Whiplash (Earth-616)

Whiplash is a supervillain appearing Marvel Comics. A Legacy Character, the identity has been assumed by four individuals. The character first appeared in Tales of Suspense #97 (Jan. 1968) and was created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan.

Publication History
Marco Scarlotti first appeared as Whiplash in Tales of Suspense #97-99 (Jan.-March 1968), with the storyline resolved in Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1 (April 1968) and Iron Man #1 (May 1968). For much of his publication history, his civilian identity was Mark Scott.

Whiplash becomes a recurring foe for Iron Man, and appeared in Iron Man #62 (Sept. 1973); #72 (Jan. 1974) and Marvel Team-Up #72 (Aug. 1978). The character returned in Iron Man #123-124 (June-July 1979) and #126-127 (Sept.-Oct. 1979), and then returned as the upgraded "Blacklash" in Iron Man #146 -147 (May-June 1981). Scarlotti made a brief appearance as Whiplash in Marvel Two-In-One #96 (Feb. 1983).

The character battled both Iron Man and Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up #145 (Sept. 1984) and reappeared in Spectacular Spider-Man #101 (Apr. 1985) and Captain America #319 (Sept. 1986). Blacklash joined supervillain team the Sinister Syndicate in Amazing Spider-Man #280 - 281 (Sept.-Oct. 1986) and featured as a mercenary in Iron Man #223-224 (Oct.-Nov. 1987); Iron Man #239 - 240 (Feb.-March 1989) and Amazing Spider-Man #319 (Sept. 1989).

The character eventually reappeared in Iron Man vol. 2, #8 (Sept. 1998) and #26 (March 2000), before being killed in battle in #28 (May 2000).

After Scalotti's death, the name Whiplash was used used by a mutant named Leann Foreman, who first appeared in Marvel Comics Presents (Vol 1) #49 Unlike Scalotti, she had genuine superpowers. She was primarily a foe of Spider-Man and Wolverine, and eventually changed her codename to Snake-Whip.

During the Civil War storyline, two new villains called Whiplash and Blacklash appear, although neither has connections to Scarlotti or Foreman. The pair are forcibly recruited into the team the Thunderbolts. Their identities were never revealed.

A fourth Whiplash, heavily based on the MCU version, was introduced in a four issue miniseries titled, appropriately enough, Iron Man vs Whiplash.

Whiplash I
Marco Scarlotti is originally a gifted electrical technician, but desires a life of luxury and becomes a professional criminal. With a costume and a sophisticated metal whip of his own design, the character becomes Whiplash, a weapons designer, special agent, and assassin for the criminal organization the Maggia. Whiplash gains a fearsome reputation as an enforcer and executioner for Giulietta Nefaria, then operating under the name "Big M." Whiplash was providing security on an floating casino owned by Nefaria when Morgan Stark ran up debts he couldn't pay. Nefaria is about to have Whiplash "make an example out of him" when they see a news broadcast about detailing how Iron Man was rendered near comatose after a recent battle with the Grey Gargoyle. Due to the armor's failsafes, the best hope is for it's life support systems to eventually revive him. Morgan insists that he can use his familial credentials to sneak into the facility where Iron Man is recovering and bring him to Nefaria. Morgan bluffs his way into the facility and has Iron Man loaded into his car. Unbeknownst to Morgan, Tony has partially regained consciousness partially recharges his armor with the car's cigarette-lighter adapter. He plays possum until he gets to Nefaria's base, at that point, he recovers and makes short work of Nefaria's low level henchmen. It is then that Whiplash enters the fray, eager to finally face a worthy opponent. Whiplash's electrified titanium whip proves to pack a powerful bite, and he easily overpowers Iron Man. The Armored Avenger only manages to escape due to the distraction provided when A.I.M., making their own play to secure Iron Man's armor. In the ensuing fracas, Whiplash single handedly dispatches several A.I.M. stormtroopers, but is knocked out by Iron Man when he attacks Jasper Sitwell, who had arrived leading the S.H.I.E.L.D. rescue effort.

Under the name Mark Scott - an Anglicized form of his real name, Scarlotti is assigned to work undercover for the Maggia at Stark International's Cincinnati plant, and becomes Head of Research for the development of an orbital space station. As Whiplash, Scarlotti then has another inconclusive battle with Iron Man and flees the scene, quitting the Maggia. Whiplash, together with fellow supervillains the Melter and Man-Bull, is recruited by other-dimensional villain the Black Lama to form the team the Death Squad and fight Iron Man. They enter a "super-villain war" to win the Black Lama's Golden Globe of Power, but are all defeated.

Whiplash rejoins the Maggia and battles Spider-Man and Iron Man in New Jersey, eventually being defeated by the vigilante Wraith. He later enters an arrangement with Justin Hammer: Hammer will provide him with legal protection and upgraded weaponry in exchange for 50% of the revenue from his criminal enterprises. He teams with the Melter and the original Blizzard in an attempt to rob an Atlantic City casino, but are stopped by Iron Man. Whiplash is released from prison by Hammer and leads a team of costumed mercenaries against Iron Man when he attacks Hammer's floating fortress. Though defeated, Hammer is impressed enough with Whiplash that he becomes his primary executioner - if anyone signed a contract with Hammer but failed to uphold their end of deal, then Whiplash would dispose of them.

Scarlotti is re-employed by an unnamed consortium, financed by Hammer, to kill Stark employee Vic Martinelli, and is provided with an upgraded costume and weaponry and the new alias Blacklash. Despite the upgrades, however, Scarlotti is defeated by Iron Man and humiliated by being dragged before his employers. Scarlotti makes a brief appearance as Whiplash as a paid employee of the master villain the Mad Thinker in a failed attempt to kill Thing who is recuperating at a New York hospital.

Scarlotti is eventually diagnosed as manic-depressive by prison psychiatrists. He attempts to reform, but rejected by his parents and residents of his home town, Scarlotti becomes Blacklash again. Blacklash attempts an assassination for the Maggia but is defeated by the second Iron Man and Spider-Man. Spider-Man beats Blacklash once again and is also apprehended by Captain America while committing several robberies. After joining the supervillain team the Sinister Syndicate in a failed attempt to kill Spider-Man, Blacklash is rehired by Justin Hammer and sent with the Beetle and the second Blizzard to assassinate Hammer's former agent Force. Iron Man, Jim Rhodes and Force, however, defeat the trio.

At Hammer's request Blacklash, Boomerang, and the second Blizzard stop industrial sabotage by the vigilante the Ghost. Blacklash is sent to work with Iron Man and Jim Rhodes against the saboteur, but betrays them. Together with Spider-Man villain the Rhino, Blacklash hunts down fellow rogue agent the Scorpion, who fails to return stolen weaponry to Hammer.

Scarlotti decides to renounce his criminal identity and marries and has a child. A lack of money forces Scarlotti to assume his identity again, and he becomes the target of an assassin, who kills his wife when she returns to their apartment. As Blacklash, Scarlotti then finds and kills the assassin, and vows to abandon the identity of Blacklash forever. Scarlotti, however, is hired by a rival of Stark and returns as Whiplash, with an upgraded costume and new weaponry. Whiplash manages to battle Iron Man to a standstill in their first encounter, but is killed several weeks later by Iron Man's new sentient armor, which crushes Scarlotti's throat against Iron Man's wishes.

Whiplash IV
The fourth Whiplash, Anton Igorovich "Ivan" Vanko, was a young electrical engineer from the Russian village of Volstok. One day, a terrorist in stolen Iron Man armor attacked the village, killing numerous townspeople, including Vanko's father. Vanko had managed to shoot the assailant with a modified rifle, knocking off its chestplate, but the assailant was nevertheless able to flee. Believing that Iron Man was responsible for the attack, Vanko used the discarded piece of armor to reverse engineer an armored battlesuit for himself. After learning that Iron Man had been arrested by the Winter Guard, Vanko attempted to infiltrate the prison where he was being held. Stark had managed to make a makeshift armor, similar to the Mark One, out of scraps, but barely managed to hold his own against his fierce opponent. Iron Man cleared his name, eventually proving that the impostor was part of a hardline faction, the Iron Axis. However, Vanko remains an enemy, telling Iron Man that even though he did not personally destroy his hometown, his technology did.

Vanko is one of four criminals hired by Spymaster to carry out the Infinity Heist, alongside Blizzard, Whirlwind, Unicorn, and Firebrand.

Powers and abilities
Scarlotti was a normal human with no extranormal abilities, but his strength and physicality was on par with that of an Olympic level athlete. He was a highly skilled skilled martial artist, trained in the use of rope darts, bolas, and nunchuku. As a research engineer and weapons design specialist, with a college degree in engineering, he had a genius level intellect, but this was occasionally hampered by his mental illness, which occasionally drove him to impulsive actions. He wore a bulletproof costume and wielded a cybernetically-controlled titanium whip that could extend to be swung fast enough to deflect bullets, or become rigid and be used as nunchaku or vaulting-poles. Towards he the end of his career he wielded a blue "kinetic" whip and a red energy whip, with a cat-o-nine tails as a close quarter backup weapon.

Foreman was a mutant, and was implied to have some degree of healing powers, as a slash to the face by Wolverine's claws did not leave any visible scarring. She had gauntlets on her wrists with retractable adamantium cables.

Vanko had a genius level intellect, being able to forge his own battlesuit after reverse engineering detritus from a knockoff of Iron Man's Model 29 Armor. He modified himself with cybernetics to an unspecified degree, augmenting his strength. He also had gauntlets on his wrists with retractable cables, but his were capable of extending up to 25 feet, and could be kinetically charged similar to the whips Scarlotti used toward the end of his career. The lenses in the helmet enable him to see in multiple light spectrums, including infrared.

Trivia

 * There are no current trivia available on this topic.