Reason 1: The Stereotype Issue
Stan Lee, in creating the initial stable of Marvels superhero community, decided he wanted to challenge himself by creating a hero that people, by all accounts, should hate. So he created a grade A, rich, womanizing, war mongering douchey douche member of the military industrial complex, Tony Stark. Stark ends up having a change of heart, when hes nearly killed by a grenade and realizes that devices designed for nothing but killing other humans are, to quote the man himself, historically not awesome. Thus begins the longest redemption story in the history of comics, mostly because the redemption angle is largely downplayed for like, ever. But this is the '60s folks, and at this time a large amount of brave men and women from all sorts of racial and economic backgrounds has decided to make it clear that being a racist is stupid. But at the same time there was a clear line between communists and just about everyone else. So while it was becoming unacceptable to use the N word in public, there was no such issue in regards to Russians or the Chinese. Marvel Comics, who had done their part to spread propaganda against the Germans in books like Captain America and The Invaders during WWII also felt obliged to weigh in on how much being a commie bastard sucked (aside from the obvious, not knowing your father part). What better hero, a military apologist that gets it, to face a true Chinese boogie man than Iron Man? Enter the Mandarin. Really? All that creativity and the best you can do is The Mandarin? Was the primary question in the editorial meeting, So how can we be as racist as possible right out of the gate? For those who dont know, Mandarin translates loosely to Chinese Government Bureaucrat in Chinese or mandarin, which is also the name for Chinas primary dialect (oh, the irony). So yes, Iron Mans primary super villain is literally a play on the Chinese Government and culture right down to his name. What, you thought mandarin would mean some beast or weapon, something menacing? Nope, you havent been eating vicious killing you monster chicken for the last 20 years or so, just local government officials chicken which is way better considering that, at best, the former would inspire thoughts of dysentery. So how does a film that is set in the here and now update a character that oozes racism from every pore? Youre right, it doesnt. The harder you try to use The Mandarin in all his original glory the more impossible your job becomes to make a movie that wont create an international incident and people will actually want to see, so you leave the racist character out of it entirely, to a point.