If you've not been living under a rock, you know that Mandarin's character have been consistently accused of being a "racist stereotype". Frankly, I don't care if some people see him that way. For some, classic Ms. Marvel may be seen as sexist stereotype because of her skimpy outfit or because she sometimes acts like a total B*** and is also an ex-alcoholic. (Hence why she was fundementaly redesigned in recent comics.) It's very subjective when you break it down.

However, when people start using that excuse to justify why Mandarin should not be respected as a character, or that he can't have any qualities as a character, or, what pisses me off the most, he just needs to be rewritten from the comics and never mentioner again, it really starts to tingle me a bit. It tingles me because the majority of those who say that are probably people who enjoy characters like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Captain America. See, here's my point: The sole reason why Mandarin is considered racist is because of those outdated drawings from the Silver Age of comics, done mostly by Don Heck, who, just like any comic book artist at the time, had to exaggerate the visual appearance of the villain to make him look more sinister.

Basically, Mandarin's original appearance is what causes all of that. So, if Mandarin is racist by default simply because his original appearance is outdated by today's PC standards, thus it ruins his character entirely, regardless if he's good or bad in other variations, shouldn't that also apply to characters like Superman, WW, and Captain America? You know, three (among many) Golden Age superheroes who have been portrayed as severe xenophobes in their first incarnations. Take a look for yourself:

So you have three flagship characters of the comic book industry, that are loved by millions of people, and... here they are, saying racial slurs. If that is okay to ignore and just focus on better incarnations of the characters, shouldn't same logic apply to characters like Mandarin, too? Like, why would I point out to his Silver Age appearance to make a case for why his character is good if I could just point out to something like John Byrne's 90's run, or Iron Man: Director of SHIELD series? Case in point, if Mandarin can't be respected as a character because of one particular incarnation, shouldn't that also apply to other characters? I hope it clears some stuff up.

Some brilliant points here, I’m glad someone finally said it. Honestly, I’m baffled as to how this argument is still being used against the Mandarin; sure, his initial DESIGN may be viewed as racist today (although I doubt it was intentional, given Heck also drew plenty of non-villainous asian characters that weren’t exaggerated like his Mandy was), but his PERSONALITY has always been far from stereotypical. Indeed, I’d argue 60s Mandarin was one of the most non-racist asian villains of the time (given he was one of the first to not be a yellow-skinned monster who wanted to spread communism and destroy ‘the White culture,’ but was a character independent of the Chinese government, with a unique ideology of his own), and his character has only improved with newer writers. Besides, like you said, that early design was replaced DECADES ago, so for people to bring up a specific look for the character that hasn’t been used for the vast majority of his publication history, as evidence that the entire character is racist, is frankly grasping at straws.

I think another reason for why some people view his character as stereotypical, is because they find the whole idea of a mystical-type villain from the East with certain features (such as feudal robes, long fingernails, long facial hair, etc) inherently offensive. The problem with this argument is simply that such a trope isn’t racist; to have a villain who embraces the specific customs of an ancient culture, to the point of presenting themselves in accordance with that culture, is not inherently racist, because it doesn’t automatically imply that every one member of that culture (or more specifically, a member of a race commonly associated with that culture) is evil, just that one specific individual happens to admire traits from that culture, whilst also being evil. Granted, if the character were to be specifically depicted as a representation of a people, a symbol of their ‘evil’ in the bigoted view of the writer, then yes, that character would be disgustingly prejudiced, but Mandarin has NEVER been an example of that at all; in-universe, he’s always been hated and feared in China, in the same way he is in the rest of the world. Indeed, numerous battles between Iron Man and Mandarin have stemmed from the Chinese government enlisting Shellhead’s aid to combat the supervillain, because they view Mandarin as a threat to their people. Besides, even if such a trope were all it took for Mandarin to be a racist caricature, then surely villains such as Ra’s al Ghul and David Lo Pan are also offensive, given they have similar inspiration. And yet, for whatever reason, those characters don’t suffer the same scrutiny that Mandarin does, at least to my knowledge.

@countdeath25: Thanks for being one of the few people who can use their brain and comprehend logic when it comes to comic book discussions.

Thank you and likewise, I’ll certainly be using this page as a reference next time I see the “Mandarin is a racist caricature” argument being used unironically.

Besides, even if such a trope were all it took for Mandarin to be a racist caricature, then surely villains such as Ra’s al Ghul and David Lo Pan are also offensive, given they have similar inspiration. And yet, for whatever reason, those characters don’t suffer the same scrutiny that Mandarin does, at least to my knowledge.

The way Ra's Al Ghul gets a pass has always especially irritated me, because he is waaaaayyyyyy closer to Fu Manchu than Mandarin has ever been. First off, Fu Manchu is described as looking like a cross between Shakespeare and the Devil. Look at Ra's Al Ghul:

He straight up looks like Shakespeare blended with the Devil.

Whereas the Mandarin looks more like an athlete, sometimes with hints, or more than hints, of acromegaly. The result is that he sometimes looks handsome in the manner of barbarian characters like Conan, and sometimes looks ugly in the sense that some wrestlers look ugly, in sense of having either acromegaly, or being genetically inclined in the direction of acromegaly despite not technically suffering from it. You know what he never looks like? An evil Shakespeare. That's Fu Manchu, and that's Ra's Al Ghul.

And, of course, beyond appearance is that both Ra's and Fu Manchu have the evil daughter, and their schemes are more about sneaky assassinations than about war.

Whereas the Mandarin wages war very openly, essentially being the Ares to Stark's Athena. It's all giant robot dragons and mercenary armies and missiles full of extremis with him, not a knife in the back the way it is with Ra's and Fu Manchu.