Mickey Rourke as Whiplash

First images came through today of Mickey Rourke as Whiplash, a villain in Iron Man 2. Being a fan of the first Iron Man, and greatly looking forward to the sequel, I honestly don't know how I feel about this get-up.

Mickey Rourke certainly looks like a bad-ass, but of course, he doesn't need all the extra gear to achieve that look. It looks like the original Iron Man power supply is intact, considering the glowing white spot on his chest, so this is clearly a Stark Enterprises invention. But this isn't what I expected when I first heard the Whiplash would be in the movie.

I'll admit, I was never a big Iron Man fan growing up; I stuck mostly with Spider-Man and the X-Men. But these movies actually have me enjoying the character. However, my ignorance of his enemies has me baffled over what to expect, which is good and bad. The bad is I expect things that will likely never come to fruition, such as in an instance like this. I just imagined that Whiplash's costume would be full bodied, not the few attachments along a bare man's chest (not to mention the orange tunic that he is wearing).

But the positive side of my ignorance is that I most likely won't be disappointed when cannon is changed. Not knowing anything about the characters means that I won't know what's been left out. As it stands, Whiplash might as well be a bare-chested muscle head (even if he isn't) and it won't matter one whit to me.

But all chest-hairs aside, I am excited about Iron Man 2. Hopefully, it will be as good as the original, and not suffer the same fate as Fantastic Four 2.