15 Most Ridiculous MCU Controversies
3. The Mandarin Twist Enrages Comic Book Fans (Iron Man 3)
The Controversy: Hardcore comic book fans were infuriated at Iron Man 3's unforgettable plot twist, that Ben Kingsley's Mandarin was in fact a decoy, an actor paid by the "real" Mandarin, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce).
Fans felt like they had been sold one movie in trailers which focused on Kingsley as arguably Iron Man's biggest foe, and been bait-and-switched into seeing something completely different.
The backlash was so strong that Marvel even created a short film, All Hail the King, which effectively retconned the twist and implied there was a third, real Mandarin.
Why It's Ridiculous: A little frustration is understandable, but considering that the Mandarin was a fairly outdated Asian caricature in the comics anyway, a reinvention of the character was absolutely necessary.
Plus, the execution was pretty clever in how it riffed on the nature of terrorism and propaganda, and we got some hilarious Ben Kingsley scenes out of it.
Lighten up! It really wasn't that bad.