samahain said:
If they don't call him "The Mandarin" it's gonna be a sad day for the 9th Art... It's not a slur or anything, the bad guy just goes by that name. Grow up world.
The problem is that it is a name that comes out of a time where race and ethnic sensitivity was effectively non-existent, and sounds like a slightly more sinister version of the the term "Chinaman." Like Bob noted, while he is certainly one of the core villains in Marvel Cannon and the equivalent of Iron Man's Doctor Doom, the character is based on the reoccurring "yellow scare" that pops up in the US every 30-40 years and can be particularly offensive if handled poorly.
Plus, outside of terrorist groups (fun fact: the now-deceased brief second-in-command of alQaeda Central following the death of Osama Bin Ladin was nicknamed The Libyan "alLibi" and is regarded by some to be the reason for the attack in Benghazi in September) and organized crime stories (see "The American"), no one calls themselves by their geographic or racial/ethnic identity. I think he will be renamed "the teacher" for his alias and given a western name for his actual identity.