Ho Yinsen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This is a Chinese name; the family name is Yinsen.[1]
| Ho Yinsen | |
 Ho Yinsen. Art by Adi Granov. |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963) |
| Created by | Stan Lee (writer) Larry Lieber (writer) Don Heck (artist) Jack Kirby (collaborator) |
| In story information | |
| Full name | Ho Yinsen |
| Supporting character of | Iron Man |
| Abilities | genius-level intelligence |
Ho Yinsen is a fictional supporting character of the Marvel Comics superhero Iron Man (Tony Stark), who is key to Iron Man's origin story and was a mentor to the younger man.
The character has appeared in nearly all Iron Man continuities, though sometimes with a slightly different name; among the alternate names are Yinsen (with no first name given), Gia-Bao Yinsen, Ho Yen, and Wellington Yinsen.
In the 2008 film, Iron Man, Yinsen is portrayed by actor Shaun Toub.
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[edit] Fictional character history
[edit] Original character history
Ho Yinsen was a pacifistic physicist, engineer, and professor from the fictional country of Timbetpal;[2] while Tony Stark was in college, Stark had greatly admired the older man's work. In his old age, Yinsen is captured in Vietnam by the Communist warlord Wong-Chu before American arms manufacturer and engineer Tony Stark is also captured. Stark had tripped a land mine and been injured with shrapnel that was slowly moving toward his heart. Yinsen builds a magnetic chest plate and affixes it to Stark's chest, thus preventing the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart, thereby saving Stark's life and keeping him alive. Wong-Chu then orders Yinsen and Stark to build weapons for him. Instead, Yinsen helps Stark secretly build the first Iron Man armor, which includes a device for Stark's heart to keep him alive. Yinsen sacrifices his life distracting Wong-Chu in order to buy time for Stark to power up his armor. Stark dons the armor, becoming Iron Man; defeats Wong-Chu, apparently killing him in the explosion of a munitions shed; and frees all of Wong-Chu's prisoners.[3]
Twelve of Wong-Chu's former prisoners were disciples of Yinsen; one of these disciples, Sun-Tao, leads them to establish a quasi-religious cult called the Sons of Yinsen. The Sons of Yinsen develop very advanced technology from notes in Yinsen's journal that he had written before his death; they use this technology to create the apparent utopia of New Timbetpal and to create a separate floating, ambulatory, usually-cloaked city in the sky. It is revealed that Wong-Chu survived the munitions shed explosion and that Yinsen's brain was preserved alive, salvaged by an interdimensional merchant called Doctor Midas. Doctor Midas sold Yinsen's brain in an auction to Wong-Chu. Iron Man helps the Sons of Yinsen defeat Wong-Chu, who is beheaded by one of the Sons of Yinsen, and recover Yinsen's brain.[4]
The Sons of Yinsen attempt to resurrect Ho Yinsen by placing his brain inside a sentient Iron Man armor, which, unknown to them, is actually under Ultron's control. Falsely believing Ultron to be a resurrected Ho Yinsen, the Sons of Yinsen follow his directives toward planning for a war; only Sun-Tao refuses to obey, for which he is displaced as leader of the Sons of Yinsen by a man named Tyger Minn. Ultron leads the Sons of Yinsen to reveal themselves to the public and establish the Church of Yinsen. Sun-Tao recovers Yinsen's brain, and then Iron Man, Sun-Tao, and Jocasta work together to defeat Ultron and the Sons of Yinsen and free Ultron's prisoner Antigone. Ultron attempts to blow up the floating city of the Sons of Yinsen to kill all of them as well as Iron Man; however, the sentient armor has apprently absorbed enough of the thoughts of Yinsen that part of it acts to save Iron Man and Sun-Tao from the destruction of the city.[5]
[edit] Character history after the Afghanistan retcon
In the "Execute Program" story arc of Invincible Iron Man vol. 4, a retcon establishes that Tony Stark and Ho Yinsen had been captured not by Communists in Vietnam, but rather by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and that Ho Yinsen was murdered under orders from five terrorists named Dennis Kellard, Ara Tanzerian, Zakim Karzai, Aftaab Lemar, and Kareem Mahwash Najeeb. Before he died, Yinsen had been coerced into implanting a "bio-magnetic receiving unit" inside Stark's brain. In a failed attempt to recover the device, the terrorists send a hitman named Andrei Gorlovich after Yinsen's family; Gorlovich murders Yinsen's wife.[6]
Years later, some of the five terrorists have become diplomats. Yinsen's grieving teenage son (whose name is never revealed), blaming Stark for the deaths of his parents, takes control of the device in Stark's brain and uses it to mind-control him into assassinating all five of the former terrorists. Thus framed for the assassinations, when Stark, in order to try to prove his innocence, confronts Yinsen's son, Yinsen's son is shot and killed with a sniper rifle by a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent acting by order of Nick Fury.[6]
[edit] Other versions
[edit] Marvel Adventures
In the Marvel Adventures continuity, Gia-Bao Yinsen was a pacifistic inventor and professor from the fictional city of Madripoor who criticizes Tony Stark for allowing weapons Stark designed to fall into the hands of Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.), who are using the weapons to attack Madripoor. While flying an experimental plane, Stark is brought down and captured by A.I.M., who also is holding Yinsen prisoner. Using the wreckage from Stark's plane, Stark and Yinsen work together to design a pair of Iron Man armors, one gold and the other red, which both don. Yinsen is killed during their escape from A.I.M.[7]
[edit] In other media
[edit] In cartoons
In the 1994 cartoon television series Iron Man, the name of the character is changed to Wellington Yinsen, and he is voiced by voice actor Neil Ross.
In the 2007 straight-to-DVD animated film The Invincible Iron Man, the name of the character is changed to Ho Yen; in addition to the scientific background of the original version, Ho Yen also has knowledge of the mystic arts, especially the legend of The Mandarin which plays a crucial role in the film. He, Jim Rhodes and Tony Stark are captured by a terrorist named Wong-Chu in China rather than in Vietnam. Otherwise, his role in the story is almost identical to the original version. Ho Yen is shot in the head and killed by Wong-Chu.
[edit] In film
In the 2008 film Iron Man, Yinsen (his first name is never given in the film) is portrayed by actor Shaun Toub. In the film, he is a Muslim doctor and engineer from a small fictional village in Afghanistan called Gulmira and is captured by the local branch of an international terrorist group called "The Ten Rings" sometime before the film. Yinsen meets Tony Stark when he too is kidnapped by the group. Yinsen constructs a makeshift electromagnet, powered by a car battery, which he implants into Stark's chest as a way to prevent shrapnel, lodged into Tony's chest during his kidnapping, from entering his heart and killing him. Under captivity, Stark and Yinsen are given a week by the terrorists to build a missile similar to the kind Stark was demonstrating to the US military or they will be killed. However, both men know that they will be murdered either way and plan an escape instead.
Yinsen assists Stark in secretly creating his prototype Iron Man armor as a means of escape and also helps Stark to build a prototype power source for the electromagnet that is more powerful and compact. While working together the two men bond. Yinsen notes that Tony and him actually met briefly at a conference in Bern, though he understands that Stark doesn't remember as he was so drunk. When Tony asks about Yinsen's family, Yinsen merely notes, "I will see them when I leave this place". Yinsen also points out the damage wreaked upon the region by the terrorists, using Stark's own weapons, and ask if this is what he wishes "the legacy of the great Tony Stark" to be.
When the armor is finally completed, Yinsen helps Tony into the suit and preps it for activation. However, when the terrorists get wind of their plan, Yinsen realizes that they need more time for the suit's software to fully load. In order to buy Stark extra time, Yinsen grabs an assault rifle and chases the terrorists away from their workshop but quickly finds himself surrounded and out-gunned. When the suit is fully powered up, Stark easily fights his way through the cave, but finds a gravely wounded Yinsen lying near the entrance. With his dying breath Yinsen explains to Stark that his family had already died and that he is now going to meet them. When Tony thanks him for saving his life, Yinsen tells Stark "Don't waste your life." He dies immediately after, and an enraged Stark destroys the terrorist camp and their stockpile of Stark Industry weapons before escaping.
Like the comics, Stark's experience in captivity along with Yinsen's sacrifice force him to reevaluate his moral stance. Later in the film, when Stark sees a news report detailing the 10 Ring's raid of Gulmira, Yinsen's village, Stark dons the completed version of his Iron Man armor for the first time and drives them out.
[edit] References
- ^ Though in the real world, it is usually the case with Chinese names that the family name is single-syllable and the given name is double-syllable, in this fictional case, the reverse usage appears: "Yinsen" is the family name, and "Ho" is the given name.
- ^ The name is similar to Dingbeibao (Chinese: 定北堡; pinyin: Dìngběibǎo), a fictional place name in Chinese, modelled after the name of Zhengbeibao (Chinese: 镇北堡; pinyin: Zhèngběibǎo), in Ningxia. Both names mean "Fortress of Pacifying the North"
- ^ Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963).
- ^ Invincible Iron Man vol. 3 #31-32 (August-September 2000) and Invincible Iron Man Annual 2000.
- ^ Invincible Iron Man vol. 3 #46-48 (November 2001-January 2002).
- ^ a b Invincible Iron Man vol. 4 #7-12 (June-November 2006).
- ^ Marvel Adventures Iron Man #1 (July 2007).
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