version doesn’t qualify due to suffering from offscreen villainy.
External Links[]
- Mandarin on the Villains Wiki
- Mandarin on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
- Mandarin on the Marvel Wiki
- Mandarin on the Marvel Movies Wiki
- Mandarin on the Disney Wiki
- Mandarin on the VS Battles Wiki
- Mandarin on the Wikipedia
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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