@Mr.:
It's amusing to see people up in arms about the Mandarin, and yet there was hardly a murmur when they combined Whiplash and Crimson Dynamo in Iron Man 2.
But understandable, considering Mandarin is more popular (dunno about iconic).
They were both even more suit of armor villains, just like Iron Monger, so yeah, they blended together. Whiplash had the more interesting looking power but Dynamo the better character.
Mandarin on the other hand is a worldwide threat with magic and a very distinct look and set of powers. A look based in some bad racism, but…. also, the Character Kingsley did that was a mis-match of appropriated cultures and symbols reeeeeally worked well. There was some legit menace and interest there, it was a good sidestepping of the problem. The magic stuff (and Fing Fang Foom) may have been a bridge too far, but Thor had already established magi-tech, and it looks like Dr. Strange is going to intro real magic, so.... maybe if Mandarin had been set a little later in the Marvel U.
Its like, the twist was great sure... but the character Kingsley had made was even better... and Killian wasn't up to snuff as a replacement. (But that's a problem with their villains in general. Loki and Kingpin aside. I mean, they used and wasted Red Skull and haven't brought him back yet)