[jonathancrane]

Originally Posted by Chris B

Personally, I can accept this "twist" if the junior novelization was accurate that

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

The Mandarin gets away at the end, and IM3 serves primarily as set-up for the final battle between Stark and the Mandarin in a hypothetical IM4.

Unless they changed that for the final film.

To be fair, I do recall a precedent with the Avengers, where the children's adaptations of it omitted certain scenes.