Ho Yinsen

Professor 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), and plays a key role in Iron Man's origin story as a mentor and co-builder of his first armor.

Actor Shaun Toub portrayed the character in 2008 superhero film Iron Man and the 2013 sequel Iron Man 3.

Publication history

Professor Yinsen first appeared in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963), and was created by Stan Lee (writer), Larry Lieber (writer) and Don Heck (artist). The character is an Asian scientist, whose background and first name vary, appearing only in the origin of Iron Man and its retellings.

Fictional character biography

Original character biography

Professor Yinsen was a pacifistic, physicist and engineer 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.