Whiplash has a bit of a complicated history as a comic book character. The original Whiplash, who was an employee of Stark Industries, turned criminal who wielded titanium whips, made infrequent appearances in Iron Man's comics from the 1960s through the 1990s. In the 1990s a female Whiplash was introduced who appeared even less frequently, but she was more of a Spider-Man villain than an Iron Man foe. Neither had much of an intriguing backstory. In Iron Man 2, Mickey Rourke portrayed Ivan Vanko, a Russian ex-convict who builds an arc reactor exoskeleton with electric whips to attack Stark. Vanko blamed Stark's father for taking credit his father's contributions to the arc reactor designs. The character is never specifically referred to Whiplash in the movie, but was in most of the promotional material for the film. It turns out Iron Man 2 actually combined another one of Iron Man's comics villain with Whiplash to create the MCU Whiplash. The name Ivan Vanko, came from the name Anton Vanko, who was the Soviet scientist who created the Crimson Dynamo, a completely different Iron Man foe who was basically the Soviet version of Shellhead. Anton Vanko has since appeared on Agent Carter (portrayed by Costa Ronin) and Marvel has introduced a MCU-style Whiplash in the comics.
Chris McKittrick is a published author of fiction and non-fiction and has spoken about film and comic books at conferences across the United States. In addition to his work at WhatCulture!, he is a regular contributor to CreativeScreenwriting.com, MovieBuzzers.com, and DailyActor.com, a website focused on acting in all media. For more information, visit his website at http://www.chrismckit.com.
