Ho Yinsen (Earth-8998)

"What is the measure of a man? Is it the secrets of his heart? Is it the person he is, or the hero he could become?"

- - Doctor Ho Yinsen

Doctor Ho Yinsen was a renewed Afghan scientist and surgeon that hailed from the village of Gulmira, his works on artificial organs being considered of vast scientific importance. However, since 2004, Yinsen was made captive by the terrorist fundamentalist group Ten Rings, used by their members as a hostage. On 2008, the billionaire businessman Tony Stark, also kidnapped, would become Yinsen's fellow captive, as Doctor Ho was tasked with attending Stark's medical needs when he was brought in from a explosion's injury. Having lost his family to the Ten Rings when captured, Yinsen helped Stark to escape by helping create the Iron Man suit, willingly sacrificing himself in the process. His death gave Tony the last push necessary for he to change his ways and adopt the identity of Iron Man.

Early Life
Ho Yinsen was born and raised in the small village of Gulmira, Afghanistan, where he married and had children. He eventually became a surgeon after graduating from Cambridge University and started working in Europe, with his family moving to the continent alongside him. He made several studies on the replacement of organs with prosthetics, more specifically hearts.

Meeting Tony Stark
"Mr. Stark, Ho Yinsen. Ah, I finally met a man called 'Ho'. Heh, I would like to introduce you to Doctor Yao Wu" Doctor Ho Yinsen met Tony Stark on 1999's New Year's Eve at a party in Bern, Switzerland, after Stark, drunk, gave a lecture on integrated circuits. After Tony finished his presentation, Doctor Yinsen tried to introduce Stark and his companion, the rising young scientist Doctor Maya Hansen, to Doctor Yao Wu, his colleague. Stark, however, drunkenly maliciously replied that Doctor Lu, being a cardiologist would be needed after he and Hansen had sex together, brushing both surgeons off to focus his attention on her. However, Stark would not even remember this encounter when he met Yinsen again nine years later.

Kidnapped
"Welcome, Mr. Stark. These fellow gentlemen here are your greatest customers. You must have never felt so in home with all these weapons around, right?"

- - Ho Yinsen to Tony Stark Five years later, Yinsen was captured by the Ten Rings, a terrorist and religious fundamentalist group in Afghanistan, an capture which resulted in the death of his family. Five years later on, when Tony Stark was captured by them, injured from an explosive used in their trap, Doctor Ho was tasked with keeping the billionaire alive. Working tiresomely, he managed to remove much of the shrapnel from Tony's body, helping to keep him alive long enough to build a electromagnetic piece on his chest to keep the remaining pieces of the bomb from entering his heart.

Under the Ten Rings' captivity, Yinsen and Tony were ordered by Abu Bakaar and their leader, Raza Hamidmi al-Wazar, to build a Jericho Missile similar to the one Tony had demonstrated earlier to the United States military as a part of the US' War in Afghanistan, or they would therefore be killed. Initially refusing, Tony was tortured, but Doctor Yinsen managed to persuade Stark as both knew they would be killed regardless, and instead both focused on devising a plan to escape. Tony revealed to Ho that he would use the scraps that the Ten Rings gave them to build a weaponized suit of armor that he would use to kill their captors, escape, and go back to the outside world, while returning Yinsen to his family.

Escape and Death
"C'mon, you won't die, we gotta go, we'll go see your family. My family is dead. That was always the plan, Stark. I...I want this Thank you for saving me. Promise me, don't waste your life."

- - Tony Stark and Ho Yinsen For the next three months, Yinsen and Stark crafted the Iron Man MARK I as secret from Raza. In the meantime both developed a friendship and a bond, and both started to know more about each other. Once when Tony asked about Ho's family, the Doctor only replied he "would see them soon", also pointing out if Stark wished his weapons on the hands of terrorists would be the "legacy of the great Tony Stark". Tony only looked though provoked, realizing he created his own nemesis, in a system which profited with weapons' selling, as well as terrorism.

During their escape from the cave, the terrorists took notice of their plan, and seeing there was no other way to power the armor, Yinsen took a AK-47 and chased the Ten Rings members away. He was mortally wounded when he met dozens of soldiers. As Stark found him wounded, Yinsen reassured Tony, revealing that this was his plan all along as his family has long been dead and he wished to be reunited with them. In his dying breath, Yinsen asked Tony to promise he wouldn't waste his life.

Abilities
"Why do you think you're still alive, huh?"

- - Ho Yinsen to Tony Stark


 * Master Engineer: Yinsen managed to help Tony Stark create the first Iron Man armor.
 * Expert Surgeon: Yinsen is considered a renown surgeon and was able to keep Tony Stark alive when he had shrapnel digging into his heart.
 * Multilingualism: Doctor Yinsen is capable of speaking in both his native Arabic, as well as English.