User blog comment:TheOne1000/Mandarin Twist/@comment-1895174-20131028180307/@comment-4652104-20131028184726

@LoveWaffle: your blog was the first thing that came to my mind when I read this, but I couldn't find it. I think it's a superb analysis of the role of the Mandarin in IM3. I actually sent it over to a friendly professor of American literature. So thanks for bringing it up.

I think that you may both be right. Obviously Killian is not simply the comicbook Mandarin. However, he may be considered to be an iteration of the modern-day Mandarin, as Mako stated.

More to the point, I think that just as Killian is an amalgam of various marvel villains (including the modern day Mandarin), so is the Mandarin persona spread over a number of characters in the film (just as is Mallen). The film draws on comicbook characters and remixes their various features to create a number of new, yet familiar, characters.