30 Greatest Marvel Movie Villains
27. Whiplash - Mickey Rourke (Iron Man 2)
Iron Man 2 may have been a fairly mediocre comic book film, but not for lack of Mickey Rourke's efforts.
Coming fresh off a career resurgence with The Wrestler, Rourke completely disappeared into his role as Ivan Vanko, a man with a highly personal vendetta against Tony Stark.
Let's get the bad out of the way first, as the script presents the villain with a fair few issues. He gets defeated in his first fight with Stark, he ends up playing second fiddle to Justin Hammer, his final fight against Iron Man is just a generic armoured suit battle...and he ends up killing himself like a chump.
Despite all this, Rourke's lived-in performance created a unique villain, and though more could certainly have been done with him, he remains a cut above the average for the MCU, considering some of the utterly forgettable villains they've trotted out over the years.