Iron Man 2: Who is Whiplash?

Are you a comic book geek? I am. And over the Christmas break, I began seeing trailers for the upcoming Iron Man 2 movie. I thought the first one was fantastic and I'm looking forward to seeing the sequel. Robert Downey, Jr. is spot on as Tony Stark. He really did great to catapult Iron Man into the A-list of super heroes. The A-list, of course, being Superman, Batman, Spider-man, and, maybe, Wolverine.

One thing I was curious with was which villain will the movie makers (director Jon Favreau, writer Justin Theroux, Marvel Studios, et al) select to complement Iron Man in the sequel. My preference was the Mandarin, the arch villain in the Iron Man comic book series. He's a scientific genius and has inheritance of great wealth that seem to come directly from Genghis Khan. And he's ambitious enough to want to take over the world.

By the way, what's with rich geniuses trying to rule the world (Lex Luthor, Dr. Doom, Syndrome)?

In any case, the bad guy in Iron Man 2 will be Whiplash, a gifted engineer who likes to make weapons and use them to live the high roller life of crime. Gangsta! He prefers, just as his name indicates, to use whips. Not leather whips, but high tech whips made of special materials that could rip into steel.

Although he's a genius, Whiplash has always been a criminal-for-hire. He works for someone higher up in the Marvel criminal universe, whether it be Justin Hammer (a rival of Tony Stark) or the Maggia crime syndicate. I suppose in today's terms, Whiplash is not an A personality. He doesn't aspire to rule a domain. But he is considered a valuable member of any super-powered crime team as he has teamed up with other costumed criminals such as Melter, Man-Bull, and the Wraith.

I guess what I'm saying is that Whiplash, who is also known as Blacklash in other comic book issues, is not what comic book fans would consider as a big enough character to be featured in a blockbuster movie.

But then again, Mickey Rourke will be bringing him to life. Mickey f&$%in' Rourke! That's Marv. He's Johnny Handsome. And Harley Davidson. The baddest dudes on screen.

In an interview about his role in the Iron Man 2 movie, Mickey Rourke said that Whiplash has plenty of tattoos because he just got out of a Russian prison. Thus, it seems that Whiplash in the movie will not have the same back story as the comic books. That gives the Favreau and his team much more room to play with in order to make an interesting character. Since they did such as a superb job the first time around, the freedom to make up a more interesting back story for Whiplash gives the comic book fans that much more reason to see the sequel.

Hot Toys releases the Iron Man 2: Whiplash Action Figure. The details are exceptional. They did a great job creating an action figure of Mickey Rourke.  The 12" action figure includes highly detailed tattoos on Ivan Vanko's neck, arms, palms, fingers, and upper body.  He's holding a pair of electric-flashing whips.  The chest piece lights up (battery-operated).  And hydraulic exoskeleton.