MCU: Every Infinity Saga Villain RANKED
19. Iron Man 2 - Whiplash
The character of Ivan Vanko aka Whiplash had so much promise when he made his appearance at the Grand Prix sequence in Iron Man 2. It's just a shame everything after that is mediocre.
Mickey Rourke's villain isn't much to sing and dance about, other than he is just as smart as Tony Stark and came from a family the Stark's betrayed. His arc as a genius bird-loving sociopath who bumbles his way into Hammer Technologies should have been enough material for Mickey and Jon Favreau (the director) to play with but they just couldn't lock this character down.
When he was the grass-roots Russian equivalent of Tony Stark with an knack for gadgetry, he was at least an eye-catching threat. But true to form with a number of earlier MCU villains, he folds and confines to the safer realm of Same vs Same and suits up in his own Iron Man armor for a showdown that just doesn't measure up.
Even his demise seems lazily written; with Tony and War Machine giving each other a high-five so intense it awesomes Whiplash to death.