After a false start in Iron Man 3, The Mandarin is finally coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In that first appearance, Ben Kingsley played Mandarin, but then revealed in the big twist that he was a fake, an actor hired to pretend to be Mandarin for A.I.M. Now, the real Mandarin is coming as Shang-Chi's father.
With Shang-Chi is the arrival of the Ten Rings. This is both an organization that Mandarin runs, but it also signifies the Mandarin's weapon of choice. He wears them on his arms in the trailer, but in the comics, they are one of Marvel's most powerful weapons. They also have a lot of distinctions that might be very different from the movie.
Origin Involved Crashed Spaceship
Mandarin became a criminal after his mother died due to a drug overdose and he killed her dealer. However, when the communist revolution started, Mandarin went on the run as a fugitive and ended up hiding in the wreckage of an alien space shift. Mandarin ended up finishing off the alien in the ship and stole ten small cylinders in the ship's engine, and those ended up as the Ten Rings when Mandarin put them on his fingers.
Connection to Fin Fang Foom
The alien that Mandarin killed on the space shift was Axonn-Karr, a Makluan explorer from the planet Maklu-4. The alien told Mandarin not to touch the cylinders but he ignore him and killed the alien before taking the rings for himself. The Makluan is a cosmic race that some call the Space Dragons, and it was the same race that Fing Fang Foom was a member of. With Fing Fang Foom possibly appearing in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, one wonder if the dragon will play a role with the iconic rings.
Powered By Dead Alien Warriors Spirits
Each of the ten cylinders that became the Ten Rings were Makluan technology and each of them contained the soul of a long-dead legendary alien warrior. Each of the legendary alien warriors have a limited AI. The AI has always tried to get the wearer to find a way to grant them sentience and bring them back to power. Mandarin eventually built powerful robots that could be the rings new vessels, but Iron Man eventually stopped him.
Science Vs. Magic
The biggest conflict with the Ten Rings concerned the difference between Iron Man and Mandarin. Tony Stark was a man of science who always discounted magic. However, Mandarin uses his rings as a form of magic, although as alien technology, is a form of magical science.
This will not play out in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. In this movie, it is all about the Asian influence and has taken away the magic vs. science that overlaid the Iron Man vs. Mandarin battles.
Left Hand Rings Powers
There are ten rings, one on each finger; each of the rings have different powers. The five rings on the left hand has the following powersThe left thumb ring allows Mandarin to manipulate electromagnetic energy. The left index finger ring shoots flame. The left ring finger amplifies Mandarin's psionic energies, including mental illusions and mental paralysis. The left middle finger projects electrical energy. The left little finger shoots out cold and ice.
Right Hand Rings Powers
The five rings on the right hand are as follows. The right thumb ring allows Mandarin to manipulate atomic and molecular matter, including the ability to transform the air into poison gas. The right index finger generates force blasts and sonic beams. The right middle finger allows Mandarin to create a high-speed vortex.
The right ring finger has the disintegration ring. Finally, the right little finger has the Black Light Ring, which allows Mandarin to use Darkforce to create full darkness.
Mandarin Alone Can Summon Ten Rings
Mandarin used the rings for so long that the spirits in each of them connected to his brain. The spirits made him believe that he needed to bring them back from the dead, and eventually he tried. By this time, Mandarin had learned how to masterfully use the rings and made them respond to his personal mental commands. Eventually, only Mandarin could control the rings, and no one else could make use of them. He could also summon them from long distances to return to him.
Ten people took the rings after Mandarin's death
Several hosts ended up taking on the roles of these alien spirits. The most famous of these include Thor: The Dark World villain Malekith the Accursed (Spectral) and Fantastic Four villain Mole Man (Daimonic). Malekith wanted to find the other nine rings and take the full power, but Iron Man was able to stop him. Eventually, Iron Man created a Master Ring that allowed him to retrieve all the other rings, to get the power back.
Rings Can Warp Weaker Minds
Due to the fact that the Ten Rings have the spirits of powerful alien warriors from the past powering them, they are too much for normal people. Mandarin wore them and was powerful enough to master the rings. However, even someone as powerful as Mandarin eventually found them influencing him to follow their influence. However, when a person with a weak will wears the rings, it warps the mind of all but the strongest people as they are always trying to become sentient.
Shang-Chi Makes The Rings Into Bracelets
As mentioned, The Mandarin wears the Ten Rings on his fingers, small cylinder devices found inside a spacecraft. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has clearly changed the form of these rings. As the trailer showed, Mandarin wears the Ten Rings on his arms as bracelets and it looks like they are combining to build powers for Mandarin. It seems very different to have these not as rings, especially if they don't have separate unique powers. Marvel often changes things when it brings comic weapons to the big screen, and this might be a case of that.