From a mountain stronghold in the heart of the Orient, the Mandarin sends a killer satellite into orbit and aims it at the man he hates most, Anthony Stark. A single beam from one of his rings strikes the satellite's firing switch with pinpoint accuracy, and a deadly ray levels the room Stark was standing in. Convinced Stark is dead, he waits for the obvious sequel. Iron Man will trace the ray, come calling, and be destroyed as well. The Mandarin never fails, or so he tells himself, and his castle is built to prove it. As Iron Man approaches, a beam drags the armored intruder toward the rocks, hypnotic flashes wear him down, and a magnetic pull deposits him in a cell of closing granite walls. When Iron Man escapes through the air vent, the Mandarin simply moves on to the next test. His rings cancel the hero's high-frequency waves, a paralyzer ray locks him in place, and one gesture electrifies every wall. Then he unveils his favorite pastime, karate, splintering an iron bar like a toothpick to make the point.
Mistaking Iron Man's frantic calculations for fear-driven madness, the Mandarin swings anyway, and the blow fails to finish him. His giant robot Koto does the job instead, and the Mandarin ties the vanquished hero to a wheel built to spin a man to death. With a captive audience at last, he tells his story. On a lonely mountain road he found a ship that travels between galaxies, and inside it ten small rings whose gems hold unlimited energy. He studied them until every power was his. Now he means to sell his test missile to every nation, let them exhaust one another, and rule the world once they are spent. He flips the switch and leaves, trusting a wheel to do what Koto, a paralyzer ray, and the world's greatest karate master could not. At the launch site, he accepts the Chinese military's gratitude while privately sneering that they too will grovel at his feet. Then his own missile comes screaming back, the Chinese brand him a traitor and open fire, and the Mandarin is left demanding to know why they are shooting at him. A boulder provided by Iron Man halts his jet car, and neither a melting ring blast nor a gas spray can put Iron Man down. He vows never to underestimate his foe again, then escapes with the Chinese in hot pursuit, powering a flat rock into the sky with his jet ring.