Today's Fact
The Mandarin spent fifty years collecting ten rings. Then the rings collected ten people of their own and left without him.
In Kieron Gillen's Iron Man Vol. 5 (2013–2014), the ten Makluan rings were sitting in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Weapon Vault Omega when a dead Rigellian Recorder began broadcasting an alien frequency. The signal upgraded the intelligence sleeping inside each ring into full sentience — and the newly awake rings decided they had unfinished business with Tony Stark.
The escape was elegant. Nine rings slipped out of the vault while the tenth — the Mento-Intensifier, calling itself the Liar — stayed behind, projecting the illusion that the complete set was still in custody. By the time anyone thought to count, the rings were scattered across the world, each hunting for a bearer of its own choosing.
Each ring took a new name and a new host: the Matter-Rearranger became Remaker on the hand of a triad warlord, Impact became Influence, Vortex became Spin, and so on through Spectral, Nightbringer, Daimonic, Incandescence, Lightning and Zero — ten self-appointed Mandarins, Mandarin-One through Mandarin-Ten, united by one inherited grudge against Iron Man. The original Mandarin's weapons had held a hiring fair, and he was not invited.
Why It's Obscure
A weapons locker is supposed to keep dangerous things in. Nobody at S.H.I.E.L.D. planned for the dangerous things filing their own exit paperwork.
Gallery
The Rings of the Mandarin collected edition, its gallery of new hosts, and an Iron Man cover from the storyline — the Mandarin's ringed hands are plainly visible on the covers.
Sources
Every fact on this page was checked against at least two independent sources before publication.
Bullpen Bulletins
- Mandarin (character) — Wikipedia The character overview covering Gillen's Iron Man run: the rings' escape from S.H.I.E.L.D. custody and their selection of hosts as Mandarin-One through Mandarin-Ten.
- Mandarin's Rings — Marvel Database The rings' own entry: their sentience after Recorder 451's signal, the Liar's vault illusion, and the full list of renamed rings and chosen hosts.
- The History of the Mandarin's Rings Explained — Looper A history of the rings tracing their Makluan origins through their sentient period and their campaign against Tony Stark.