No synopsis available for this story arc.
"Hands of the Mandarin" is what you would expect from a big 90's event crossover. It's a giant, messy slug-fest designed to bring together the little Iron Man corner of the Marvel Universe that had recently been established with "War Machine" and "Force Works." Despite uneven art and at times questionable continuity there are some good ideas here. Mandarin, thanks to a magic artifact called the Heart of Darkness, is at his most powerful. He's able to render any technology above a crude level useless. The science vs. magic, technology vs. luddism angle works pretty well and establishes a dichotomy between Iron Man and his arch villain in a way that past writers hadn't really managed to do.
The story proper actually begins in War Machine #8 and Iron Man #310, a crossover between those two books. There are a few small crossovers in issues of "Marvel Comics Presents" but they're mostly unnecessary except maybe for a brief prequel that shows the Mandarin locating the Heart of Darkness and defeating past versions of himself to prove himself worthy. Considering pretty much every person who's written the Mandarin has interpreted him differently it was a cool idea to see them address this in a comic.
All-in-all despite its 90's brashness it's not terrible, and it was nice to have a big Mandarin extravaganza before the end of Iron Man's first volume. It's not the high-point of Len Kaminski's run on the character but it's not a disaster either. It's worth a quick read especially if you're looking for a Mandarin story.
