Mickey Rourke as Whiplash

Strapped up in a Leather Pride look that’s been in vogue for villains since Mad Max, here’s Mickey Rourke hooked up as Whiplash for Iron Man 2. USA Today discreetly ignores those fashion antecedents:

Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) sports a power pack on his chest that looks similar to the one used by Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.). “The technologies are definitely related, and that’s part of the core theme of the film,” says director Jon Favreau.

…Among the creative alterations: a pair of whips, powered by the suit’s glowing chest piece, expected to keep Iron Man cracking. Whiplash “is going to light them up,” says Rourke.

Screen Rant got this giant version of the still directly from Paramount. (The breastplate reminds me of Gladiator and Jake LaMotta’s championship belt, too.)

Exactly 2 weeks before Iron Man 2 opens next Spring, we’ll see Rourke in The Expendables where he plays a tool. [Excuse me, I’m being told his character’s name is Tool.] Over the next several months, Mickey Rourke gets to play relatively normal humans again in 13, Broken Horses, and St. Vincent, but the only upcoming project I’m really looking forward to is Larry Clark’s remake of Mona Lisa, where he’ll reinterpret the classic Bob Hoskins role as an ex-con turned hooker chauffeur. That’s be 2011.