The 24th springtime Motor City Comic Con is currently taking place at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, MI this weekend, May 17-19.

This year’s show saw the usual mix of media celebrities including familiar names such as The Incredible Hulk’s Lou Ferrigno and Star Trek’s Walter Koenig, but also newer faces such as The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus. Former Walking Dead co-star Jon Bernthal was also scheduled but canceled days before the show opened.

David Lloyd had a busy Friday at MCCC.

The show continued to see an expansion of comic guests, a trend continuing from last year, including veteran artist Mark McKenna, making his first-ever MCCC appearance. Fellow artist Tom Raney made his first show appearance in over a decade, and artist Jim Calafiore set up for his second consecutive year. They were joined by past industry regulars such as Billy Tucci, Brian Pulido, and Mark Sparacio.

Most notably, comics legend Stan Lee is the show’s special guest, appearing at the show on Saturday only, but also appeared Friday night at a special party at the nearby Crowne Plaza Hotel held for VIP ticket holders.

Parker Stevenson was cool enough to take some time and talk about his first MCCC.

Convention organizer Michael Goldman reported that the show’s ticket pre-sales had shattered past years’ ticket sales, and were roughly quadruple of the show’s prior year. While this couldn’t be independently confirmed, lengthy lines of attendees waiting to enter the show on its opening day Friday, were estimated to be a few hundred in number, many more than on the show’s first day last year, bearing out claims of much higher advance sales.

The number of exhibitors also increased, with an additional row of retailers added to the show’s floor plan this year. Creators set up in Artists’ Alley in the rear half of the convention floor reported mixed results on sales of prints and original art; while artists like McKenna and Calafiore reported strong sales on the show’s traditionally weak opening day, other artists further back did not report the same good fortune. Along the rear wall of the exhibit hall, however, artists like Tucci, George Pérez, and David Lloyd had consistently strong traffic.

Artist Simon Bisley shows a defenseless coaster who’s boss in this bar.

The wider aisles housing the media guests tend to make attendee traffic appear to be much less than it often is. Superman’s Margot Kidder had a small crowd around her table throughout the afternoon, but Starship Troopers’ Dina Meyer had several slow periods. First-time guest Parker Stevenson (The Hardy Boys) reported periods of both steady crowds and slowdowns, but did well, and spoke highly of the show’s organizers and the polite fans he met on the show’s opening day.

All creators and retailers asked anticipated a strong Saturday, likely to be fueled in part at least by Stan Lee’s appearance that day. More to come later.

JJ

Day 2 – Saturday Update

Not long after the convention opened on Saturday, there were indications that the organizers’ claims of advance presales indeed were far more than those in the show’s previous years. And while such vast increases are definitely signs of success for this year’s show, Motor City Comic Con appeared to be victimized by its own success as much as it benefited from it.

The line to enter extended around the building, as others circle the lot in search of parking.

Attendees driving to the show were faced with traffic jams that extended to all major roads surrounding the Suburban Collection Showplace and snarled traffic for miles. Upon arriving, many of these attendees discovered that the venue’s parking lot had filled up quickly and were left to scramble for parking elsewhere, filling up nearby vacant lots and parking lots of adjacent businesses. Once these unsanctioned options were filled, later arrivals were forced to park a mile or more away and walk the rest of the way to the convention center.

The challenge unfortunately didn’t end there, as those finally arriving at the convention discovered lines extending around the back of the convention center and reported wait times of two hours or more to enter. This did not apply to just those looking to purchase tickets, but also those who had purchased advance tickets believing that this would alleviate any kind of extended wait times.

And once inside, the massive crowds congested most aisles and making several of them nearly impassable. Lines for restrooms, concessions, and the lobby ATM resulted in reported wait times of over a half hour, with some concession stands running out of basics such as soda pop and pretzels with many frustrated patrons only discovering this when they reached the front of the line.

Record crowds jammed nearly every aisle of the exhibit hall.

According to organizer Michael Goldman, the overcrowding was largely attributed to the draw of The Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus and Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, whose lines each numbered several hundred attendees at any given time during the day. Goldman stated that he expected this problem to be alleviated next year, when the show expands to additional halls within the exhibit center.

Of course, this was of no benefit to current ticketholders already inconvenienced by the overcrowding problem. Twitter was abuzz with complaints of exasperated fans standing in seemingly endless lines outside with no shade or water, those who had to endure additional lines once inside for autographs, and fans who simply gave up on the congested traffic and turned around to head back home. Local media also caught on to the problem and reported it on their websites.

The convention did stay open nearly an additional hour to accommodate fans caught up in the long lines. Both Reedus and Lee reportedly stayed beyond their appointed signing times to ensure that every fan who had waited got the autograph or picture they had paid for. And some Artists’ Alley exhibitors reported further sales from the extension of the show’s hours. These exhibitors largely reported strong sales for the day, indicating that whatever frustrations endured did not deter fans from spending their money.

Such extreme travel and crowding conditions are not expected for the show’s final day on Sunday, due to the traditionally smaller crowds on the final day as well as Lee only appearing on Saturday. Amidst criticisms of poor organization and deliberate overselling, show organizers scrambled to make good on their commitment to the day’s paid attendees and were doing their best to ensure that there would not be a recurrence the following day.

Final wrap-up tomorrow.

JJ

Day 3 – Sunday Update

Sketch by David Lloyd

Much to the relief of fans returning to Motor City Comic Con the day after record crowds, lengthy lines, and traffic jams for miles around Suburban Collection Showplace, there were no such problems on the shows final day. Show organizers, too, undoubtedly, breathed a sigh of relief, as fans driving in were able to readily enter the parking lot and get in line to purchase tickets or enter the show if they already had them. While there was a line outside the convention center to purchase tickets, its length was not unlike those typically seen in past years.

Colin Baker stretches his legs during a slow period on Sunday.

Retailers and Artists’ Alley exhibitors reported the typical mixed reviews for the show’s final day; many retailers benefitted from deeper discounts on comics and trade paperbacks, and many artists reported the strong sales from the show’s previous day carrying into Sunday. Omega Paradox creator Mark Sparacio was especially pleased with his business over the entire weekend, selling prints and colored sketches. Artist David Lloyd had frequent breaks in traffic but reported strong sales of his digital effort, Aces Weekly, where he provided a free sketch to any fan making a purchase.

Norman Reedus was busy all day. All weekend, for that matter.

While Stan Lee’s Saturday appearance was over, actor Norman Reedus continued to draw large numbers of fans seeking pictures and autographs. Other media guests had the normal Sunday slowdowns, and many appeared to skip the day entirely.

While the show undoubtedly will report all-time record attendance, it will be done amidst criticisms of overselling and failing to anticipate the resulting large crowds. Despite the widely reported problems on Saturday, Sunday by all outward appearances went smoothly and fans asked their opinion of the show overall reported enjoying the event.

The 25^th springtime Motor City Comic Con has already been scheduled for the same weekend and same venue next year, on May 16 – 18, 2014.

JJ

Thor mini book

Captain America mini book

These tiny comic books were published by Marvel Comics in 1966 and were sold in gumball machines.  They were announced by Stan Lee in the Marvel Bullpen Bulletin for the July and August 1966 issues, if you want to go back and check for your self.  In the first announcement, Stan said there would be over ten million, that’s right, 10,000,000, of this tiny comics!  So they are still out there to be found and collected, even almost fifty years later!

Here’s what the six Marvel mini books look like:

All six of the Marvel mini books

As you can see, the six books were; The Amazing Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, The Mighty Thor, Sgt. Nick Fury, Millie the Model and Captain America.

The six books were each printed in six different colors, so if you choose to, you’d have to have thirty-six books to complete the total collection, that’s six books, in each of the six different colors!  Another fun fact is that these mini books are listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the smallest comics ever created!

And just because I’m such a geek/nerd, here’s a picture of the backs of the mini books, as well:

1966 Marvel mini book back covers

I don’t have a picture of the books in a gumball machine, but I do have a picture of the header card that would have been displayed on the gumball machine.

1966 Marvel mini book header

Another cool fact, most people are not aware of, is that the Spider-Man mini book features the very first inter-company Marvel DC Comics cross-over!  Yep, a certain Superguy makes a cameo guest appearance in Spidey’s mini book!

Of the mini books, the Spider-Man book is the most sought after, maybe for the above cross-over and the Millie the Model mini book is likely the most rare and hardest to find.  Most young comic book fans in 1966 were boys, and I’m sure that they were none to happy to get a Millie the Model mini book in their gumball and were likely to toss it aside and not save it for posterity!

And before I leave you, I’ll even show you the contents of the Spider-Man mini book.  The issue retells Spidey’s origin and explains his powers.  Then Spidey foils a robbery, only to have the loot confiscated by that certain Superguy from DC Comics!  Wow, Spider-Man never could catch a break back in the sixties!

1966 Spider-Man mini book contents

Well, that’s all for this edition of Greg Turner‘s Fabulous Finds!  I hope you enjoyed and will check back next week for a new RETRO REVIEW and come back in two weeks for another Fabulous Find.  Till then … be seeing you …

Well, it was the comics!  For 61 issues from cover dates July, 1967 to March, 1979, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott, Sulu, Uhura, Chekov, Rand and Chapel were there in the funny pages for you to read, brought to you from the folks at Gold Key.

The stories were simple (and usually featured things not seen in the TV show), and sometimes characters didn’t even look like their familiar versions (it wasn’t as though the comic creators could just hop on the internet to find reference….).

Even though Gold Key had access to all the characters, Uhura, Chekov, Rand and Chapel weren’t used much, and they only used Harry Mudd and Zefram Cochrane from the guest stars (once each, #49 for Cochrane, and #61 for Mudd), though they had McCoy’s daughter in a few issues (which the TV show was going to do, but never got around to), and had issues with Klingons, Romulans and the Guardian of Forever.  Though, a few comics looked like they belonged more to Irwin Allen’s Lost In Space than to Gene Rodenberry’s Star Trek…

Still, some of the stories were good, and they were all preserved in the Star Trek: The Key Collection, seven volumes that reprinted the new stories from Star Trek #1-61 (#29, 35, 37 and 45 were reprints!).  Len Wein wrote issues #9-16, George Kashdan and Arnold Drake alternated issues between #17 through 61, and interior art was by Nevio Zaccara (#1 & 2), and Alberto Giolitti (#3-27 and 30-37) and Alden McWilliams (#38-61), and painted covers by George Wilson.

These issues are in interesting look at our future…from the past!  Then, Star Trek went on…to Marvel Comics!

Star Trek: the Key Collection Volume 1 – issues 1-8 by Dick Wood, Nevio Zeccara, and Alberto Giolitti

Star Trek: the Key Collection Volume 2 – issues 9-17 by Len Wein, Arnold Drake and Alberto Giolitti

Star Trek: the Key Collection Volume 3 – issues 18-25 by Arnold Drake, John David Warner, Gerry Boudreau and Alberto Giolitti

Star Trek: the Key Collection Volume 4 – issues 26-33 by John David Warner, George Kashdan, Allan Moniz, Arnold Drake and Albert Giolitti

Star Trek: the Key Collection Volume 5 – issues 34, 36, 38-43 by Arnold Drake and Albert Giolitti and Alden McWilliams

Star Trek: the Key Collection Volume 6 – issues 44, 46-52 by Arnold Drake, George Kashdan, Doug Drexler and Alden McWilliams

Star Trek: the Key Collection Volume 7 – issues 53-61 by George Kashdan, Arnold Drake, John Warner  and Alden McWilliams

And so, the day finally came to retire the store’s mascot boat, our own S.S. Minnow, and send it to that marina in the sky where the hull never leaks and the barnacles sing bawdy sailor tunes.

Here’s what a 1949 Chris Craft Cruiser looks like getting torn down in a parking lot in 2013:

But, wait!  There is more to this story.

At 1:37 in the above video, Scott notices movement in the pile of rubble and finds a 4 week old kitten that we’re calling “Lucky!”  We took him to a vet to check him out, and he checks out a-ok.  Lucky is very affectionate and playful, and we’re currently in search of a permanent home for him.  One day, we’ll show him that video, so he knows just how amazingly fortunate he is!

The Monster Squad is a comedy/horror film written by Shane Black (the guy that co-wrote and directed the underwhelming Iron Man 3) and Fred Dekker. It centers on a group of kids that are pretty much obsessed with monsters. They even have their own monster club which meets in a bad ass tree house! Sean and his friends are given the journal of famed monster hunter Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, and with a little help find out from reading it that some spooky, end of the world type stuff will be going down very soon. Naturally, the kids decide to take matters into their own hands and take on some classic movie monsters. How can this movie not be great?

The Monster Squad is insanely fun from beginning to end. I was thrilled to find it just as awesome as an adult as I did when I was a kid renting the VHS from my local video store (remember when there were video stores that weren’t Blockbuster or Family Video!?) and watching it relentlessly. This is the ultimate kid adventure movie for me. Just imagine how awesome it would be if you and your band of misfit friends got to save the world from Dracula and his monster pals. Your life would only go downhill from there. I wanted to do that so bad that I enlisted my little brother and younger cousins into my own version of The Monster Squad. We had hand drawn ID cards and everything!

The Monster Squad isn’t great just because of nostalgia. It’s well written, the acting is good, the characters are great, the set design is perfect and the monsters look FANTASTIC. There are quite a few folks out there that believe the Duncan Regehr version of Dracula is the best to date. I think if I were drawn into a debate on the matter I would find it hard to argue against that claim. The true gem, however, is the redesign of the Gill-Man. While the Gill-Man from Creature from the Black Lagoon is iconic and will always be the version people think of first, the version seen in The Monster Squad is downright terrifying.

The Monster Squad was a financial bomb. It had an estimated $12,000,000 budget and brought in less than $4,000,000 at the box office. It did hit cult status once it came to video and has been a favorite amongst horror fans ever since. Just to drive home how much I love this movie, I’m going to share a true story with you. In the infancy of my current relationship we watched The Monster Squad because she hadn’t seen it. She wasn’t a fan and I contemplated breaking up with her. So, there you have it. The Monster Squad is awesome.

Keep it creepy,

Mike

P.S. It’s better than The Goonies.

Fantastic Four Annual # 3, Summer 1965

It also boldly proclaimed that it contained “72 Big Pages”, but only 23 of them were new material.  But as one of the busiest covers of all time shouts, those 23 original pages featured the wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm!  The rest of the book featured reprint material from Fantastic Four # 6 and # 11.

The cover is drawn by the King of Comics, Jack Kirby, with inks provided by, Mike Esposito. And as the cover also indicates, this issue features just about everyone in the Marvel Universe, though not the Sub-Mariner or the Hulk, even though they were drawn by Jack on the cover!  See for yourself, they both appear on the left side of said cover

The story itself, entitled; “Bedlam At The Baxter Building!” is written by Stan “The Man” Lee,  is pencilled by Jack “King” Kirby and inked by Vince Colletta.  And it opens with the villainous Doctor Doom reading a copy of the Daily Press newspaper.  I guess that the Daily Bugle didn’t offer home delivery in Latveria!  And the headline reads; “Today’s The Day: Wedding Bells For Reed And Sue!”  I wonder why a paper published in Latveria would dare to run such a headline and risk Von Doom’s wrath?  But it did!

Doom admits that Reed Richards is the only man in the world to ever defeat him and vows to get revenge, on this day when he’ll least expect it!  His plan, in his own words, “must be foolproof, irresistible and all-powerful!”  So he uses a handy, emotion charger machine, to fan the flames of hatred in the hearts of every evil menace and has these emotionally charged villains, attack the Fantastic Four as the wedding draws near!  First the Puppet Master attempts to sneak in a puppet controlled wedding guest, but Nick Fury and the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. foil the plot before the guest even enters the Baxter Buliding.  Next up is the Mole Man and his moloids!  They burrow into the building from below, but the Thing and the X-Men.

Next up it’s the Red Ghost and his super-apes.  They make it to the dressing room of the bride, but are defeated by Reed & Johnny Storm, with the assistance of Doctor Strange!  Daredevil prevents a group of Hydra agents from driving a “vortex bomb” into the Baxter Building.  Captain America, with a little help from Hawkeye and Spider-Man, defeats Cobra, Mister Hyde, the Executioner and the Enchantress!  Thor takes on the Super-Skrull and the X-Men and all of the Marvel heroes face off against Electro, the Manderin, the Black Knight, the Unicorn, the Melter, the Beetle, the Thinker and his amazing android.  Quicksilver defeats the Human top and then Attuma and his Legions appear in the harbor, about to attack.

But remember that “vortex bomb” that Daredevil stopped from getting delivered to the Baxter Building?  Well, he’s driven it to the harbor, where he sends it crashing into the Hudson Bay, so the city won’t be harmed.  And as luck would have it, the vortex that is created in the water draws off Attuma and his Legions!

The Watcher appears and brings Reed to his home on the moon, where he allows Reed to remove one and only one item, which will enable him to defeat the plethora of baddies ruining the wedding!  Reed chooses wisely and is returned to the Baxter Building by the Watcher.  He analyzes the gizmo and determines that it is a “time displacer”, which is capable of transporting living beings back to the immediate past!  He uses the gizmo and all of the villains are transported back in time before they attacked, and as a plus, it leaves them with no memory of what has happened between now and back then!

Reed also deduces that only one man, Doctor Victor Von Doom, could have been responsible for this attack.  And frankly the weakest part of this resolution, is that the Watcher’s machice has also caused the one responsible to lose his memory, as well.  Rather far fetched, if you ask me!

But it does enable the wedding to continue and Reed and Sue are married, and that only leaves Stan Lee and Jack Kirby trying to get into the wedding, but they are turned away by Nick Fury & his S.H.I.E.L.D. agents; Dum Dum Dugan and Gabe Jones, due to having no invitations.  And the story ends with Stan and Jack walking away in their wedding finery!

All in all, a pretty wonderful issue, even for young boys that would normally not want to read a comic book about a wedding!  And as I mentioned earlier, even the the Sub-Mariner and the Hulk, do not appear in the story, other than a token appearance on the cover, their whereabouts are accounted for a caption, explaining why they couldn’t attend.  But considering that Prince Namor was in love with Susan, I find it highly unlikely that he would have attended her wedding to Reed anyway!  And is there a place at any wedding for the Hulk?  Now that would be just asking for trouble!

This issue, as is all of the early Marvel annuals, is well worth adding to your collection!  I’ll leave you with this early FF pin uo by the great Jack Kirby!

They’ve made the New 52 version of Billy Batson their cornerstone figure for 2013…

…this product will be available for pre-order at MattyCollector.com on June 4, 2013, to be picked up at San Diego Comic-Con (details to come). It will also be available for purchase at the show, then at MattyCollector.com on August 5, 2013.

Nice…seems to be no “at con only” piece with it, but it is a little sad, as was hoping the Club Infinite Earths would have kept New 52 free..or at least part of the DC Unlimited line.

Still, are there any other SDCC exclusives you are excited about, Mattel or otherwise?

Maybe something like the Batman Classic TV Series Batman Batusi Batman?  The Catwoman Barbie Doll?  The DC Man of Steel Movie Masters Superman vs. General Zod Movie Pack?

Grave Encounters is set up to be the raw footage of what was supposed to be the sixth episode of a paranormal investigation show of the same name. The crew lock themselves in an abandoned psychiatric hospital overnight in an attempt to make contact with some spirits. Things don’t go as planned, which is to be expected.

I dug this movie. It wasn’t the greatest I had ever seen but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. Most ghost movies come off as really cheesy to me. I attribute this mostly to the showing of the ghosts. They always feel the need to heavily blacken the eyes and add crazy effects to them, which I believe is completely unnecessary nowadays. It’s almost like filmmakers have to sign a contract saying they’ll portray ghosts in that manner. I’m a firm believer in “less is more” when it comes to ghost movies. That being said, this film does the above but I was strangely ok with it. The fact that they didn’t over use it is what made it ok.

They spend just the right amount of time building the atmosphere and getting you invested in the story. One thing that I really dug was that they didn’t try to sway you either way on ANY of the main characters in the beginning. Usually there’s a character you either love or despise, but not in Grave Encounters. I was pretty neutral on all of them until the proverbial cookie began to crumble. When things started getting intense it was cool to see how the different characters reacted to the events as they unfolded. When it was all said and done Grave Encounters felt very familiar, but I was ok with it. It was fun and didn’t take itself too seriously, which is what this movie needed to do in order to succeed.

I enjoyed Grave Encounters enough to check out the sequel, Grave Encounters 2, which sounded like it had a decent story. The thing that intrigued me about Grave Encounters 2 was that it was a direct sequel. Some people that saw the movie decide to investigate whether it was real or not, so they head to the hospital to check it out. It sounded good at the time, much like every bad idea I ever had.

I was not a fan of this movie by any stretch of the imagination. I hated the characters as soon as I saw them. Just looking at the main dude irked the hell out of me. The main point of the story was ruined by unnecessary character development and I was finding it hard to keep watching. There is a major revelation after they get to the hospital that was so stupid that I was now in “just how bad will this get” mode. The answer: really, really bad. This is as much effort as I’m going to put into talking about this one. My recommendation is to treat Grave Encounters 2 like The Godfather, Part III. Pretend like it doesn’t exist.

Keep it creepy,

Mike

Voices of Marvel Cover – 1965

And the reverse:

Voices of Marvel back

The record, or flexidisc, is single sided and features Stan Lee and Flo Steinberg (Stan’s secretary and girl Friday)  speaking to various Marvel Comic book company personnel, like Jack Kirby, Don Heck, Wally Wood, Artie Simek, etc.  Steve Ditko is mentioned, but his voice does not appear on the record!  There is no real purpose to the record, but back in 1965, where else were you going to get to hear Stan and the Marvel bullpen speak, unless you lived in New York City and were lucky enough to make your way into Marvel’s offices!

As I said earlier, this disc was part of the first membership kit to the Merry Marvel Marching Society. The 1965 membership kit contained the following items; an official membership welcome letter, a white membership card, an official membership scratch pad, ten orange stickers, printed with “The M.M.M.S. Wants You!”, an official membership pinback, reading; “I Belong to the Merry Marvel Marching Society” and the 33 1/3 one-sided flexible record, entitled; “The Voices of Marvel”.  Here’s a picture of the complete kit:

1965 M.M.M.S. membership kit

Sorry, I was not able to find a clearer picture of the contents.  But here are a couple of close-ups:

1965 M.M.M.S. pinba

1965 M.M.M.S. sticker

And you received all of this for one dollar!  That’s correct, for one measly buck you got all of the items I listed above!  Pretty cool and quite a value for your dollar!  I even understand that later on, the membership kit was discounted to 89 cents!  Can you imagine?

Today, I’m sure you would be looking at, at least $ 19.95 and maybe more!

Anyway, I wish I was savvy enough to have ordered this back in the day, but then again, a buck back then would have bought eight comic books at 12 cents a piece!  So if the question was, can I afford to buy eight comic books, or can I afford to buy the M.M.M.S. membership kit, I know I chose to buy the comics, with my hard earned allowance money, rather than splurging on the cool Merry Marvel Marching Society membership kit!

Oh, one more thing;  If you’re not as lucky as I, to own this collectible, you can still here Stan and company, via the modern technological wonders of YouTube:

In that issue, Iron Man first faced the many ringed scientist, feared by even the Chinese Communists!  The U.S. government sends Iron Man to face him, and the armored Avenger barely escaped with his life!

Still, Iron Man comes to face the Mandarin again, a few more times in Tales of Suspense, (and Mandarin even starts recruiting, outfitting the Swordsman to attack the Avengers, as well as joining with all the villains of the time to attack Reed Richards and Sue Storm’s wedding in Fantastic Four Annual #3…and even faced the Hulk a few times, starting with Incredible Hulk #107, as well as the Inhumans in Amazing Adventures #3 & 4!).

Still, the Mandarin mostly faced Iron Man, and soon realized that his flowing robes might not be best for facing the armored Avenger (and his friends)…and changed costume (a few times actually…but hey, Iron Man had more than one set of armor, so why not a few looks for the Mandarin!).

Sadly, that new look from Iron Man #99 didn’t last long…

….and the Mandarin and his ten rings disappeared for a while.

Still, you can’t keep a good bad guy down, and the Mandarin returned…with a new body, and a new look…and faced a new man under the armor!  While the Mandarin’s return was appreciated (except by Tony Stark and James Rhodes), his choice to fight nearly naked…seems awfully strange…

Thankfully, the next time the Mandarin and his rings returned, he was dressed a little better for the occasion!

The Mandarin also changed a little, not being as much of a warlord, and became more of a businessman…and even worked with the Wizard, Kingpin, Red Skull, Magneto and Dr. Doom against the entirety of the Avengers (and branched off himself at this time to face Psylocke and Wolverine in the Uncanny X-Men!).

Sadly, this look didn’t stay, and Mandarin returned…with a costume much more like his Iron Man 3 movie look (or even just a business suit…).

Matt Fraction even gave Mandarin’s origin a little tweaking in the Invincible Iron Man Annual #1, and Iron Man and the Mandarin’s first battle was given a longer look in Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin (though why a six issue mini-series about a character didn’t really have that character on the cover escapes me!  Guess that’s just a testament of how unappealing Mandarin costumes have been over the years….).

Still, it’s not his costume that is remembered, it is the rings…so, here’s a guide to all ten of them from the matter re-arranger, the impact beam, the vortex beam, the disintegration ring, the black light, the white light, the electro-blast, the flame blast, the mento-intensifier and the ice blast!  What the Mandarin lacks in fashion sense, he more than makes up with his alien ring bling!