Ranking The 10 Main Villains Of The Marvel Cinematic Universe

9. Whiplash (Iron Man 2)

WhiplashMarvelPlayed by Mickey Rourke in Iron Man 2, Ivan Vanko is the son of one of Tony's father's business rivals and comes to America looking for revenge, which he attempts to take on Tony. Like Malekith, Whiplash doesn't do much in the form of actual combat - he faces Tony Stark at Monaco and nearly kills him, but once Tony puts on the Iron Man suit, Vanko is quickly defeated. Justin Hammer later breaks Ivan out of prison to work for him, seeing as Ivan seems to be the only person besides Tony himself capable of utilising arc reactor technology. This is where Whiplash stalls, however. After his opening battle in Monaco, he is sidelined until the very end of the movie, and once he actually comes out to fight Iron Man and War Machine, he is defeated quite quickly and killed. Whiplash is elevated over Malekith for a couple of simple reasons- he has a decent reason for attacking Iron Man (revenge for his father) and the fact that the Monaco scene is pretty epic. He is presented as a credible threat to Tony and for a moment, the audience is afraid for Tony's life as they see this whip-cracking badass walk across the tarmac. For these reasons, Whiplash takes the #9 spot on the list.
Contributor
Contributor

I'm a fan of all things comic book and an avid moviegoer. Trying to catch up on a never-ending backlog of films- maybe someday. Leave me a comment if you enjoy my articles, think I'm a hack, or anywhere in between.