Mandarin has always had Jedi mind tricks (one of his rings gives him minor mind control powers), its just been woefully underused until now. If you look back at issue 22 you can see the same glazed look over Kooning's eyes as he says he'll take care of stark as you see on Maya at the end of 23. It's not as blatant a use as when he turned Paragon's viewpoint around, but you can still tell. I guess having his hands on someone's head allows better use of the mind control or something... and makes the target's eyes turn red...
Oh of course he's always had mindbending powers, courtesy of that ol' left ring finger mental intensifier (perhaps also facilitated by his martial arts mastery of qi?), but I think I'm on the same page as most everyone else with finding the use of them here relatively subtle compared to most comic book hypnosis. I wonder if he's been taking lessons from Brother Justin Crowe?
Speaking of Knauf's Carnivale (and if you think the plot is a while unfolding in I.M you should git yourself over to that beautifully textured show!) Tony's looking as scruffy as Jack Hawkins by the end of #23...but then he has been wearing the armour for a while and I wonder if he's had time to have a wash?
Daniel Knauf has always had an interest in Orientalism, by the way, especially in the martial arts area, witness his telemovie script "Cannan's Way" (based on Zatoichi) aka "Blind Justice" (Not the television series, by the way) so I reckon he's got a reasonable knowledge base to tackle the Mandy's character.
Incidentally, the word "Mandarin" is actually a 16th Century Portugese one, coined with a good deal of wobbly etymology and mistaken linguistics (a fun feature of Occidental-Oriental relations!) after they interacted with Imperial court officials. Apparently the small oranges are named for the colour of some Chinese court robes, though that later usage comes from the 19th century. By the way, although most everyone in the West calls the official Chinese language Mandarin it is of course, actually "Putonghua."
I still can't get over the spinal bling!
Now if Sauron had done something like that, or indeed simply incorporated the One Ring into the mail elements of his armour, instead of sticking the darned thing out there to be lopped off, he'd be Ruler of Middle Earth....
Now, where's Ultimo and a certain dragon.....?
