DR. SU YIN
Real Name: Dr. Su Yin
Identity/Class: Human;
citizen of China
Occupation: Neurosurgeon, neurobiologist, teacher
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Chinese Government (POPROC (see comments), others), Suzi Endo, Force Works (Century, Iron Man/Tony Stark, Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff, Spider-Woman/Jessica Drew, U.S.Agent/John Walker), Iron Man (Tony Stark), Li Wang, War Machine (James Rhodes)
Enemies: Mandarin; formerly Warlord Chu and his soldiers
Known Relatives: Unidentified husband
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: A home in Tianjin, China (see comments);
formerly a house on the "Street of the Worker's Triumph" in Beijing, China
First Appearance: (Mentioned) Iron Man I#262 (November, 1990); (seen) Iron Man I#270 (July, 1991)
Powers/Abilities: Comrade Doctor Su Yin has a Ph.D. in neurobiology and is a world renowned neurosurgeon and neurobiologist. She is highly loyal to her loved ones.
Height: Unrevealed (5'8"; by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed (140 lbs.; by approximation)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
History:
(Iron Man I#272 (fb) - BTS) - From a young age Su Yin was a gifted child. Since she was twelve she was encouraged to devote her time to study neurobiology and made great leaps forward in bio-engineering and nerve repair.
(Iron Man I#270 (fb) - BTS) - Su Yin became world renowned as the greatest expert in neurobiology of her era. She taught neurobiology at the University of the Long March in Beijing.
(Iron Man I#275/2 (fb) - BTS) - Su Yin's future husband celebrated his engagement to her by driving too fast. He lost control over the car and drove off a cliff.
(Iron Man I#275/2 (fb)) - With her future husband near death for weeks Su did everything she could to repair the damage the accident had done to his body, but he remained a paraplegic. She stayed with him long past any hope of recovery.
(Iron Man I#275/2 (fb) - BTS) - Su went through with the marriage to her now paraplegic husband.
(Iron Man I#262 (fb) - BTS) - In his quest to get an opinion on his health from the greatest medical experts on Earth, Tony Stark tried to contact Dr. Su Yin, but was blocked by the Chinese Government.
(Iron Man I#269 - BTS) - The Chinese embassy sent a fax to Tony Stark to inform him that they had changed their minds (see comments). A meeting with Dr. Su Yin was arranged in exchange for some undisclosed services. He was asked to contact the Chinese Government as soon as possible.
(Iron Man I#270) - Dr. Su Yin's class was interrupted by the POPROC to ask her to help Tony Stark, who had provided all his medical records to the Chinese Government so Dr. Su Yin would be familiar with the synthetic parasite that had replaced his nervous system and threatened to kill him. Su saw the kindness and compassion in Tony's eyes.
Dr. Su Yin first met Tony Stark at a dinner hosted in the Forbidden City by the POPROC. Stark attended the dinner with Iron Man (James Rhodes), who was disguised as a white man. Tony was there with impressed by her beauty and mind. She witnessed the POPROC tell Stark that Iron Man's aid was the price for Dr. Yu Sin's help.
(Iron Man I#271) - After Iron Man (James Rhodes) began his fight against Fin Fang Foom, Tony Stark was contacted by Li Wang, who informed him that the Chinese Government was now willing to meet their side of the bargain with Stark. At the University of the Long March Dr. Su Yin was in the process of preparing the necessary equipment she needed to examine Stark when he arrived with Li Wang and other officials. Because Stark needed to wear a Neuro-Stimulus Webbing he invented to stay alive, Dr. Su Yin had to work around to examine Stark. He reminded her of her pledge to secrecy about the technology he was wearing.
After a few hours the examination was over. Dr. Su Yin was impressed by the Neuro-Stimulus Webbing and Stark's physique. She promised she would be able to tell him more about his condition within 24 hours. She went to the POPROC to inform him that the damage to Stark's central nervous system was so extensive that she doubted she could do anything to save him. The POPROC asked her to lie to Stark as long as they needed Iron Man in China.
(Iron Man I#272) - Dr. Su Yin and her team had another session with Tony Stark at the University of the Long March. Stark had a hard time reading her while she promised him that there is always hope that she could help him. Stark offered Dr. Su Yin to call him "Tony" and started hitting on her, which made her very uncomfortable. She revealed that there were reasons for caution to start something with her. Stark apologized and invited her to dinner, which she accepted. A chauffeur brought her home where she was welcomed by her dog. Inside she realized that the therapist was still with her paraplegic husband, who felt patronized when she complimented him for his progress.
(Iron Man I#274) - Su visited Tony at his suite at the hotel he stayed at in Beijing to talk to him. She was surprised to see Iron Man, but Tony told her that he called him back after his battle with Mandarin and the dragons to give him minor adjustments. He assured Su that she could speak freely in front of him. Su revealed that the damage to his nervous system was total, but she believed there was a way to reverse the damage, which made Tony happy. She tried to leave, but Tony hit on her again. She kissed him and they both confessed their love for each other, but Su also told Tony that she loved her husband as well. She left with a big pout on her face.
(Iron Man I#275/2) - After Iron Man defeated the Mandarin and the dragons he went to Dr. Su Yin one more time. She revealed that she was ordered to lie to him as long as Iron Man was needed and that there was no hope to heal Tony. She was sure that he would die within a few months or weeks in a slow and painful way. With nothing to lose Tony asked Su to leave with him and get married because he wanted to spend the last few months he had with her. She was surprised he didn't hate her, but couldn't take his offer because of her responsibilities to her country and husband.
(Iron Man I#275/2 - BTS) - After she was gone Tony had a chauffeur bring him to her home where he met Su's crippled husband, who told him how Su married him five years ago even though he was a paraplegic after a car accident. Su's husband gave Tony the blessing to take his wife from him, but Tony decided against it because with his looming death he was no different.
(Iron Man I#275/2) - Tony met Su outside her house and told her that he now understood why she couldn't be with him. He thanked her for everything she had done for him and told her to remember after his death that he had loved her.
(War Machine I#9 (fb) - BTS) - The Mandarin used the Heart of Darkness to revert China to medieval times and remove all technology. Su Yin's home in a thriving seaport city was transformed into a medieval fishing village. Su Yin's husband died because he needed antibiotics and they suddenly didn't exist anymore.
(War Machine I#9) - Su Yin was attacked by two of Warlord Chu's soldiers. She was saved by James Rhodes and Century. Rhodes, the former Iron Man, recognized her, but she didn't know who he was. She took Rhodes and Century to her hut where she used ancient folk remedies to heal Rhodes' wounds. She told her saviors how the country had changed overnight and that her husband had died. Rhodes explained that the change happened due to a war between Iron Man and the Mandarin. She also told them that the soldiers worked for a former local politician, who had set himself up as a warlord and regularly terrorized villages. She feared they would attack this village soon. Rhodes wanted to help, but didn't know how to make his armor working and Su Yin finally realized that he was Tony Stark's bodyguard Iron Man.
The next day Su Yin accompanied Rhodes to the local smith. She wanted to know if they had any chance against the Mandarin, but he didn't know if he even wanted things to go back to how they were due to atom bombs, pollution and senseless violence like tanks attacking civilians in Tiananmen Square. Su Yin retorted that not turning everything back to how it was would also mean death through smallpox, sewage in the streets, slavery and the lack of simple antibiotics, which cost her husband's life. Shortly after the village was attacked by Warlord Chu's army as she had feared, but Century and Rhodes, who was wearing a reforged War Machine armor, defended the village.
(War Machine I#10) - War Machine and Century joined forces with Warlord Chu and his army. Dr. Su Yin rode with them on a horse to come to the aid of Force Works at Mandarin's fortress. Su Yin was pleasantly surprised to be reunited with Tony Stark.
She joined them in their voyage to Stark Enterprises in Hong Kong, which had not been hit yet by Mandarin's anti-technology field. Dr. Su Yin was asked by Tony to check Suzi Endo, a surviving employee at Stark Enterprises, for injuries at the medical lab while he and the rest of Force Works were looking for a way to deal with Mandarin.
(Iron Man I#312) - After temporarily repelling the Mandarin from Hong Kong Iron Man met Su Yin at Stark Enterprises' executive lounge. He felt sorry about the death of her husband and they hugged. She then asked her for her help in defeating the Mandarin and she was ready to do anything she could. At the biotechnology lab Tony and Su looked at scans of the parasite that had nearly killed Tony some time ago and which Su had failed to heal him from. It now formed the basis of Tony's artificial nervous system. Su agreed that changing the Mandarin's genetic structure could make a difference in his use of the Heart of Darkness. Dr. Su Yin took a techno-organic tissue sample from Tony and then worked together with him to create a techno-organic virus. They had no time to test it when Mandarin's Avatars attacked Stark Enterprises. Iron Man allowed the Avatars to capture him and Stark successfully infected the Mandarin with the virus, which Iron Man's mask was coated with. Infected with science the Mandarin fell apart, his Avatars turned to dust and everything returned to normal.
After the final battle Tony Stark offered Dr. Su Yin a job at Stark Enterprises, but she refused because she wanted to return home and rebuild her life. She left, but promised to think of him often.
(Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man - BTS) - Masque visited the dying Tony Stark from Earth-96020 after he was brought to Earth-616 and shapeshifted her face into several of the women Earth-616's Tony Stark had loved in the past including Dr. Su Sin to see if he recognized any of them. (see comments)
Comments: Created by John Byrne, Paul Ryan and Bob Wiacek.
The reason the Chinese leadership changed their minds in Iron Man I#269 was that the Mandarin had taken over part of China in sequences that ran parallel to Iron Man's Armor Wars II storyline from Iron Man I#263 (December, 1990) to Iron Man I#266 (March, 1991). They needed Iron Man's help to deal with the Mandarin and Fin Fang Foom!
She probably lived in Tianjin. In War Machine I#9 Su Yin's home was revealed as a former thriving seaport city. Tianjin is near Beijing (around 67 miles or a 30 minute trainride) and has one of the largest seaports in the world (though it is not even the largest in China).
In Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man Masque claimed that Dr. Su Sin had saved Tony Stark's life, which is not true. She failed to save him!
This character actually made it to TV in Iron Man: The Animated Series (1996).
Yang Shangkun was the real life president of the People's Republic of China (I abbreviated him as the POPROC in this profile!) until 1993. At this point his inclusion in this story could be considered topical due to the sliding timescale, but maybe he remained president far longer in the Marvel Universe.
Profile by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Su Yin has no known connection to:
(Iron Man I#275/2 (fb)) - Su Yin's future husband celebrated his engagement to her by driving too fast. He lost control over his car and drove off a cliff.
For weeks he lay near death, but Su Yin stayed at his side and tried her best to fix the damage only to fail. He remained a paraplegic, but she still went through with the marriage.
(Iron Man I#272 - BTS) - Five years later Su Yin came home from work while her husband had one of his session with his therapist. He was depressed and Su Yin tried to cheer him up but complimenting him on his progress, but he felt patronized by her.
(Iron Man I#275/2) - Tony Stark met Su Yin's husband at his home at the "Street of the Worker's Triumph" in Beijing. Su Yin's husband was swimming in the pool before he was put back in his wheelchair by his aide. Tony was surprised to see that he was a paraplegic so the husband told him how it happened and how Su Yin stayed loyal to him. Su Yin's husband gave Tony the blessing to take her from him because he couldn't give her the kind of life she deserved. Tony left without her because he was going to die and would be no different from her current husband.
(War Machine I#9 (fb) - BTS) - Su Yin's husband needed antibiotics to survive, but they disappeared overnight when the Mandarin used the Heart of Darkness to revert China to medieval times and he died.
--Iron Man I#272 (Iron Man I#275/2 (fb), [Iron Man I#272], Iron Man I#275, [War Machine I#9 (fb)]
images (without ads)
Iron Man I#275, p30, pan1 (main)
Iron Man I#272, p14, pan4 (head shot)
Iron Man I#275, p37, pan1 (from behind)
War Machine I#10, p2, pan4 (on horseback)
Iron Man I#312, p18, pan2 (back in the lab)
Iron Man I#275, p28, pan1 (her husband)
Appearances:
Iron Man I#262 (November, 1990) - John Byrne (writer), John Romita Jr. (pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks), Howard Mackie (editor)
Iron Man I#269 (June, 1991) - John Byrne (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks), Howard Mackie (editor)
Iron Man I#270 (July, 1991) - John Byrne (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks), Howard Mackie (editor)
Iron Man I#271 (August, 1991) - John Byrne (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)
Iron Man I#272 (September, 1991) - John Byrne (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)
Iron Man I#274 (November, 1991) - John Byrne (writer), M.D. Bright (pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)
Iron Man I#275/2 (December, 1991) - John Byrne (writer), Tony DeZuniga (artist), Nel Yomtov (editor)
War Machine I#9-10 (December, 1994 - January, 1995) - Scott Benson & Len Kaminski (writers), Geoff Senior (pencils), Pam Eklund (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)
Iron Man I#312 (January, 1995) - Len Kaminski (writer), Tom Morgan (pencils), Bob Wiacek & Sam de la Rosa (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)
Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man (February, 1996) - Terry Kavanagh (writer), Hector Collazo & Al Rio (pencils), Ralph Cabrera & Rene Micheletti (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)
First Posted: 09/28/2022
Last updated: 09/28/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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