form a 'Master Ring' that could control the others, as well as convincing the former Mandarin-Six to help them, most of the remaining Mandarins were defeated in a final assault; the only one to escape was the Mole Man, who concluded that the rings had been more trouble than they were worth, as he was content with the status quo. With all 10 rings now in custody, Iron Man realized the recovered Recorder 451's corpse from deep space was transmitting an alien frequency that had upgraded the rings to become sentient. Encounter with the Punisher and death The final Mandarin turned up in his Tem Borjigen alias when Baron Zemo selected him as the public face of the HYDRA-occupied Bagalia in his shared plot with Dario Agger and the Roxxon Energy Corporation to have the United Nations recognize Bagalia as an independent nation. As part of his revenge on HYDRA for manipulating him during the "Secret Empire" storyline, the Punisher finds the Mandarin making a speech at the United Nations and fires a special bullet. After using his rings to slow down the bullet while trying to deflect it, the Mandarin is struck in the head and killed with the bullet, which is witnessed by Baron Zemo and everyone watching his speech. Powers and abilities The Mandarin is a superb athlete with tremendous skill in the various martial arts. Through repeated practice, he has toughened all the striking surfaces of his body, especially his hands, which are covered with thick calluses. He can even split Iron Man's magnetic-beam reinforced alloy armor with repeated blows. So great is the Mandarin's martial arts ability, that he can even survive years without food and water, apparently sustaining himself purely via his mastery of chi; the precise degree of the Mandarin's martial arts powers has been the subject of multiple implied retcons by Marvel Comics. The Mandarin is one of Marvel Earth's greatest scientific geniuses, and highly skilled in various sciences. Not only has he made himself into an expert authority on alien Makluan science, but he has also built upon this knowledge by making further discoveries based upon it. The principal personal weapons of the Mandarin are the 10 rings which he wears on the fingers of both hands. The rings' operations cannot be explained by contemporary Earth science, but it is known that they served as near-limitless power sources for the warp-drive