10 Villains That The MCU Got Completely Wrong

Iron Man 3 director Shane Black had the audacity to turn the hero's greatest nemesis into nothing more than a ruse and a punchline.

Okay, so it's a really funny gag, but the diehards had every right to be miffed about this. Imagine if a Batman movie did this to The Joker, or a Superman film turned Lex Luthor into a walking joke (and that's not a reference to Jesse Eisenberg).

For the uninitiated, Ben Kingsley's take on The Mandarin isn't really The Mandarin at all. He's a washed-up actor named Trevor Slattery who's hired by Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian (the film's real villain) to pose as a faux big bad.

You're enjoyment of Kingsley's portrayal likely hinges on how much of a purist you are when it comes to Iron Man lore, but there's no escaping the fact that Marvel Studios squandered an iconic villain here.

The Mandarin is Tony Stark's arch-enemy, and if Robert Downey Jr hangs up his armour without ever crossing paths with the real version, it will be a missed opportunity.