Whiplash

"Now, the true history of Stark name will be written. What your father did to my family over 40 years, I will do to you in 40 minutes." "Sounds good. Let's get together and hash it out."

- Ivan Vanko and Tony Stark

Ivan Vanko was a Russian physicist who sworn revenge on Iron Man and the Stark family for the ruin and humiliation suffered during his whole life, designing similar armor to Tony Stark in order to publicly defeat him.

Early Life
Ivan Vanko was the son of Anton Vanko, a Russian physicist who helped Howard Stark design the Arc Reactor, but was deported from the United States when Howard Stark accused him of espionage. Ivan was also convicted of selling Soviet-era weapons-grade plutonium to Pakistan and served 15 years in Kopeisk prison. Anton Vanko fell into poverty and alcoholism, and also abused his son for many years. Ivan became knowledgeable in the fields of physics and mechanical sciences, and adopted his father's hatred for the Stark family.

Becoming Whiplash
"If you could make God bleed, people would cease to believe in him, there will be blood in the water, the sharks will come. All I have to do is sit back and watch as the world consumes you." "Where will you be watching the world consume me from? Oh, that's right, a prison cell. I'll send you a bar of soap."

- Ivan Vanko and Tony Stark

After the death of his father, Ivan Vanko began work on a replica of the Arc Reactor. Vanko constructed an exoskeleton, powered by a miniature Arc Reactor, to use against Tony Stark in an effort to discredit him.

Duel of Monaco
Vanko attacked Tony Stark during the Monaco Grand Prix, using his Whiplash harness to destroy several cars in the race, including Stark's. Since Stark was without his armor, Vanko took his time to try to kill him, but Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts drove into the fight to give Stark an armor concealed in a suitcase. Stark fought Whiplash and although he struggled to defend himself against the electric whips, Stark defeated him using his Iron Man suit. Stark destroyed Vanko's arc reactor and Vanko was sent to prison. While in custody, Vanko was asked by Stark why he did not sell his technology to make money. Vanko replied that he wanted to remove Stark's awe from the people and demonstrate that Iron Man could be defeated. Vanko also deduced that Stark was being poisoned by the palladium in his Arc Reactor saying, "Palladium in the chest, painful way to die." As Stark left, Vanko laughed to himself, believing that even if he spent the rest of his life in prison, Stark would still die a horrible death.

Making an Alliance with Justin Hammer
"This isn't a helmet, this is a head... Ivan, what's going on?" "Drone better." "Drone better? What, why drone better? Ivan, I got an order for suits, not drones!"

- Justin Hammer and Ivan Vanko

Later, Vanko escaped from prison with the help of Tony Stark's rival Justin Hammer, who also orchestrated the faking of Vanko's death in the prison break. Hammer and Vanko then made a deal in which Vanko was to build armored suits like the Iron Man armor in exchange for Hammer Industries resources. Vanko changed the terms of the deal however, when he retrofitted Hammer's existing armor technology from wearable suits into unmanned drones.

Battle at Stark Expo
Vanko was locked up in Hammer Industries Headquarters, having enraged Hammer with the unexpected change. Hammer's plan to unveil the drones during the World Stark Expo went ahead, although Vanko powered the drones up and altered the simple unveiling to a full-blown demonstration. Vanko killed his guards and remotely assumed control of the drones, as well as the War Machine armor worn by James Rhodes.

Death
As a lengthy fight involving Iron Man and the Hammer Drones progressed, Vanko discovered that Black Widow was approaching and was going to kill him, so he abandoned the factory and got inside an armored suit of his own. As all the drones had been destroyed by this point, Vanko fought Iron Man and War Machine alone. The superior bulk and capabilities of his suit initially outmatched the combined efforts of Iron Man and War Machine. He managed to wrap his electric whips around both their necks, slowly killing them, but working together they soon found a way to beat him by causing a massive explosion which destroyed Vanko's suit. As he lay wounded and dying in the remains of his armor, Vanko knew he was dying and revealed that he had concealed self-destruct devices in his suit as well as all of the Hammer Drones, meaning that the entire Stark Expo was going to be destroyed. His dying words were, "You lose" as Iron Man flew away to try and save Pepper. Vanko's armor then exploded killing him.

Abilities

 * Master Engineer: Though he did not invent the arc reactor, Vanko was able to duplicate it with limited resources.
 * Multilingualism: Vanko is fluent in Russian and speaks English with a heavy accent, using the latter language to communicate while in the United States.

Equipment
Vanko possessed two arc reactor powered suits which primarily weapon were a pair of electrified whips by the arc reactor.
 * Whiplash Armor: Mark I: The first Whiplash Armor was designed as a harness powered by an arc reactor with two electrified whips.
 * Whiplash Armor: Mark II: The second Whiplash Armor is an upgraded version of the mark I that granted Vanko enhanced speed, strength, reflexes, durability, and endurance. It also had flight capabilities.

Family

 * Anton Vanko † - Father

Enemies

 * Howard Stark †
 * Tony Stark/Iron Man
 * Hammer Industries - Allies turned Enemies
 * Justin Hammer
 * Jack
 * James Rhodes/War Machine

Trivia

 * The Ivan Vanko character is an combination of elements from Iron Man villains Whiplash and the Crimson Dynamo.
 * Marvel Comics created a new version of Whiplash named Anton Vanko in the Mainstream Universe that was similar to this character shortly before the release of Iron Man 2, as the Ivan Vanko version of Whiplash was not similar to any other one of the other characters named Whiplash in the comics.
 * Vanko's fake ID and alias on the Monaco Grand Prix track use the name Boris Turgenov, a reference to the second Crimson Dynamo.