‘Iron Man 2’ First Still of Mickey Rourke as Whiplash!!

USA Today has posted the first official photograph of Mickey Rourke as villain Whiplash in the upcoming Iron Man 2 today. Director Jon Favreau (who is turning out to be pretty much the best director for a superhero movie EVER) has been tweeting on Twitter just exactly how the hell production of the movie is coming in addition to set pics, and now he has finally graced your newspaper with a legitimate photo of the main villain of Iron Man 2. Whiplash's real identity is Russian Ivan Vanko.

First off you can totally tell how touched-up the movie is going to be. I say this because Rourke looks buff which, after seeing The Wrestler and watching The Academy Awards this year, we know he is not. Second, Whiplash is sporting a power suit, one that seems very alike to that of Robert Downey Jr. In an interview with USA Today, Favreau said that "the technologies are definitely related. That's part of the core theme of the film." It's explained (by whom, I'm unaware) online that Whiplash is at the Monaco Historic Grand Prix in the still, although Favreau refuses to discuss more about whether or not the movie character is a weapons designer for competitor company Tony Stark like in the comic. "We like to play into and against the expectations that people might have, so we mixed it up a bit," says Favreau.

Director says that Rourke's work in Sin City and The Wrestler helped him decide to cast him onto his movie. "It was very important that the villain be as compelling as can be. … Once I thought of Mickey in that role, it made me understand how to shape the story."

Could Iron Man 2 out-make Iron Man's $318.4 million when it starts May 7^th, 2010? My guess is that if it's anywhere near as good as the Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight was, it should bring in some big bucks.