RobotGumshoe wrote:

Klimbatize wrote: Ba'al wrote: What was the problem with using Mandarin again? I heard they thought he was out of date, but come on. I think they might want to go what's more 'believable' in the real world. Since Madarin uses 'magic' rings for a lot of his powers I think they figured it would be too ridiculous. But that's easily fixed by just eliminating the magic part of his powers and sticking with his ass-kicking abilities. Or is it just too cliched to have yet another villian that's an Asian guy who's a master at martial arts? Master of martial arts is not a real threat to man with supersuit. In any case he doesn't really fit thematically, where the current iron man villain is the military industrial complex as represented by a giant robot piloted by the big Lebowski.

True, and I wouldn't expect anyone who wasn't familiar with Mandarin to know this, but Mandarin had hands and skin that were tough and could take a lot of damage. His hands were strong enough to actually rip Ironman's suit off if he got his hands on it. So it was step above simple martial arts ability.

Still, probably wouldn't have worked in the movie. Not sure Whiplash will either.