All season we’ve waited. We’ve watched as the chessboard was yanked out from under us – cast changes, voice artists coming and going, animation shifts, music styles mutating mid-arc. Compare this season to last and only two things remain: MODOK and Tony’s voice. And even they carry a new edge.

This season is a triumph of Marvel magic. Not the most articulate, certainly not the best animated, and occasionally clumsy in its scripting. But it feels grounded. Season one, for all its ambition, needs a proper reshuffle to match the emotional clarity and ensemble rhythm this season found.

We’ve had new villains, guest stars, and some sharp takes on Iron Man’s classic arcs – never straying too far, never losing the pulse. The stories hit harder. The stakes feel earned. And the emotional fallout lingers.

And now, we reach the end. He’s watched patiently all season, following his rings. But did you notice? The Mandarin never found them. He stole them – off bodies, through violence, through misfortune. He stole them in China, under Fin Fang Foom’s gaze. He stole the last one from MODOK. He’s never earned them. He’s taken them.

Now the rings are gathered. The Heart of Darkness will open. And the world will fall – not in silence, not in fire – but before the Hands of the Mandarin!

The Mandarin makes his move. With all ten rings reclaimed, he storms a global summit and offers salvation: an end to the energy crisis, in exchange for dominion over the nations of the world. The offer is refused. Mandarin responds with a promise – not of peace, but of darkness. The Heart of Darkness begins to pulse, and the mist spreads.

In transit to New York, Stark’s jet falters. The mist drains power from every system. He ejects in the Iron Man armour, but even that begins to fail. Julia Carpenter and HOMER scramble to respond, calling in Force Works. War Machine retrieves Hawkeye, and together they rescue Stark mid-descent. But the mist continues to spread. Hawkeye’s glider fails. The world begins to dim.

Mandarin’s plan unfolds. The Heart of Darkness, housed in his stronghold, emits a dampening field designed to nullify all technology. His former employees, the team of villains who served him, resurfaces in Hong Kong, sowing chaos. Iron Man leads the reformed Force Works into battle. The team holds. Hypnotia cracks. The truth emerges: the Heart is the source. The target is global. The stakes, existential.

Iron Man confronts the Heart, guarded by MODOK. Mandarin strikes, using the Heart to short-circuit Stark’s armour. Depowered, exposed, Stark’s helmet is removed. The mask falls. Mandarin sees the truth. Stark is Iron Man. The revelation is weaponised. Mandarin mimics Stark’s voice, luring Force Works into his trap.

Armour Watch: Just before the anti-tech mist hits him, Tony is in Hydro mode.

Robert Ito, the voice of the Mandarin this season, whose credits include Batman, Superman, Johnny Quest and The Animaniacs to name just a few, is better known for his role as Sam on Quincy M.E.

Jennifer Darling, who voices Hypnotia, was the voice of one of animation’s coolest villainesses of all time: Pythona in G.I. Joe: The Movie. Hypnotia was last seen in The Beast Within.

The villains are back! Blizzard, Blacklash and Whirlwind all return in this episode. They all last appeared, briefly, in Armour Wars (Part 1). A news report refers to them as the Hand in this episode, the first time they’ve been referred to as such on screen.

The villains have all been given exo armour by the Mandarin, after he saw Stark’s new advances in Empowered.

The Mandarin finally learns Iron Man’s real identity after being tricked in The Wedding of Iron Man.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

It wasn’t escalation. It was erasure. The Mandarin didn’t challenge the modern world – he shut it off. The anti-tech field spread like rot, silencing satellites, grounding jets, and turning cities into tombs. Hong Kong fell. Stark’s systems blinked out. And the age of innovation gave way to something older, colder, and far more personal.

Across Force Works, Iron Man, and War Machine, the ensemble fractured. Century vanished. Rhodey broke. Stark built a virus. And the Mandarin, wielding power he barely understood, stood at the centre of it all – less a ruler, more a rupture.

The final blow wasn’t a battle. It was a touch. Stark’s virus activated. Time caught up. The Mandarin aged, cracked, collapsed. The empire he tried to conjure dissolved – not in fire, but in entropy. And the world, briefly medieval, exhaled.

Hands of the Mandarin isn’t just a crossover. It’s a system failure. A moment where mysticism outpaced machinery, and the ensemble had to recalibrate not just their tech – but their trust.

Hulk Buster | Hands of the Mandarin (Part 2)