Anton Vanko (Whiplash) (Earth-616)

Whiplash
Name	Anton Vanko
Current Alias	Whiplash
Aliases	"Whip-Man," "Whippo"
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Masters of Evil
Relatives	Igor Vanko (father, deceased)
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Height	6′ (1.83 m)
Weight	235 lbs (106.59 kg).
Eyes	Irises: Brown
Hair	Blond
Unusual Features	Four prosthetic fingers on his right hand
Origin and Living Status
Origin	A man from Russia who built a suit of armor to get revenge on Iron Man for the destruction of his village, and the death of his father.
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Birth	Volstok, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	Russian
Occupation	Assassin, electrical engineer, inventor
Base of Operations	New York City, New York Formerly Volstok, Russia
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Marc Guggenheim, Brannon Braga, Phillippe Briones
First	Iron Man vs. Whiplash #1 (December, 2009)
First	Iron Man vs. Whiplash #1 (December, 2009)

History

Without armor

Anton Vanko was a young scientist from a small Russian village by the name of Volstok. One day, the village was attacked by someone wearing a stolen battlesuit of Iron Man Armor who murdered a number of the townspeople, including Vanko's father in an attempt to frame Tony Stark for the crime.

Using a specialized rifle, Vanko was able to shoot the impostor just before he fled, causing the chest plate on the armor to come off. Vanko became obsessed with exacting vengeance on Stark, still believing him to be the man who attacked his village, and decided to use the chest plate to fashion a suitable weapon to do so. Over the next six months, he reverse engineered a suit of body armor equipped with energy whips, and vowed to kill Stark in order to avenge his father.

After breaking into the prison where Stark was being held for his alleged crimes, Vanko killed several guards and attempted to track down and murder Stark and his confidant Pepper Potts. Stark fought off Vanko using a crude suit of Iron Man armor fashioned from parts of various machines around the prison, and forced him to flee.

File:Anton Vanko (Whiplash) (Earth-616) 0012.jpg

Fighting Iron Man

After Stark tracked down the criminal syndicate who framed him, Vanko arrived at their headquarters, intent on finishing off Iron Man once and for all. It was there that Vanko learned that Stark was indeed framed and that the syndicate was hired to destroy Volstok by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in order to wipe out an activist who was creating anti-Putin sentiments. Despite learning of Iron Man's innocence, Vanko made one final attempt to kill him, claiming that even though he did not destroy the village, his technology did. After the building caught fire, both men were ultimately forced to run to safety, and Vanko made his escape. Stark was later cleared of his alleged crimes, and helped rebuild Volstok. Vanko had no part in it, and instead went to Moscow, approaching Putin's residence in the Red Square and preparing to properly exact vengeance next time around.

More recently, he joined Shadow Council's Masters of Evil along many other supervillains, in Max Fury's attempt to unleash the Abyss from a tri-crown and conquer the world.

Heist

Whiplash was one of the many villains of Iron Man gathered by Spymaster in his plan to assault the Stark Tower after the Avengers left Earth to battle the Builders.

Once in the Stark Tower, Spymaster used teleporter discs to teleport some Iron Man Armors to his buyers, but he escaped and left Firebrand and the rest of his accomplices to be discovered by the heroes which were using the tower as a base. They managed to defeat the heroes, and they were offered to be taken to Spymaster by Titanium Man. When they arrived to a spaceship where Spymaster was, they were ambushed by him and Titanium Man, who revealed himself as Captain Atlas of the Kree, the buyer.

They managed to escape custody and started fighting Spymaster, Titanium Man and the army of Iron Men, controlled by the first. The actual Iron Man arrived to the spaceship, after having tracked down the armors, and helped Whiplash and his allies defeat the enemies. After winning, Blizzard froze himself along with Iron Man in order to let his friends escape.

Attributes

Power Grid

Powers

None

Abilities

Vanko is a skilled athlete and has great knowledge of technology, as he was able to make his armor from a destroyed piece of Stark Technology.

Weaknesses

A hard enough impact will cause his armor to lock up.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

• Whiplash Armor: A suit of armor crafted from the Iron Man Mark 16 armor and equipped with two electrically charged whips in the wrists. The whips are strong enough to slice through a metal staircase and can deflect bullets or be spun like propellers for limited flight. A pair of infrared contact lenses that give him night vision and the ability to perceive thermographic images through solid objects.

Weapons

Two whips constructed from the copper wires of the electromagnetic motor that powers the Mark 16 armor's weaponry. The whips are spring loaded and can extend up to 25 feet in length. The whips can be used for a variety of offensive and defensive maneuvers, Whiplash primarily uses them for slicing through solid objects, but he can also reverse their polarity and use them as grappling weapons or spin them to use for defensive purposes such as deflecting bullets or for limited flight.

Notes

• This character was created shortly before the movie Iron Man 2 premiered as a way to introduce a comic version of the Whiplash presented in that film, who wasn't very accurate to any other version of Whiplash created in the comics.
• Originally, Anton Vanko had short black hair, and used a green wig as Whiplash. In his most recent appearance in Infinity: Heist, he had long blond hair, and didn't use a wig as Whiplash.

Trivia

• Whiplash has the same name as the original Crimson Dynamo, though the two are in no way related.

See Also

• 44 appearance(s) of Anton Vanko (Whiplash) (Earth-616)
• 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Anton Vanko (Whiplash) (Earth-616)
• 2 minor appearance(s) of Anton Vanko (Whiplash) (Earth-616)
• 4 mention(s) of Anton Vanko (Whiplash) (Earth-616)
• 2 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Anton Vanko (Whiplash) (Earth-616)
• 56 image(s) of Anton Vanko (Whiplash) (Earth-616)
• 1 quotation(s) by or about Anton Vanko (Whiplash) (Earth-616)
• 1 victim(s) killed by Anton Vanko (Whiplash) (Earth-616)
• 1 item(s) used/owned by Anton Vanko (Whiplash) (Earth-616)

Links and References

• Anton Vanko (Whiplash) on Marvel.com
• http://www.comicbookdb.com/character.php?ID=38636