User:Mikeross22/Sandbox/Ten Rings

The Ten Rings is a fictional terrorist network in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Marvel Cinematic Universe tie-in comics. First introduced in the 2008 Iron Man film, the Ten Rings are led by The Mandarin; the organization itself spans the globe, bringing in people from different backgrounds, nations, and cultures.

The Ten Rings abducts Tony Stark in Iron Man. The organization's name and iconography are later appropriated by Aldrich Killian, who falsely claims that his actor Trevor Slattery is The Mandarin, and places blame on the group for his own illegal activities. Later, in the Marvel One-Shot All Hail the King, it is revealed that the Ten Rings are still active (although in hiding) and that the true Mandarin is their leader.

The Ten Rings derive their name from the ten rings which the Mandarin wears on the fingers of both hands. Alien artifacts which contain the souls of long-dead cosmic warriors trapped in a phantasmal state, the rings are the Mandarin's principal personal weapons. The Ten Rings' symbol is a circle of ten interlocking rings (with various symbols inside each one), surrounding a pair of crossed scimitars.

Fictional history
The Ten Rings first appear in the 2008 film Iron Man. During a business trip to Afghanistan to demonstrate Stark Industries' new weapon, Tony Stark is kidnapped by the Ten Rings, who at first appear to be an Islamic militant group. Their commander, Abu Bakar, offers Tony freedom in exchange for building a missile for the group. Later, it is revealed that Raza is the true leader. Tony and fellow captive Yinsen agree Raza will not keep his word. Instead, they secretly build a powered suit of armor in the months following his capture. Tony uses the armor to defeat several terrorists, destroy their weapons stockpile, and escape from the Ten Rings' caves.

Soon afterwards, it is revealed that Stark weapons, including the Jericho Missile, were recently delivered to the Ten Rings and are being used to attack Yinsen's home village, Gulmira. Abu Bakar leads a group of the insurgents that are killing and trucking people out of the region when Iron Man arrives in his newly constructed Mark III Suit. Iron Man kills many of the Ten Ring members there, but leaves Bakar alive, turning him over to the revenge-minded residents of Gulmira.

Meanwhile, the Ten Rings gather the pieces of Stark's prototype suit and meet with Obadiah Stane, Stark's father's old partner and the company's manager. Stane subdues Raza and has the rest of the group killed, making off with the prototype suit. Stark discovers Stane has been supplying the Ten Rings and hired the organization to kill Stark, but the group reneged.

Approximately six months after the events of Iron Man, a Ten Rings member gives antagonist Ivan Vanko a fake ID and a ticket to the Monaco Grand Prix, enabling Vanko to attack Stark during the race.

Hacker Cordo Gaines, the leader of a group of Ten Rings insurgents acquires a stray shipment of Stark Industries weapons. Gaines is eventually defeated by Iron Man, who successfully destroys the weapons.

Later, Nick Fury plants a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent aboard a Ten Rings-controlled vessel in the Gulf of Aden in an effort to get a live account of Iron Man in action, while Tony Stark is keeping an eye on S.H.I.E.L.D. himself. Phil Coulson monitors the first field operation of a S.H.I.E.L.D. recruit who is tasked with taking down a Ten Rings terrorist cell on American soil, which Coulson later reveals was a set up, a common S.H.I.E.L.D. test for new recruits.

After acquiring many of the parts to assemble a Hammer Industries version of the Jericho Missile, Russian arms dealers refuse to sell the targeting software needed for the launch after realizing the purchasers are fronts for the Ten Rings. Ten Rings member Richard Frampton, an Australian billionaire and owner of Sojourn Enterprises, a transport multinational with a space tourism division that in reality is a cover for Ten Rings activities, hires an assassin to retrieve the targeting software for the missile. The assassin, Sofia, clashes with S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Natasha Romanoff, who is also trying to recover the software (without knowing its real nature). Before battling Sofia, Romanoff changes the target of the missiles to their original launch site, killing Frampton in the subsequent explosion.

Tony Stark is occupied with the construction of Stark Tower in New York, so War Machine (James Rhodes) picks up where Iron Man left off in the fight against the Ten Rings. After 10 months of skirmishes across the world, War Machine is ambushed in Hong Kong by Ten Rings agents with Hammer Technology, including a nuclear-powered tank. Rhodey manages to get the tank out of the city before the Ten Rings detonate its power source, and returns to America in time to find the aftermath of the Battle of New York. Later, Tony reveals to Rhodey his plans for an Iron Legion, and a Ten Rings operative reports to The Mandarin, informing him that they have full scans of the Stark Technology in Rhodey's suit.

Soon afterward, a string of bombings, apparently by the Ten Rings under the leadership of the Mandarin, strike various places around the globe, including Tony Stark's house in Malibu. The film reveals that the terrorist persona of the "Mandarin," played in the movie by drunken British character actor Trevor Slattery, was adopted by Aldrich Killian to mask his illegal activities, who had appropriated the Ten Rings' name for his own schemes. Though Aldrich Killian is killed, the terrorist organization remains active.

The Marvel One-Shot film All Hail the King reveals that Killian was never The Mandarin. Jackson Norriss, a member of the Ten Rings, poses as a documentary filmmaker and meets with Trevor Slattery in prison. Jackson tells Trevor the history of the group, calling the Ten Rings the "rings of our faith," implying that the organization is not only terrorists but a cult, with The Mandarin as a religious figurehead. Jackson also shows Trevor a map of China as one of the possible areas of operation for The Mandarin. Jackson informs Trevor that the real Mandarin is still out there and is unhappy with impostors (like Trevor) acting under the name. Eventually, Jackson reveals his true identity and the real reason for the interview, which is to break Trevor out of prison so he can meet the actual Mandarin.

A member of the Ten Rings is present at the Pym Technologies building when Darren Cross presents the Yellowjacket suit to potential buyers. Working alongside Hydra's Mitchell Carson, the agent draws his gun to execute Hank Pym and is soon engaged in a fight with Ant-Man. The Ten Rings agent is quickly defeated and knocked unconscious, later perishing when the Pym Tech building explodes.

Concept
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige explained that the introduction of the Ten Rings was... ...set up really for the eagle-eye fans. Yinsen, in Iron Man 1, says they call themselves the Ten Rings, and that was our allusion to the ten rings of the Mandarin. In Iron Man 2, in a deleted scene, it is a member of this Ten Rings organization that gives Whiplash the credentials that allow him to infiltrate the Monaco race and come in and cut Tony Stark’s car in half. In this movie again we wanted to explore a little bit more of this terrorist notion of the Ten Rings, which is why you’ll sometimes see the Ten Rings’ flag as seen in Iron Man 1 behind the Mandarin in a couple of his terrorist videos that he puts out around the world. But it all goes to the ten rings of the Mandarin himself.

Inspired by Matt Fraction's Mandarin and the character Mallen, Iron Man 3 director Shane Black specified that Aldrich Killian was his intended Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the Mandarin, as signified by the dragon tattoos on Killian's chest, while Slattery is supposed to portray the idealized image of the terrorist persona as Killian's proxy.

Later events in All Hail the King reveals that Killian was never actually The Mandarin, whose real identity has yet to be revealed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Members

 * The Mandarin — leader
 * Raza — commander
 * Abu Bakar — commander
 * Jackson Norriss — operative
 * Naib — operative
 * Richard Frampton — operative
 * Cordo Gaines — partner
 * Omar — member
 * Ahmed — member

In other media
The Ten Rings are featured in the Iron Man video game, where they also form a relationship with the international crime syndicate the Maggia.