Ho Yinsen

Ho Yinsen is a fictional comic book character who appears in books published by Marvel Comics, usually as a supporting character of the superhero Iron Man (Tony Stark), who plays a key role in Iron Man's origin story as a mentor and co-builder of his first armor.

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

Publication history
Ho Yinsen first appeared in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963), and was created by Stan Lee (writer), Larry Lieber (writer), Don Heck (artist), and Jack Kirby (collaborator).

Original character biography
Ho Yinsen was a pacifistic, physicist, engineer, and professor from the fictional city (or state) of Timbetpal; 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.

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- driven by his own guilt that he never looked for Yinsen himself, simply assuming that his friend had been killed while focusing on his own escape- helps the Sons of Yinsen defeat Wong-Chu, who is beheaded by one of the Sons of Yinsen, and recover Yinsen's brain.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Yinsen and Tony Stark to build armor for his minions. Stark becomes Iron Man and 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 helps install the initial electromagnet that keeps Tony Stark alive after he is shot down in his helicopter by terrorists, and convinces him to reflect upon his career as a weapons manufacturer.
 * Dr. Ho Yinsen appears in the Iron Man: Armored Adventures episode "The Invincible Iron Man Part 2: Reborn" as a Stark International medical specialist.

Film

 * The character appears in the 2007 direct-to-video animated film The Invincible Iron Man, here named Ho Yen. He helps James 'Rhodey' Rhodes treat Tony Stark's damaged heart after he is captured for attempting to dig up an ancient city, and tells him the legend of the Mandarin. He is subsequently killed when helping Tony escape.
 * Dr. Yinsen is portrayed by Shaun Toub in the 2008 film Iron Man. In the film, he is a doctor and engineer from a small fictional village in Afghanistan called Gulmira who is captured by the local branch of an international terrorist group, alongside Tony Stark. He assists Stark in creating the arc reactor and the first Iron Man armor, subsequently sacrificing himself to buy time for the armor to charge up. Yinsen returns in a small cameo during Iron Man 3, briefly meeting Stark during a flashback set in 1999.

Video games

 * Shaun Toub reprises his role as Yinsen for the video game adaptation of the film. Unlike in the movie, he is not killed by buying Tony time to escape, but deliberately sacrifices himself to prevent the Ten Rings acquiring Tony's notes on the Iron Man armor and the ammunitions that were stored with them, having spent the first level walking Tony through the suit's various features and bringing its weapons online.