Marvel apparently changed the 'Iron Man 3' villain's gender because toys
LOS ANGELES — Aldrich Killian toy collectors and cosplayers: this is a day for gratitude.*We've just learned that your*unforgettable, enduringly iconic Iron Man 3*villain was originally written as — brace yourselves here — a woman.
Alas, Marvel brass (at the time) realized that the gender of the secretive "Mandarin," who turned out to be a 50-something tech entrepreneur in a tan business suit, needed swift correction. because as everyone k**ws, girls don't sell toys.
Thanks to that pervasive, never-proven-wrong **tion, the*Aldrich Killian™*line of Marvel merch, with its commercially optimized perceived anatomy, exists to this day. Read more...