Obadiah Stane is Alive (And is The Real Mandarin)

You have to give a lot of respect to Iron Man, it kicked off the MCU in 2008 and it’s still an awesome film. And while it started the universe, it also started the tradition of killing off the villains before they really got started. Or did it? There’s a theory that suggests that Obadiah Stane is still alive and is the real Mandarin.

We all know how the twist on who the Mandarin really was went down and while most people felt cheated, I didn’t mind the concept behind one man taking on a pastiche of terrorist tropes to truly make a fearsome enemy. Then there was the backtracking in the Marvel One-Shot All Hail the King that established that there was a real Mandarin out there. Could it be Obediah Stane?

As is the case with a lot of bad guys in a PG film, we don’t get to see the corpse. Sure, he got electrocuted, fell several stories into a giant arc reactor, then found himself in the middle of a giant explosion, but this still is a comic book movie. You never know what changes could have transpired with the huge surge of power and transformed him into something else. With his connection to the Ten Rings, and his general positive reception as a MCU villain, this would be the best option to introduce Iron Man’s greatest villain.