Tweet

The folks at Paramount Pictures have begun releasing images every few weeks from their biggest tentpole of 2010, Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2. This week’s entry into the album — which will likely have about 900 pictures in it by the time the film actually comes out — is a first look at Mickey Rourke as the film’s villain Whiplash.

The photo, which is courtesy of USA Today, shows Ivan Vanko (aka Whiplash) wearing his self-made armor at the Monaco Historic Grand Prix. Director Jon Favreau confirmed for the rag that Whiplash’s suit is using technology that is “definitely related” to the tech behind Tony Stark’s Iron Man suits, which is “part of the core theme of the film.”

From here, this appears to be Whiplash’s “I just broke out of prison” look, leaving me to believe that there might be more advanced versions of a suit later on in the film — which would be wicked. All-in-all, Rourke doesn’t look very menacing in this photo — in fact he looks ready for a South Beach retirement. But as you know with villains, it’s attitude attitude attitude. And that won’t be ready for our eyes until we see a first trailer.

Check out the image below and hit up a high-res version over at Screenrant.