Ho Yinsen

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 him.

Actor Shaun Toub portrayed Yinsen's character in the 2008 superhero film, Iron Man.

Fictional character biography

Original character biography

Ho Yinsen was a pacifistic, physicist, engineer, and professor from the fictional city (or state) of Timbetpal;^[1] while Tony Stark was in college, Stark had greatly admired the older man's work. In his old age, Yinsen was captured in Vietnam by the Communist warlord Wong-Chu before American arms manufacturer and engineer Tony Stark was 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.^[2]

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, a 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.^[3]

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 apparently 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.^[4]

Character biography 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 (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 control device for the implant, the terrorists send a hitman (Andrei Gorlovich) to murder Yinsen's wife.^[5]

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 guilty of 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 the callous Nick Fury.^[5]

Other versions

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.^[6]

In other media

Television

• In the 1994 cartoon television series Iron Man, the name of the character is changed to Wellington Yinsen, and he is voiced by Neil Ross. He works with Prof. Arnold Brock before Arnold becomes the Mandarin. The Mandarin later captures Wellington Yinsen to use him to help Tony Stark build an invincible armor for his minions. When Tony Stark becomes Iron Man for the first time, he manages to escape, but Yinsen is killed by the Mandarin.
• Ho Yinsen appears in Marvel Anime: Iron Man voiced by Hiroaki Hirata in the Japanese version and by Kyle Hebert in the English Dub. He helped install the initial electromagnet that kept Tony alive after he was shot down in his helicopter by terrorists, and convinced him to reflect upon his career as a weapons manufacturer. Taking a chance on a coin flip to help him, he helps Tony create the original Iron Man but is supposedly killed by the terrorists whilst distracting them long enough for Tony to complete the installation of the armor. However, five years later where the story takes place, Yinsen appears to be alive seen controlling the stolen Iron Man Dio prototype armor. He is then revealed to be a member of Zodiac. After Tony Stark escaped the terrorists who caught him, Yinsen was saved by a woman named Sandra who was later killed by Stark weapons. Yinsen was approached by Minister of Defense Kuroda who made Yinsen believe that Tony had not changed and Yinsen joined the Zodiac. In "At the Mercy of My Friends," Yinsen and some Zodiac soldiers kidnapped Tony and Dr. Chika Tanaka imprisoned them on an island with nothing but scraps and left Tony a 24 hour ultimatum to join the Zodiac as he had removed Tony's arc reactor. Tony however still managed to escape without using weapons and Yinsen was impressed enough to return Tony's arc reactor before retreating in the Iron Man Dio armor. In "Duel of Iron," Yinsen had also reverse engineered the stolen Iron Man Dio armor and created several models of Iron Man Sigma which he let loose on Tony's Arc Station. Using the Iron Man Dio armor, Yinsen defeats Tony, takes him out of his armor, and chucks him into a river. In "Casualties of War," Yinsen forces Dr. Chika Tanaka into working on the arc reactor while he and some Zodiac soldiers are holding the people in the Arc Station for ransom. After defeating Sagittarius, Iron Man ends up fighting Yinsen again where something causes the Iron Man Sigmas to overload and attack both of them. Yinsen ends up critically wounded during that attack. After apologizing to Tony for what he did and that the Zodiac had corrupted him, Yinsen warns Tony that the Zodiac's plans have just started. Yinsen's fate after that is unknown.

• In the Iron Man: Armored Adventures episode "The Invincible Iron Man Part 2: Reborn", Dr. Ho Yinsen is a medical specialist from Stark International who saved Tony Stark by installing the implant in Tony's heart. Differing from his comics counterpart, he is unaware of Tony's double life as Iron Man.

Film

• 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 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.

• In the 2008 film Iron Man, Yinsen (his last name is never given in the film) is portrayed by actor Shaun Toub. In the film, he is a 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. Like the comics, Stark's experience in captivity along with Yinsen's sacrifice force him to reevaluate his moral stance. Yinsen meets Tony Stark when he too is kidnapped by the group and Yinsen mentions they had met at a conference abroad, but Tony claims to not remember meeting him. Yinsen replies "You wouldn't. If I had been that drunk, I wouldn't have been able to stand let alone give a lecture on integrated circuits". 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 ordered 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. 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 asks 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 mortally 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 Industries weapons before escaping. Tony's experience in captivity with Yinsen, alongside the realization of Stark-made weapons being used by terrorists in Afghanistan, made Tony decide to close Stark Industries' weapons division. Later in the film, when Stark sees a news report detailing the Ten Rings's raid of Gulmira, Yinsen's village, Stark dons the completed version of his Iron Man armor for the first time and single-handedly drives them out.

Video games

• Shaun Toub reprised his role as Yinsen in the Iron Man video game.

References

External links

• Ho Yinsen at Marvel.com