Comic Book History
Who is WHIPLASH? Several Marvel characters have gone with the name WHIPLASH, the very first one was Mark Scarlotti. He was a recurring foe of Iron Man who debuted in Tales of Suspense #97 (Jan. 1968). Scarlotti was an extremely gifted technician at Stark International, but he never received recognition for his hard work or scientific acumen. Jealous of the of Tony Stark's brilliance and fame, Scarlotti decided to become a costumed supervillain. Adopting the moniker WHIPLASH, he constructed a metallic, electrified whip capable of rending apart even the strongest of metals. As WHIPLASH, Scarlotti worked for the Maggia before becoming an underworld enforcer for shady industrialist Justin Hammer.
First Appearance Later Scarlotti would change his moniker to Blacklash. After previous defeats at the hands of Iron Man, Scarlotti upgraded his weaponry and paraphernalia. He returned with a goal to establish himself as a premier contract killer.
Scarlotti would then go back to using his old alias, WHIPLASH but tried on a different costume and once again upgraded his weapons and equipments. Mark Scarlotti acquired a more brutal attitude.
Mark Scarlotti, WHIPLASH, would meet his end at the hands of a sentient Iron Man Armor.
The current holder of the name WHIPLASH is Anton Vanko, a young scientist from a small Russian village by the name of Volstok. (This version of the character was inspired by the movie version WHIPLASH from Iron Man 2. He was created a short time before the movie was released. He share name with another Iron Man Villain, Crimson Dynamo, but apparently they are not related)
Vanko whose village was attacked by an impostor in an Iron Man suit, who killed many of his townsfolk including his father, swore vengeance against Iron Man. The young Vanko was able to separate the armored assailant from his powered chest plate, upon getting his hand in this technology; it was easy for the brilliant man to reverse engineer the tech and came up with his own armor. Thinking that it was Tony Stark, who was under the Iron Man suit, he seeks him out and engaged him in battle.
Even with Tony Stark clearing his name from the small town massacre, Vanko still held Mr. Stark accountable for the tragedy because it was his tech that has been used. Thus, Iron Man gained a new Villain with an old name, WHIPLASH.
ANIMATED APPEARANCE/S Iron Man: The Animated Series The Mark Scarlotti character appeared in Iron Man: The Animated Series but under the guise of Blacklash
Iron Man: Armored Adventures This version of WHIPLASH has cybernetic hands that are capable of extending linked chains that can then be electrified.
LIVE MEDIA APPEARANCE/S Mickey Rourke Mickey Rourke portrays WHIPLASH in Iron Man 2; this version of the character is an amalgamation of Iron Man villains WHIPLASH and the Crimson Dynamo. WHIPLASH is the main antagonist of the film; he is a disgruntled Russian physicist with a grudge against the Stark family. Constructing an arc reactor-powered suit of his own, WHIPLASH attacks Tony Stark with his trusted electrified whips.
POWERS & ABILITIESNote: Due to the nature of comicbooks being an on-going tale, the character's powers along with his appearance, is in a constant state of flux. Abilities
While rarely utilized, Vanko is shown to be a capable hand-to-hand combatant, easily able to kill two well trained thugs with little damage to himself. He also is deceptively intelligent, his accent and thuggish appearance belaying a highly skilled mechanical and programming knowledge and cunning to outwit those around him.
Strength level
Ivan Vanko has the normal strength of a man his age, height and builds who engages in regular intensive exercise. When wearing the WHIPLASH armor his strength is considerably magnified to an unknown degree. He has been shown simultaneously restraining both the Iron Man MK VI armor and the War Machine armor at once.
Equipment
WHIPLASH Harness: Vanko's first WHIPLASH construct was an exoskeleton worn on the upper body that connected an arc reactor to a weapon system of hand-held two plasma whips. It was never revealed if the harness had any other intended uses beyond supporting the whips, but it was able to generate heat from the main harness enough to burn through a boiler suit worn over the top. The whips themselves produced enough heat to knife through the reinforced body of a luxury car with ease.
WHIPLASH Armor: Vanko's second WHIPLASH construct was a sophisticated fusion of Hammer technology armor with a miniature arc reactor adapted from Howard Stark's and Anton Vanko's earlier designs. Modeled with many of Tony Stark's Iron Man capabilities in mind, the WHIPLASH armor granted the wearer a wide array of enhancements. These included vastly magnified strength, a high degree of resistance to damage, and high-speed flight capability. The power output of the suit's on board arc reactor could be channeled into powering two arm-mounted plasma whips that could be controlled to have a level of prehensile grasping capability enough to firmly wrap around a person's neck.
Sources : http://www.comicvine.com/whiplash/29-12709/ : http://marvel.wikia.com/Whiplash : http://marvel.wikia.com/Ivan_Vanko_(Earth-199999) : http://marvel.wikia.com/Blacklash : http://marvel.wikia.com/Anton_Vanko_(Whiplash)_(Earth-616) : http://marvel.wikia.com/Anton_Vanko_(Whiplash)_(Earth-616)/Gallery : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiplash_(comics) :
This is the 104th article in my Know Your CBM Character series. Any requests and suggestions for an article for this series write it down in the comment section BELOW.
Build up your GEEKCREDS by answering this:
Who is the character below? [Use the comment section to write what is the character's connection to WHIPLASH]
CBM FIGHT CLUB CHALLENGE
Message to the CBM community:
To those who are making requests, check first [here] because I might have done an article on the character already. If I have not, please be patient, I will get on it as soon as possible (but consider the fact that I spend hours writing one of these articles). Try to limit your request to characters that already have been adapted to live media, so that the feature will at least be relevant to the site – Comic Book Movie (though I include TV characters). Characters in Manga or Anime’, I am not particularly familiar of, I am not discounting these characters but it will probably take some time before I write a feature on them because I have to read up on these characters. Thank you for reading these articles! If there are errors on the feature article above, blame it on my age, humanity and ignorance. Just be sure to check the comment section for the corrections, any error I made will surely be pointed out and corrected by much bigger geeks (because there will always be a bigger geek out there). -This has been PollMaster inviting you to the geekside. MABUHAY CBM and Godspeed!
FOLLOW ME ON: