I kinda love this picture of the Mandarin. There was some controversy over the casting of Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin because of racial issues, which is understandable. It is worth pointing out that the Mandarin character itself is pretty racist. Regardless, it looks like they are trying to build a unique character. A commenter named Nicholas Slayton at Slashfilm had this to say:
“They said the Mandarin basically collects warrior symbols from different cultures and re appropriates them in a twisted way. US army camo pants and boots. Chinese robes. A samurai topknot. Captain American-type helmet. OBL-style beard. Tony’s (or maybe Killian’s?) glasses. Very twisted idea that kind of works.”
I think he is mostly right on and points out a lot of details that I had missed, though it is more likely that the helmet is a UN helmet, not a Captain American-type helmet.
Via SlahFilm