10 Biggest Missteps In Comic Book Movies

3. Iron Man 3 - The Mandarin

Ah, Iron Man 3. The whole reason I decided to write this list in the first place. This was initially going to be my number one choice but, after careful consideration, I decided to drop it to 3. But that should not take away from the disappointment I felt when this 'twist' was revealed.

I have to confess, I am not Iron Man's biggest fan. I mean, I like the character and I love Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of him but I never really got excited about a new Iron Man movie. This changed however when I first saw the trailer for IM3. The Mandarin looked like the coolest comic book villain since The Joker. He looked like a villain that was going to strip away Stark's snarky, sarcastic facade and match him every step of the way. I was convinced this was going to be an Iron Man movie worth getting excited for. To then have all that potential thrown out of the window for a cheap joke was like a slap in the face. It would be fair to say that, up until the moment in question, Iron Man 3 wasn't exactly living up to my expectations. I was still kind of enjoying it, especially the moments with The Mandarin, but the pacing felt a little off and the serious lack of action was beginning to grate. Then Black drops his bombshell. We find out that The Mandarin is really a cockney actor called Trevor Slattery and Guy Pierce is actually the devious mastermind behind everything he has orchestrated. We never see him again and are left with Guy Pierce's bland baddie. It was so disappointing to see a potentially awesome villain being reduced to a bad punchline and then written out of the plot entirely and didn't help my already waning interest. A terrible mishandling of a great character which, unfortunately, continues the Iron Man tradition of disappointing, underused villains.