I thought of a pretty okay plot I think that seems to outline everything people on the board have been saying they wanted. I posted it in the mandarin thread. I guess I'll just post it here.
Zhang Tong announces his new teleportation technology, derived from Makluan science. Tong is the CEO of Prometheus, a corporation specializing in bio-engineered weaponry.
People don't know that Zhang Tong is the leader of the ten rings, The only name they know is Mandarin.
Tong did go the Valley of the Spirits and found the crashed space ship. But they were just gems or crystals or something that had the potential for fantastic abilities, not rings. Tong is the one to harness their power and put them in ring form with his technology, slowly being driven mad by the power of the "gems" and his study of the Makluan science.
He doesn't wear his robe/costume until the end of the movie when he is revealed to be the Mandarin and flips out. He needs his costume to power the gauntlets that the rings are on or something...They would redesign it and make it cool and give it some practical use.
Meanwhile Iron Man would become an alcoholic after something happens in the movie, perhaps some kind of corporate take over by Tong or something. Rhodey would become Iron Man to cover for Tony. Mandarin would use his teleportation technology to kidnap Rhodey thinking that he was taking Iron Man. Then Tony would have to sober up, suit up, and save Rhodey in the Silver Centurion armor. They would both fight the Mandarin in his Volcano base, he would escape, and then the movie would end with them teaming up to stop Ultimo.
Although maybe they could save Ultimo and the volcano base for the avengers and mandarin could just escape after a climactic fight versus tony and rhodey together.
