ANDREI GORLOVICH
Real Name: Andrei Gorlovich
Identity/Class: Human
Occupation: Mercenary
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Zakim Karzai, Dennis Kellard, Aftaab
Lemar, Karim Mahwash Najeeb, Plemina, Ara Tanzerian
Enemies: Iron Man (Tony Stark), allegedly Mrs. Yinsen, the "son of Yinsen"
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Sofia, Bulgaria
First Appearance: Iron Man IV#7 (May, 2006)
Powers/Abilities: Gorlovich was a talented mercenary
accustomed to accomplishing his goals by whatever means necessary.
History:
(Iron Man IV#11 (fb) - BTS)
- Dennis Kellard, Ara Tanzerian, Zakim
Karzai, Aftaab Lemar, and Karim Mahwash Najeeb hired Andrei Gorlovich to find the sending unit that would allow them
to control Tony Stark through a device planted in Stark's brain which had allegedly been
designed by Ho Yinsen. Yinsen had hidden the sending unit in his home. Gorlovich snuck into the
house and murdered Mrs. Yinsen, not knowing that her young son was watching from
the shadows. Years later, Yinsen's son obtained the sending unit and planned to
force Iron Man to murder each of the men who had caused Ho's death.
(Iron Man IV#7) - In Sofia,
Bulgaria, Gorlovich purchased some drugs for fifty lev, then returned them to
criminal Plemina, hoping that the drugs would allow her to get more business
done. Gorlovich then noted the power went out just before Iron Man (Tony Stark)
burst through the wall and killed Gorlovich, being remotely controlled by the
alleged son of Ho Yinsen.
Comments: Created by Daniel & Charles Knauf, Patrick Zircher, and Scott Hanna.
This entire story is of questionable continuity for many reasons.
The "Son of Yinsen" storyline in Iron Man IV#7-12
(2006), had Yinsen implant a device into Stark's brain while the two
were imprisoned in Afghanistan together. This revelation was crap, crap, and
more crap.
(Iron Man IV#11 (fb) - BTS) <According to a young man claiming to be the son of Ho Yinsen; see comments> - Yinsen
allegedly discovered that neuro implants could cure depression and
schizophrenia and perhaps redefine a man's soul, turning sociopaths
into model citizens. Needing funding for his experiments and lacking
the patience to settle for the slow trickle of funds he was getting
from university grants, which might take decades, Ho Yinsen "got in bed
with government," and placed an implant in promising young weapons
designer Tony Stark's head for the Taliban (specifically Zakim Karzai,
Dennis Kellard, Aftaab Lemar, Karim Najeeb, Ara Tanzerian).
Yinsen
allegedly designed a sending unit without which the implant he placed
in Stark was useless; Yinsen smuggled the implant out of Afghanistan.
Yinsen placed the sending unit with his wife.
(Iron Man IV#9 (fb)) - Ho Yinsen was captured and executed under the orders of Taliban agents Zakim Karzai, Dennis Kellard, Aftaab Lemar, Karim Najeeb, Ara Tanzerian.
(Iron Man IV#11 (fb) - BTS) - Andrei
Gorlovich was hired by Karzai, Kellard, Lemar, Najeeb, and Tanzerian to
retrieve the sending unit; he confronted and slew Yinsen's wife when
she apparently didn't have it, but Gorlovich did not realize Yinsen's
son was wearing the sending unit as a necklace and that he was watching
his mother's murder from behind a partially closed door.
(Iron
Man IV#6-11 - BTS) - Years later, the Son of Yinsen used the sending
unit to cause Iron Man to murder Gorlovich, Karzai, Kellard, Lemar, and
Tanzerian. Stark found a means to block the control to some degree and
locate the Son of Yinsen as he was being ordered to kill Najeeb. SHIELD
agents assassinated the Son of Yinsen to prevent him from further
controlling Iron Man.
(Iron Man IV#12 - BTS) - The Extremis slowly dissolved the implant.
The
major contradictions include:
- The whole Middle East origin is not what happened in Reality-616.
In Reality-616, it was "Southeast Asia." Too many characters have too much history tied into continuity to just "change" that.
Who knows about Prime Earth or whatever? - Yinsen
was already receiving funding from Dr. Midas, so there was no need for
him to seek out funding from the Taliban or other governments.
- I suppose he could have needed MORE funding...
- Yinsen
worked on a chest plate to save Tony Stark...he didn't do any surgery,
and he certainly didn't implant anything in his brain (or do
brain surgery in non-sterile conditions and without shaving Stark's
head).
- Yinsen
couldn't have smuggled anything out of Afghanistan after working on
Stark, as they weren't in Afghanistan, but regardless, his only real
ally in Wong-Chu's prison was Sun-Tao, meaning Sun-Tao would have been
the one Yinsen would have used to smuggle something out.
- It
is extremely difficult to believe that Sun-Tao wouldn't have shared
this information with Stark after their experiences in Iron Man
III#46-48.
- Improbable, but not impossible...
- That
same retcon shows Yinsen being ritually executed in a chair, allegedly
on order of Karim Mahwash Najeeb.
- This completely doesn't fit with
him rushing out to sacrifice himself to buy Stark/Iron Man a few extra
seconds to charge his armor.
- And why would he sacrifice his life for
Stark when he had implanted whatever into Stark's brain to gain funding
for his research?
- Plus,
we know Yinsen survived only long enough to be taken away by Dr. Midas,
who harvested his brain before eventually selling it Wong-Chu.
- I
suppose all of that could have been a trick, too, but that involves
altering the history of so many existing characters, as opposed to
simply discounting the information from the alleged "son of Yinsen" due
to the multiple absolute contradictions.
- Stark has been evaluated by
so much technology, and had major neurologic treatments, like the
Bio-Chip and evaluations by Dr. Sondheim, that any chip in his brain
would have been detected. It was one of those "everything you know
about a character is wrong" stories...which showed that everything the
writer knew about the character was wrong.
- Yinsen's widow died of a broken heart a year after his death while under the care of Sun-Tao.
- This is probably the easiest contradiction to resolve.
- Perhaps Sun-Tao was not being truthful for whatever reason.
- Perhaps Ho Yinsen had more than one wife.
- Despite Yinsen being consistently shown as a peaceful pacifist, the "Son of Yinsen" considered him a "monster."
- The
whole thing seems like some like some sort of alternate/altered
reality...the whole thing took place around the time of House of M, so
residual effects of that altered reality would really explain
everything...or maybe the "Son of Yinsen" was just lying and used the
brain implant (presumably placed at some more recent junction, or
perhaps he just knew how to manipulate the Extremis to form such a
device) to manipulate Stark's memories.
- Based
on editorial discussion, the Son of Yinsen information was excluded
from Ho
Yinsen's profile in the All-New Iron Manual (2008).
- However, when we
removed that information from the end of the profile, we missed two
references to Yinsen implanting whatever he was supposed to have
implanted included within the earlier text history...so it is
accidentally referenced therein. That's my fault for just truncating the information and not recalling the other references.
- Wong-Chu's
profile did mention Karim Mahwash Najeeb of Afghanistan as an old ally
of Wong-Chu from before he encountered Stark the first time...but
that's it.
- I'm
not sure how you can read Ho Yinsen's other appearances and decide he
would be morally/spiritually capable of doing what he was said to have
done in Iron Man IV#7-12.
- Yes, of course, it's fiction, but a fictional universe relies on continuity.
- Barring
some revelation that the whole story was House of M-warp distorted, I
think what we can conclude is that the story in Iron Man IV#7-12
occurred.
- The alleged "son of Yinsen" used a sending unit to activate a control device in Stark's head.
- References to the Taliban executing Ho Yinsen, etc. can be considered false.
- The
timing of the placement of the implant, who placed it, the motivations
of the alleged "son of Yinsen" and anything else relating to the past
as related by that young man is to be considered suspect.
- The Iron Manual entry places the video of Yinsen's beheading before Yinsen meeting Stark.
- According
to Stark's memory/understanding as he reviewed the video, the beheading
video took place after Yinsen survived seeming death at Wong-Chu's
solidiers' hands.
- If we accept that that
timing is false, but don't want to throw out the video, yes, it makes
perfect sense that it could have represented someone faking his death
as it has been previously noted that his death had been faked before.
- The
Iron Manual notes that Yinsen entrusted Sun-Tao with the brain implant
control/sending device and that Sun-Tao gave it to Yinsen's wife, but
it doesn't note anything about how he cared for Yinsen's wife for the
next year until she died of a broken heart, nor does it say anything
further about any actual son of Yinsen, Gorlovich killing Yinsen's wife.
Profile by Chadman. Updated/edited by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Andre Gorlovich
has no known connections to
- any characters not mentioned in this profile.
Plemina
(Iron Man IV#7) - In Sofia,
Bulgaria, Gorlovich purchased some drugs for fifty lev, then returned them to
criminal Plemina, hoping that the drugs would allow her to get more business
done. Gorlovich then noted the power went out just before Iron Man (Tony Stark)
burst through the wall and killed Gorlovich, being remotely controlled by the
alleged son of Ho Yinsen. A frightened and traumatized Plemina was taken to the police
station, where she implicated Iron Man.
(Iron Man IV#12 (fb)) -
Plemina suspiciously died of a drug overdose days later.
--Iron Man IV#7 (Iron Man IV#7, 12 (fb)
images: (without ads)
Iron Man IV#7, p3, pan3 (main)
p3, pan4 (2nd)
p4, pan5 (Plemina)
Appearances:
Iron Man IV#7 (June, 2006) - Daniel & Charles Knauf (writers),
Patrick Zircher (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Iron Man IV#11 (October, 2006) - Daniel & Charles Knauf (writers),
Patrick Zircher (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Tom Brevoort (editor)
First posted: 04/05/2008
Last updated: 03/11/2018
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me
know.
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