Pre-recton Mandarin vs. Karate Kid
-This is strictly a martial arts battle. No weapons.
-No rings for Mandarin.
-Karate Kid is a master of every martial art and he can severely damage extremely hard and strong materials — metals, stone, etc.
-Mandarin could destroy Iron Man's magnetic-beam reinforced alloy armor with his bare hands.
Who take this one?
'Pre-retcon' Mandarin was a beast. His mastery of chi was > most others I've seen in comics - as far as the abilities he was able to muster are concerned. He's one of the only sub-Hulk characters who's been able to peel back Tony's armor [pre-extremis] with fisticuffs alone [after repeated strikes, of course]. To be honest, I could see his superhuman stats/intellect/fighting prowess taking the majority over KK. *shrugs*
Originally posted by Galan007
'Pre-retcon' Mandarin was a beast. His mastery of chi was > most others I've seen in comics - as far as the abilities he was able to muster are concerned. He's one of the only sub-Hulk characters who's been able to peel back Tony's armor [pre-extremis] with fisticuffs alone [after repeated strikes, of course]. To be honest, I could see his superhuman stats/intellect/fighting prowess taking the majority over KK. *shrugs*
Two things. What retcon?
And wasn't the armor smashing made by using his rings to make a forcefield around his hands? Or was that ki?
Originally posted by TricksterPriestThe wiki write-up details it a bit. Referring you to that is a lot easier than explaining his retcons. 😛
Two things. What retcon?
Originally posted by TricksterPriestIn the instance I was referring to, it was chi.
And wasn't the armor smashing made by using his rings to make a forcefield around his hands? Or was that ki?
Originally posted by MindsetYou mean when he was fighting Tony [whom was in his older silver centurion armor] with the rings of power surgically implanted on his spine? none
Wasn't Mandarin ripping IM's armor apart a couple months ago?
Ok. I looked over the wiki. It says he's back to his armor-smashing level and....
"The Mandarin has been revived in the current arc of Iron Man. Apparently he has been in a prison in central China for some time. In this story it has been revealed that he has lost his hands (most likely the hands that were sent to Temugin were, in fact, actually the Mandarin's). He has also been living with no food or water for years. His ability to survive so long without food or water is likely due to his mastery of chi. Despite being handless and starved, he was able to kill several men armed with guns via his mastery of the martial arts"
That's pretty damn good. 👆
". Though he has his Extremis disabled, Iron Man defeats the Mandarin while wearing the Silver Centurion armor by tearing the rings out of the Mandarin's spine, and then freezing him to death. Iron Man then prevents the Extremis-outbreak. But when the Mandarin's apparently frozen body is autopsied, all that is found is a blackened husk... not unlike an Extremis chrysalis."
This indicates he may have the Extremis virus, and all it's buffs.
Mandarin suffered a kind of temporary "soft" retcon. I say soft, because the comics never said anything about a force-field enhancing his blows.
Rather, his OHOTMU entry listed a force-field that was nowhere to be found in the comics.
Around the same time, he stopped using martial arts attacks in the comics, and started depending entirely on the rings to fight.
So there seems that there was some editorial decisions involved in all this, but that decision was kind of half-assed.
His most recent appearances haven't mentioned a force-field, and have gone back to the idea that he is a superhuman martial artist. So basically both pre-retcon and current Mandarin are the same Mandarin. The force-field guy was someone who fully existed only in the OHOTMU, though one could say the quiet way he stopped using martial arts in the comics amounts to a brief soft-retcon.