What he was doing for the gov't before he went crazy is what I'm getting at.
He studies military artifacts at historical battle sites, but has been all over the world studying culture for the gov't. Finding hidden objects of power for the gov't. So far they had only found vibranium deposits, but the rings are something more.
What he was trained in way back makes him go all Heart of Darkness.
He knew the rings were made of a precious metal and kept them for himself.
He likes to keep the things he finds at anthropological sites.
Over time he was exposed to many ancient things the gov't was investigating, i.e. he has suspicions Atlantis existed, and was no ordinary archaeologist working for a gov't agency.
He was sponsored by them and trained by them when he toured the world and many of its cave systems. The cave thing is important because Mandarin and Iron Man were both born in a a cave.
Mandarin deconstructs culture, warps it and twists it into strange amalgamations, studied ancient technology and metallurgy.
Iron Man went into the cave and gave the world a new technology.
Mandarin hijacks technology new and ancient.
Lots of people working as anthropologists or archaeologists end up working as teachers because sometimes there just aren't that many dig sites around.
However, many who end up working for the gov't end up with big salaries because they do investigations on not just ancient things but on mass grave sites caused by war to assess the number of bodies, find the true victor of each battle, count the number of bullets spent.... a lot of the artifacts have to be left in the context they're found in to tell their story.
Mandarin pockets what he finds. collects these artifacts from all across world history.
That's why Mandi has to have some knowledge of archaeology.
Yes he's an ex spy who was entangled with Shield digging up objects of power so men like Red Skull couldn't, but he was never doing spy stuff...
Just working for spy agencies to secure objects of power...
He's very dangerous and has turned against the agencies that gave him basic combat training and martial arts training while wandering the world for them securing objects of power.
He found the rings and never returned. Like Kurtz when he goes up the river. He believes the rings are more than just the precious metal that absorbs energy.
The one used for Howard Stark's early inventions. That Tony re-created.
I'm not sure why he's so mad at Shield. But the revenge has something to do with Stark's legacy getting in his way again and again. He wanted Stane to control Stark Industries.
He came into contact with a lot of knowledge about the hidden power structures of the world, i.e. Shield etc.
