Characters / MCU: Hammer Advanced Weapons Systems

Main Character Index > Villainous Individuals and Organizations > White Collar Criminals > Hammer Advanced Weapons Systems | AIM

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Spoilers for all works set prior to the end of Avengers: Endgame are unmarked.

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Hammer Advanced Weapons Systems

In General

Hammer Industries

Appearances: Iron Man 2 | Luke Cage

A weapons manufacturer company led by Justin Hammer.

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• Always Second Best: They appear to be this to Stark Industries. For instance, they only became the primary weapon contractors for the U.S. Armed Forces after Stark Industries stopped manufacturing weapons.
• Evil, Inc.: They are basically what Stark Industries used to be before Tony's change of heart, if not worse. They have no ethical issue with manufacturing dangerous weapons and collaborating with criminals.
• Incompetence, Inc.: Very few of their products actually work properly, with a missile that was supposed to level buildings failing to even tickle a single man, demonstrating serious quality control problems. According to Tony, their technology is at least 20 years behind Stark Industries. However, by the time of Luke Cage they have become much more competent.
• MegaCorp: Not as much as Stark Industries, but still counts.
• Took a Level in Badass: By Luke Cage, Hammer Industries has exceeded in the failures of the past by creating smarter, deadlier weapons, such as the "Judas" bullet, crafted from Chitauri metal and able to penetrate otherwise impervious materials. The bullet is essentially the "Ex-Wife" done right. It's likely that without Hammer's "oversight" the company was actually able to get things done.

Leadership

Justin Hammer

Justin Hammer

"I wanna make Iron Man look like an antique."

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Portrayed By: Sam Rockwell

Voiced By: José Antonio Macías (Latin-American Spanish dub), José Javier Serrano (European Spanish dub), Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese dub), Guillaume Lebon (French dub), Gilbert Lachance (Canadian French dub), David Nathan (German dub)

Appearances: Iron Man 2 | All Hail the King

"We all know why we're here – in the last six months Anthony Stark has created a sword with untold possibilities, and yet he insists it's a shield. He asks that we trust him as we cower behind it."

CEO of Hammer Industries, and a (self-perceived) rival of Tony Stark. He forges a temporary alliance with Ivan Vanko, but the latter makes use of his resources to try and assassinate Tony Stark and attack his expo.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: In the comics Hammer is much older, originally modelled after Peter Cushing. In the MCU, however, he is played by Sam Rockwell, an actor often seen as sexy.
• Adaptational Comic Relief: His comics counterpart is more cynical and has hatred of Tony Stark rather than jovial rivalry.
• Adaptational Dumbass: This version of Hammer was presented as being the pawn of Vanko. The Hammer of the comics was smart enough to a be a skilled manipulator in his own right; in fact, the events of the "Demon in a Bottle" were, among other things, due to Hammer's manipulating things to screw with Tony and he was the Big Bad of the "Armor Wars" story.
• Adaptational Nationality: American here, his comic book counterpart is British with a citizenship in Monaco.
• Affably Evil: Despite being pleasant and professional, Hammer is not above bombings, prison breaks, and keeping people prisoner.
• Age Lift: His comics counterpart is much older.
• Always Someone Better: He's driven by his jealousy of Tony Stark.
• Ambiguously Bi: In Iron Man 2, he is briefly seen with Christine Everhart who seemingly flirted with him... until she left him when Tony told her Hammer lost his contract with the Government. He also calls Tony gorgeous. In the short film All Hail the King, Hammer has a boyfriend who constantly follows him and strokes his shoulder to comfort him (Justin even calls him "baby").
• Attention Whore: When making his introduction at the Stark Expo, he shows off his dancing skills just to try and impress the audience.
• Big Bad Wannabe: He is using Vanko to further his plans to catch up to Tony with the tech Vanko designs for him. The reality is that Vanko's plans are much more immediate and violent.
• But Not Too White: During his first meeting with Vanko his palms are visibly stained, indicating that he forgot to wash the fake tan off his hands after applying it.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: For all his villainous aspirations, he's just a rich eccentric and plain weird.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Springs a violent genius felon out of prison to help advance his company's technology.
• Driven by Envy: He helps get Vanko out of prison so he can make his Hammer drones, all for the sake of catching up with Tony Stark.
• Evil Counterpart: To Tony Stark, only not a natural genius. It's really driven home during his display at the expo where he tries dancing his way onto the stage in a display of showmanship to a very underwhelmed audience, who responded extremely well to Tony Stark for just showing up in the Iron Man suit.
• Evil Plan: Tries one for his company, intending on catching up to Tony Stark's Iron Man suit technology, with support from the US Military, only for Vanko to throw it all away for an attempt at killing Iron Man instead.
• Faux Affably Evil: Justin Hammer can act like your best friend when it's clear the man can't stand your guts.
• First-Name Basis: He's the only one to call Tony Anthony.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He envies Tony Stark's natural talent, popularity, and inherited fortune. His technology throughout the film is described as resembling a knock-off from Stark Tech. Heck, most of his motivation in the film is to catch up to Tony Stark's Iron Man technology.
• Hidden Depths: He shows himself to be a very capable dancer at the Stark Expo when making his introduction.
• Ignored Enemy: Despite Justin Hammer's efforts, Tony Stark barely acknowledges him.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Aside from his efforts at being either a respected businessman or a crafty villain, it’s hard not to feel sorry for the poor guy.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: He's not half as smart as Tony Stark, but he makes himself out to be Tony's rival.
• Large Ham: Being an Evil Counterpart of Tony Stark, Justin Hammer needed to be a large ham like Stark. All Hail the King even has Hammer complaining about Trevor Slattery overdoing it — both represent how Evil Is Hammy, but Hammer does it without the need to overact!
• Lethally Stupid: Thought it would be a good idea to break a known crook out of prison and order the Genius Bruiser around.
• More Dakka: His drones are equipped with even more weapons and ammunition than Iron Man. Tony lampshades it about Rhodey's War Machine armor that Hammer outfitted.
  Tony: You have a big gun, you aren't the big gun.
  Rhodey: Tony, don't be jealous.
  Tony: No, it's subtle, all the bells and whistles.
  Rhodey: Yeah, it's called being a Badass.
• Motor Mouth: Often speaks in fast and rambling sentences much like Tony Stark's own Motor Mouth.
• Never My Fault: As he's detained and hauled off by the police, he immediately blames Pepper for trying to "weed out the competition", not even considering that he's being arrested for breaking several laws throughout the movie.
• Non-Action Guy: He's not combat capable obviously - another reason Vanko doesn't fear him.
• Put on a Prison Bus: Arrested by the authorities after his complicity with Vanko's crimes was exposed. He is sent to Seagate Penitentiary and makes a brief cameo in All Hail the King short.
• Sinister Sweet Tooth: He's eating ice cream when he meets up with Ivan and sucking on a lollipop while presenting weapons to Rhodes (pictured above) and confessed to Ivan that "I like my dessert first".
• Smug Snake: He has the same ego and smarmy social skills as Tony but nowhere near the genius to back it up like Tony can.

Employees

Jack

Jack

"It's a beautiful bird!"

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Portrayed By: Jack White

Appearances: Iron Man 2

Justin Hammer's personal assistant and butler.

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• Ascended Extra: His actor Jack White was originally hired as the food stylist who prepared and served the salmon carpaccio to Vanko in the aircraft hangar, but he ended up appearing in several scenes as Hammer's assistant.
• Canon Foreigner: He isn't based on any characters from the comics.
• The Danza: He shares his first name with the actor who portrayed him, Jack White.
• Evil Counterpart: Being Justin Hammer's assistant and butler, he can be considered as one to either Pepper Potts or Happy Hogan. He isn't that much evil, though.
• Minion with an F in Evil: He may be working for Hammer, but he doesn't do anything really evil himself and come across as a pretty pleasant guy.
• Non-Action Guy: He doesn't appear to have any combat skills, and doesn't intervene at all when his boss get tackled by Natasha Romanoff and later taken in custody by police officers.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. There are plenty of other characters named Jack (or similar names) within the MCU (Jack Taggart, Jack Rollins, Jack Murdoch...).
• Old Retainer: It's not clear how long he has been working for Hammer, but he's quite older than him and seems entirely loyal to him.
• Only One Name: His last name is never mentioned, he's only referred as "Jack" throughout the movie, even in the credits.
• Personal Mook: He serves as Justin Hammer's personal assistant, butler, waiter, porter and possibly driver as well.
• Punch-Clock Villain: While he has apparently no problem with the fact that his boss has organized the escape of a dangerous criminal which resulted in several people's death, he doesn't seems particularily evil, just happening to work for the wrong person.
• Satellite Character: He is Justin Hammer's assistant, and that's pretty much all there is to say about him. He barely interacts with anyone else during the movie except Vanko on brief occasions.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: On Hammer's orders, he tried to to fit his head into that of a drone, even though it had no openings and was clearly too small. Predictably, it didn't work.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He's last seen running away from the premises after Justin Hammer got arrested. It's unknown what happened to him afterwards, and if he got arrested for his complicity or not.
• Yes-Man: He tends to agree with everything his boss says even when he's blatantly lying, notably when he tried to pass off some random bird as Vanko's pet and (falsely) complimented it.
  Vanko: This is not my bird.
  Hammer: What do you mean? That's the bird! This is the bird! Yeah! I pulled a lot of strings to get this bird. This is a great bird!
  Jack: It's a beautiful bird!
  

Hammer's henchmen

Hammer's henchmen

Species: Humans

Citizenship: American

Appearances: Iron Man 2

Two henchmen of Justin Hammer.

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• Bag of Kidnapping: After taking Vanko's bird, they put it in a bag.
• Bloodless Carnage: Partially averted, as we can see blood on Vanko's hands after he killed them.
• Dead Guy on Display: After killing them, Vanko hangs them in the control room. Their dead bodies are later found by Black Widow and Happy Hogan when they come to arrest Vanko.
• Giant Mook: They are both beefy guys, and Hammer thinks they're strong enough to deal with Ivan Vanko. He's wrong, though.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Their deaths were apparently quite bloody, thankfully they only happen offscreen.
• Informed Ability: According to Justin Hammer, they are tough guys that Vanko shouldn't try to mess with. However, Vanko didn't seem to have much trouble killing them.
• Kick the Dog: On Hammer's order, one of them takes Vanko's bird from him in a brutal manner.
• Killed Offscreen: Both of them are killed by Vanko, but their deaths aren't shown onscreen.
• No Name Given: We don't get any name for either of them.
• Poke the Poodle: Hammer orders them to take Vanko's pillows. Both of them. And his shoes.
• The Voiceless: Neither of them has any lines of dialogue.

Hammer Technician

Hammer Technician

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Portrayed By: Brian Schaeffer

Appearances: Iron Man 2

A technician of Hammer Industries.

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• Enemy Mine: When the drones start wreaking havoc at Stark Expo, he's willing to help Pepper Potts find a solution, even though she works for a rival company.
• No Name Given: His name is never said during the film.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: He wears a huge pair of glasses and seems to be one the few Hammer Industries employees to be somewhat competent at their job.
• Token Good Teammate: Despite working for Hammer Industries, he does his best to help Pepper stop the drones' attack and tells her everything he knows.
• You Look Familiar: His actor Brian Schaeffer played other minor roles in several MCU films.

Hammer Security Guards

Hammer Security Guards

Species: Humans

Citizenship: American

Appearances: Iron Man 2

The security guards at the Hammer Industries facility.

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• Blinded by the Light: At one point, Black Widow uses flash bombs to temporarily blind two guards before attacking them.
• Boxing Battler: Happy Hogan engages in a crude boxing match against one of the guards.
• Cherry Tapping: After beating all the others in pretty awesome ways, Black Widow ends up defeating the last security guard with a pepper spray, without even looking.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: While it's very easy for Black Widow to defeat a large number of guards, Happy Hogan struggles to fight a single one of them.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: All the guards who confront Black Widow are defeated without any difficulty. Averted with the one fighting Happy Hogan, who manages to put quite a hard fight.
• Ear Ache: When fighting one of the guards, Happy eventually gains the upper hand after biting his opponent's ear.
• Groin Attack: Black Widow neutralizes a guard by hitting him in the groin.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: It's ridiculously easy for Happy Hogan and especially Black Widow to break into their building and defeat all of them.
• A Handful for an Eye: During the fight against Black Widow, two guards are blinded by the smoke of her flash bombs, and another one gets pepper-sprayed in the eyes shortly after.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Black Widow steals a guard's pepper spray at some point, and then uses it to defeat another guard.
• Lawman Baton: At least one of them uses a baton to attack Black Widow.
• The Man They Couldn't Hang: One of the guards ends up hanged, but he struggles so much that he apparently manages to survive.
• Mooks: They are Justin Hammer's minions, and their only purpose in the movie is to be defeated in various ways by Black Widow in order to show how badass she is.
• Mook Chivalry: For the most part, they only try to fight Black Widow one or two at a time. To be fair, those hallways are rather narrow.
• Punch-Clock Villain: The only reason the security guards oppose Black Widow and Happy Hogan is because they did broke into the building they are supposed to protect. Technically, the guards are just doing their job.
• Would Hit a Girl: None of them appear to have issue with fighting Black Widow. In their defense, she's the one who attacked first.

Products

Hammer Drones

Hammer Drones

Species: Drones

Citizenship: None

Portrayed By: N/A

Appearances: Iron Man 2

An army of drones created by Hammer Industries to be sold to the military. They started as Powered Armors similar to Iron Man's suits, but Ivan Vanko was recruited to work on them and decided to change them to drones in order to hack them and use them in his plans to take revenge on Tony Stark.

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• Action Bomb: They're revealed to be this at the end of the final battle, when it turns out all the drones (as well as Whiplash's armor) have a Self-Destruct Mechanism that Vanko is planning to use as a last attempt to kill the heroes.
• Airborne Mook: All the drones are able to fly, but the Air Force Drones are the best example as they primarily attack the hero while flying in mid-air, whereas the other drones usually attack from the ground.
• Alien Blood: Every time they are torn apart by the heroes, they bleed oil. Justified, since they are robots after all.
• All There in the Manual: Some details about the Hammer Drones not shown in the movie are revealed in the Guidebook to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, such as the facts that the Navy Drones have fixed-point coil lasers, the Air Force Drones have thermal vision vortex ring guns, and the Marine Drones have high-definition cameras.
• American Robot: Subverted. At first, Justin Hammer tries to pass them off as this. The drones were built to serve in the U.S. Armed Force, they come in Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine models, and every model has a specialist weapon or device attached to it (an autocannon for the Army, missile launchers for the Navy, high-speed flight systems for the Air Force, and close-range machine guns for the Marines). Too bad Ivan Vanko has different plans for them...
• Animated Armor: Initially, they were created to be simple armors that have to be piloted by someone inside of them. However, when Ivan Vanko was recruited to work with Hammer, he decided to turn the armors into drones capable of moving on their own, without needing any pilots.
• Anti-Air: This is pretty much the Army Drones' job, as they are the ones charged with firing at Iron Man while he's flying in the air. They fail to actually hit him though, but they accidentally shoot down one of the Air Force Drones.
• Anti-Climax: After Justin Hammer and Ivan Vanko spent a large part of the movie building an army of robots supposedly capable of challenging Iron Man, you'd be forgiven for expecting an epic showdown between them and the heroes during the climax... Instead, after the (admittedly pretty cool) Chase Scene, Iron Man and War Machine manage to easily defeat all of them in less than a minute.
• Arm Cannon: The drones all have machine guns mounted in their arms, as well as missile launchers in the case of the Air Force and the Marine Drones, and also multigrenade launchers for the Army Drones.
• Artistic License – Gun Safety: All the drones have their weapons fully loaded, despite the fact that they weren't expected to perform any live fire demonstrations during the presentation. Granted, this was probably Vanko's doing, but it's still odd that nobody involved in transporting them to the expo tried to check first.
• Artistic License – Military: Even though they are supposed to be "the new face of the United States Military", there are only four different lines of drones (one for the U.S. Army, one for the Navy, one for the Air Force and one for the Marine Corps), while there are five branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. For some reason, the United States Coast Guard is the only one that was not included (maybe Justin Hammer simply forgot it even existed?).
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Once they are activated, they do nothing but attack Iron Man over and over, no matter what. Even when one of them crashes into an advertising screen, it immediately gets up and keeps attacking the hero like nothing happened. Justified, as it's in their program to specifically target Iron Man.
• Attack Drone: They are an army of fully weaponized drones created for combat, and at the climax of the movie, Ivan Vanko remotely controls them to attack the heroes.
• Backpack Cannon: The Air Force Drones have machine guns mounted on their back, allowing them to shoot at their target while flying.
• Badass Army: They are an army of flying robots armed with missile launchers and autocannons that are supposed to replace the U.S. militaries. Slightly subverted in that they're not badass enough to defeat Iron Man and War Machine, though (admittedly, this is not exactly an easy task).
• BFG: All the Army Drones have a shoulder-mounted autocannon that is certainly big enough to qualify.
• The Blank: Unlike Iron Man's and Whiplash's armors, or even their previous design, the Hammer Drones lack anything resembling a human face, eyes or a mouth.
• Boom, Headshot! / Your Head A-Splode: During the battle inside the Oracle Dome, War Machine blows off one of the Marine Drones' head with his guns before spraying the rest of its body with bullets.
  • Just before, Iron Man breaks a Marine Drone's head into pieces by kicking it with his knee, then crushes its remaining corpse with his elbow.
• Bottomless Magazines: Kind of justified, actually. Even though they fire an astonishing number of bullets at the heroes, the fact that they were converted into drones without pilots inside them means the recovered space could have been used to provide them with more ammunition.
  • In addition, the trope is partially averted as the Navy Drones eventually run out of missiles, and the Army Drones never use their autocannons during the battle inside the Oracle Dome, implying they are short of ammunition. Plus, it can be easily assumed that all the drones that tried to fight the heroes hand-to-hand did so because they were out of bullets.
• Bullet Sparks: In the final battle, they fire plenty of bullets on the heroes, which make lots and lots of sparks.
• Cannon Fodder: It's implied the drones' real purpose is to get destroyed by Iron Man and War Machine's weapons so that they will be out of ammo when Whiplash arrives.
• Chase Scene: The Air Force Drones have a pretty memorable one near the end of the film, where they pursue the protagonist all around Stark Expo, until they get all destroyed thanks to some Wronski Feints.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The drones have repulsors that leave a blue-ish trail when they are activated, making it easier to differentiate them from Iron Man and War Machine (who both have brighter colors) in scenes where they are all flying.
  • In addition, each of the four line-up of drones has a different color, which also helps a bit to tell them apart.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Averted. When the Hammer Drones attack in great numbers, Iron Man and War Machine manage to deal with them without too much trouble, and when faced against a single drone, they can defeat it just as easily, as seen with the one that tried to shoot a child.
• Cranial Processing Unit: Destroying their heads seems to be a pretty effective way to kill them, as seen on several occasions during the final fight.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: They didn't do particularly well against Iron Man and War Machine, to say the least. During the battle inside the Oracle Dome, they all end up destroyed in barely a minute.
• Cyber Cyclops: All of them have a rectangular camera on their face that they use to see, making them look like this trope.
• Dark Is Evil: They have rather dark colors, and serve as the Big Bad's army.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Played with. They all explode shortly after being defeated, however it's due to Vanko activating their Self-Destruct Mechanism rather than because of the defeat in itself (that being said, he activated it because he and his drones lost the battle...).
• Diagonal Cut: After Iron Man used his Death Blossom lasers to kill the last drones, a couple of them remain standing for a few seconds before collapsing, sliced in half.
• Disastrous Demonstration: Invoked. Vanko deliberately waits until the Hammer Drones are being displayed at Stark Expo as a big event before taking control of them and letting them cause mayhem.
• 11th-Hour Ranger: The Marine Drones stay dormant during the majority of the chase scene and are only activated near the end of it, just in time to join the other drones for the final fight against Iron Man and War Machine in the Oracle Dome.
• Elite Mooks: While they are still defeated without too much trouble by the heroes, the drones are definitely far more powerful and dangerous compared to the Hammer security guards. Heck, with all the firepower at their disposal, they're arguably some of the strongest and most destructive Mooks within the entire MCU.
• Everyone Chasing You: All the Air Force Drones plus War Machine chase Iron Man for several minutes during the finale, and later the other drones follow him to the Oracle Dome as well.
• Evil Is Bigger: Downplayed compared to Iron Monger, but the drones are at least one full head taller than human beings, including the heroes when they wear their Powered Armors.
• Evil Knockoff: The Hammer Drones are low-quality knockoffs of Iron Man's armors, designed to compete with him.
• Eye Lights Out: Downplayed. Some, but not all, of the drones have the light of their arc reactor fading off when they get killed.
• Faceless Goons: In comparison to Iron Man and War Machine, they have particularly non-human faces, which serves to dehumanize them and make sure that the audience won't empathize too much with them or feel too bad when they are violently massacred.
• Family-Unfriendly Violence: In the battle towards the end of the movie, the drones get slaughtered by the heroes in rather brutal ways, such as having their head blown off, getting cut in half or being smashed into pieces. Even if they are not flesh-and-blood, the way their oil is splattering every time they get hurt still makes it look like a bloodbath and can be a little disturbing to watch...
• Fake Ultimate Mook: Despite being supposed to "make Iron Man look like an antique", they all get beaten by him fairly easily, and are shown to have less efficient firepower and cannot take nearly as much damages as him.
• Flight: All of them have flight capability due to being designed with repulsor flight technology. The Air Force models in particular are skilled enough to effectively chase Iron Man throughout Stark Expo for a long period of time.
• Flying Firepower: In addition to having the ability to fly, they all have machine guns built in their wrist and are equipped with missile launchers, autocannons, grenade launchers and other firearms of all kinds.
• Four Is Death: There are four different lines of drones, each representing a branch of the U.S. Armed Force (even though there are actually five branches...), and they all are equally deadly Killer Robots.
• Friendly Fire: One of the Army Drones accidently shoots down an Air Force Drone that was chasing Iron Man, while targeting the latter. Shortly afterward, it happens again in the battle inside the Oracle Dome, where one of the drones fires a missile at Iron Man and hits the Marine Drone that was behind him.
• Glowing Mechanical Eyes: The rectangular cameras on the drones' faces that serve as their eyes are constantly glowing in blue light.
• Gone Horribly Right: Justin Hammer insisted to Vanko that he wanted the drones to steal the show. Well, they did... by wreaking havoc and causing panic at Stark Expo. Probably not the way he intended, but at least he can be sure that every newspaper is going to talk about it.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: From Justin Hammer's point of view at least, the drones presentation didn't exactly go as planned. From Ivan Vanko's view, on the other hand, everything went perfectly according to his plans.
• Grenade Launcher: The Army Drones all have a multigrenade launcher installed on their wrist.
• Geo Effects: When the drones arrive in the Oracle Dome, they surround Iron Man and War Machine from a much more elevated position, which according to Rhodey give them the advantage over the two of them in the ensuing battle. Subverted, as the drones loose the fight anyway.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: During the final battle, some drones' parts are used by Iron Man to do this to other drones
• Guilt-Free Extermination War: Being robots, they obviously feel nothing about killing the heroes, and unsurprisingly, neither do the heroes have any guilt about destroying them.
• Hack Your Enemy: They started off as Hammer Industries' products, but Vanko easily manages to hack them to make them become his own Mooks.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: At the end of the battle inside the Oracle Dome, all the remaining drones get sliced in two by Iron Man and his Death Blossom lasers.
• Heart Light: Just like Iron Man's, Iron Monger's, War Machine's and Whiplash's armors, the Hammer Drones have a glowing arc reactor installed in their chest that powers them.
• Heavily Armored Mook
• Hoist by His Own Petard: At least one of the Air Force Drones gets blasted out of the sky by a misplaced shot from an Army Drone.
  • It happens quickly, but during the final fight we can see in the background one of the Marine Drones being blown up by another drone's missile that missed Iron Man.
• Hollywood Hacking: Ivan Vanko managed to hack into their system with incredible ease. Apparently, Hammer's security systems are just the worst. Lampshaded by Vanko:
  Ivan Vanko: Software shit.
• Homing Projectile: The Navy Drones and Air Force Drones both have guided missile launchers mounted on their arms. During the chase scene in the carpark, one of the Air Force Drones fires two of its missiles at Iron Man, only for him to manage a High-Speed Missile Dodge.
• Immune to Bullets: Surprisingly averted, unlike Iron Man's and War Machine's and even the second Whiplash's armors, they are totally vulnerable to bullets. Rhodey is notably able to take down several of them with any of his different types of guns in the final battle.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Downplayed, as they actually manage to hit the heroes when they're firing normal bullets with their machine guns, but they completely miss every time they try to use a weapon that may have a chance to seriously hurt them such as the autocannon or missile launchers. Of course, one of them requires the Drone to lock itself into a fixed angle before firing and another is designed to lock onto and hit much larger targets than a man-sized Iron Man armor.
• Incredibly Obvious Bomb: They become these in the end, with their arc reactors ticking and flashing red light faster and faster, making it clear to everyone (except Pepper Potts, surprisingly) that they are going to self-destruct.
• Informed Ability: According to Justin Hammer, the drones are supposed to "make Iron Man look like an antique" and to be capable of replacing not only him, but also the U.S. militaries. However, they are clearly shown to be far less powerful than any of Iron Man's armors, and they can't even withstand bullets particularly well, making Hammer's claims extremely doubtful at best.
• Infrared Xray Camera: Apparently, some of the drones have thermal vision cameras.
• In-Series Nickname: Tony Stark refers to them as "Hammeroids" at one point. The term became very popular among fans.
  Tony: I will formally apologize when I am not fighting off a Hammer-oid attack.
• Instant Awesome: Just Add Mecha!: They are the first humanoid-shaped robots of large size introduced in the MCU, but certainly not the last ones.
• It's Raining Men: Near the end of the movie, the drones go after Iron Man and War Machine inside the Oracle Dome. Once there, they all drop from a certain height and land around the two heroes one-by-one, surrounding them. Since they are robots made of metal and they slightly used their Rocket Boots to slow down their descent, the fall doesn't hurt them at all.
• Job-Stealing Robot: Justin Hammer is planning to make them replace the U.S. militaries in order to reduce human casualties (he still says he consider human presence as necessary though, but he's only talking about men in Powered Armors), as well as Iron Man himself. In a sense, when they are turned into drones they also technically stole the job of whoever was supposed to pilot them as Powered Armors.
• Killer Robot: They are heavily armed robots designed for the sole purpose of destroying their enemies.
• Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Even though they have similar technology to Iron Man, who has Repulsors, Chest Blaster and Frickin' Laser Beams , and were created by Vanko, who is capable of creating Electro-whips, the drones only use relatively common weapons, such as machine guns, missiles and grenade launchers. It didn't really help them win against the heroes during the climactic battle, though.
• Law of Inverse Recoil: Justified. The Army Drones utilize rather excessive 25mm Bushmaster autocannon, but they manage to avoid being Recoiled Across the Room every time they shoot by using foot-mounted anchor spikes that serve as outriggers.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: While chasing Iron Man through the carpark, a few Air Force Drones split up from the others in order to lure him back to Stark Expo. Also, when the four lines of drones are activated they all go on separate directions, with the Air Force Drones following Iron Man through the sky, the Navy Drones going at the exit to fire their missiles, the Army Drones accompanying them outside and placing themselves at the stairs to shoot at Tony, and the Marine Drones staying where they are.
• Light Is Not Good: Despite having a Heart Light and a glowing camera on their face, they are definitely not good guys. Instead, they're dangerous Killer Robots used by the Big Bad to try to kill the heroes.
• Losing Your Head: Due to them being robots, Hammer can remove one of the drones' head and shows it to Vanko when asking what it was without it being a problem. Vanko himself did the same thing the first time he comes face-to-face with them, while they were still Powered Armors.
  Justin Hammer: What is that? Ivan...What’s this? Is that a helmet? It doesn’t look like a helmet to me. How are you supposed to get a head in there? Jack, could you put your head in there? Try to put your head in there. Go ahead. Try to put your head in there. See, Ivan? He can’t put his head in there. That’s...That's... That’s not a helmet. It’s a head.
• Machine Blood: The way their oil is spurting every time they are injured during the fight against Iron Man and War Machine makes it very reminiscent of blood.
• Macross Missile Massacre: This trope is the Navy Drones' speciality, as they all have two shoulder-mounted missile launchers, each of them carrying six missiles, plus three others mounted in a pod on each of their arms, making a total of eighteen missiles per drones. The Air Force Drones and the Marine Drones also have missiles inside their arms.
• Made of Plasticine: Compared to Iron Man's and War Machine's as well as Whiplash's armors, at least. During the final battle, the two heroes manage to tear them apart as easily as if they were made of cardboard.
• Mecha-Mooks: The Hammer Drones are a typical example of this trope. They are non-sentient robots sent by the Big Bad to kill the heroes, attack them in large number, but are quite easily destroyed in various manners. Good thing Vanko made them drones rather than men in Powered Armors, this way the audience has no problem when they are brutally slaughtered by the heroes.
• Military Salute: Vanko tells Justin Hammer that "make salute" is the only thing they are ready do for now. Of course, he was lying and the drones can do much more than that, but it turns out they can indeed make a military salute and they all do one at the same time in response to Rhodey's during the presentation at Stark Expo.
• Missile Lock-On: Vanko locked all of them on Iron Man, causing the Air Force Drones and War Machine to chase him unrelentingly through Stark Expo while the other drones are firing at him from the ground.
• Mistaken Identity: One of them mistakes a kid wearing an Iron Man mask for the real deal and tries to shoot him. Fortunately, the real Iron Man shows up just in time and blast the drone down as it realises its mistake.
• Mook Carryover: Sort of. They were first created by Justin Hammer (as Powered Armors) and were supposed to be utilized by him, however when Ivan Vanko was hired to work on them, he ended up taking control of them and using them to fulfill his own goals.
• Mook Chivalry: When some of the drones try to fight the heroes hand-to-hand, for the most part they only go one at a time. Though the others continue to shoot, at least.
• More Dakka: They all have machine guns mounted in their wrist (and also in their back in the case of the Air Force Drones) that they use to strafe their enemies with plenty of bullets.
• Mundane Utility: They are high-tech robots equipped with all kinds of weaponry. What does Justin Hammer use them for? Decorate his presentation and respond to War Machine's salute. Justified, as Vanko told him it was the only things they could do.
• Murder by Mistake: Due to their high number, some of the Hammer Drones that tried to shoot at Iron Man end up killing other drones behind him instead.
• Navy SEALs: The Navy Drones, of course, are supposed to become the new Navy SEALs.
• Noisy Robots: Similar to Iron Man's armors, the Hammer Drones make a lot of sounds whenever they move or when they adjust their weapons.
• 1-Dimensional Thinking / 2-D Space: When Iron Man flew through the Stark Expo's Unisphere, all the Air Force Drones followed him inside rather than simply flying over it, even though he was already out by the time they arrived. This caused all of them to get destroyed.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Any of them can be killed with only one of Iron Man's repulsor blasts, one of his missiles, or even with just a punch.
• The Pawns Go First: If he had wanted to, Vanko could have joined the drones in the battle against Iron Man and War Machine, but he deliberately chose to wait until they're all destroyed instead. Presumably, he wanted them to soften the two heroes before he fights them himself.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Not as much as Iron Man or War Machine, but they are still capable of causing a great deal of havoc. Especially the Navy Drones, which provoke a lot of destruction in Stark Expo with their missiles.
• Plot Hole: Even though there were only eight drones per branches of the U.S. military during their presentation, making it a total of of thirty-two drones, they are clearly much more numerous than that a few moments later during the battle against Iron Man and War Machine.
  • Also, the Air Force Drone 0303 apparently gets destroyed twice according to Vanko's computer, the first time when it's accidently shot down by the Army Drones, and the second time when two drones collides with each other and crash into a pillar in the carpark.
• Powered Armor: They started off as this, but Vanko decided to turn them into drones because, as he explains to Hammer, "drones better".
• Priceless Paperweight: Each of them is a high-tech robot worth tens of millions dollars, but when Vanko pretends they are not combat-ready, Justin Hammer decides to only use them as little more than background decoration for his presentation. He even refers to them as "overpriced paperweights" at one point.
  Justin Hammer: And now your overpriced paperweights are gonna look like a backdrop to my demonstration.
• Quantity vs. Quality: Vanko clearly focused them on quantity, while focusing his second armor on quality. Though great in number, the drones have relatively weak firepower compared to the likes of Iron Man and War Machine and are rather easy to defeat, whereas Vanko's second armor is a single model but is way stronger and tougher than all the drones combined.
• Real Robot Genre: The Hammer Drones mostly qualify as Real Robots. They are mass-produced units built by a weapons manufacturing company, they only use normal firearms (unlike Iron Man or Whiplash), they were given some tests (as seen in the video during the Congress), and they are supposed to be sold to the U.S. militaries to fight during wars.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: It's not their eyes, but each drones' arc reactors turn red when Vanko activates their Self-Destruct Mechanism, warning the heroes (and the audience) they are about to explode.
• Replacement Mooks: At first, Justin Hammer tried to have henchmen wearing Powered Armors, but they turned out to be rather ineffective (not to mention dangerous for their own pilots). As a result, Vanko decided to replace them with more capable drones, justifying himself by saying that "People make problem. Drone better." (in reality, he mostly wanted to be able to hijack them and send them after Iron Man).
• Required Secondary Powers: Due to the recoil created by their autocannons, the Army Drones have anchor spikes mounted on their feet that they can use to stabilize.
• Robo Cam: We're given several shots of their vision, notably when one of them nearly kills a kid with an Iron Man mask.
• Robot Names: As shown on Vanko's computer, each individual drone has a name, which starts with some figure that is followed by the diminutive of the branch of the U.S. Armed Forces to which it belongs and a number:
  • The Army Drones are referred as lozenge - ARM - 0101 up to 0108.
  • The Navy Drones are referred as barred square - NAV - 0301 up to 0308 (oddly, there are no number 0201 to 0208),
  • The Air Force Drones are referred as triangle - AIR - 0301 up to 0308.
  • The Marine Drones are referred as star - MAR - 0401 up to 0408.
  • Whilpash is referred as a big triangle - HSD - 001.
  • War Machine (whose suit is also known as Variable Threat Response Battle Suit) is referred as a green lozenge - VTRB - 0001.
  • Iron Man is referred as a white circle - IRM - 0001.
• Robot Soldier: They are an army of robots created to be used by the militaries to fight during wars in place of human soldiers. Although Vanko has other plans for them, but it still involves them participating in a battle.
• Robots Are Just Better: This is basically the reason given by Vanko to make them Attack Drones rather than Powered Armors (although the real reason is that he's secretly planning to use them for himself).
  Ivan Vanko: Drone better.
  Justin Hammer: What? Drone better? Why is drone better? Why is drone better?
  Ivan Vanko: People make problem. Trust me. Drone better.
• Rocket Boots: Much like Iron Man, they all have those in their foot. The Air Force Drones also have reactors in their back in order to help them fly better.
• Russian Language: After the drones are hijacked by Vanko, their systems are written in Russian. In addition, some of them are apparently communicating in Russian language.
  Hammer Technician: Each set of drones is... is communicating in its own unique language.
  Pepper Potts: Choose one and focus on that.
  Justin Hammer: Have you tried Russian? Why don't you try Russian?
• Sapient Tank: Downplayed as they are still machines, but the Army Drones are essentially humanoid tanks and have a robotic intelligence.
• Seeing Through Another's Eyes: Everything the drones are seeing through the cameras on their faces is also seen by Ivan Vanko on his computer.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: At the end of the battle, it turns out all the drones have one that Whiplash activates as a last attempt to kill the heroes.
• Semper Fi: The Marine Drones, being huge robots equipped with machine guns, missile launchers, repulsors and everything. That being said, they are not particularly stronger that the other drones...
• Send in the Clones: The Hammer Drones are of course inspired by Iron Man. Just like several countries were trying to do, Justin Hammer wanted to create mass-produced Iron Men. So, at the movie's climax, the hero basically has to fight an army of knockoffs of himself.
• Sequel Escalation: At the end of the first film, Tony only had to fight one guy in Powered Armor (Iron Monger). In the second film, he and Rhodey naturally have to fight an entire army of robots plus another guy in Powered Armor (Whiplash).
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: At two different points, Iron Man dodges the shots of some drones, causing them to hit other drones behind him.
• Shooting Superman: They keep trying to kill Iron Man and War Machine by firing normal bullets at them, even though it clearly has little to no effect on their armors. Granted, from time to time they also use heavier weapons that have better chances to actually harm them, such as autocannons and missiles, but they tend to miss every time they shoot those ones...
• Shoulder Cannon: The Army Drones have an autocannon mounted on their shoulder.
• Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence: They are straight Bricks, only capable of obeying their programming and not much more.
• Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb: Without anyone knowing it, Ivan Vanko installed a powerful Self-Destruct Mechanism inside the drones before they were sent to the expo. He ends up activating it near the end of the film, and the ensuing explosions cause a lot of destruction within Stark Expo, but fortunately the protagonists manage to get to safety.
• Space Marine: Or rather, robot Marines, in the case of the Marine Drones.
• Stalker without a Crush: They ruthlessly hunt down Iron Man and will never stop, ever, until they manage to kill him. Justified, since they are robots and have been programmed to target him.
• Stompy Mooks: They make quite a lot of noise when they are walking, when they land on the ground, or even when they're just moving.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: Even though they are quite clearly outmatched, the drones keep attacking Iron Man and War Machine over and over, until all of them are destroyed. To be fair, this is only due to their programming, not because they really believed they could win.
• Superior Successor: While nowhere near as effective as Tony Stark's armors, the drones are still working much better than Hammer's previous Powered Armors.
• Super-Persistent Missile: The Air Force Drones act like this during the finale, relentlessly following Iron Man all across Stark Expo no matter what's on their way. They don't even let the mere fact of crashing into obstacles (like when one of them bump into an advertising screen) stop them from pursuing him.
• Superpowered Mooks: Similar to the heroes, the drones have an arc reactor powering them and are equipped with repulsors that allow them to fly, and more importantly with a vast array of weapons that include machine guns, missile launchers and autocannons among others, all of which making them a force to be reckoned with.
• Super Wrist-Gadget: All of them have machine guns, missiles and other types of weapons built into their wrists.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Naturally, the Army Drones' autocannons have a lot of recoil, hence why they need to use their foot-mounted anchor spikes in order to stabilize when they shoot with it.
• Taking You with Me: Just like Whiplash's second armor, they blow themselves up after their defeat as a last attempt to kill the heroes. Needless to say, it doesn't work. While the ensuing explosions cause lots of collateral damages, the heroes manage to escape in time.
• Tank Goodness: Again, the Army Drones have a shoulder-mounted autocannons that they use againt Iron Man.
• That Poor Car: During the climactic chase scene, the Air Force Drones (and War Machine) follow Iron Man through a carpark and they set off almost all the cars' alarms.
• Three-Point Landing: Surprisingly, averted. During the climactic battle in the Oracle Dome, they all land in a standing posture. Presumably, having a good dozen ThreePointLandings in a row would diminish the drama. Also, as drones, they have higher g-tolerances than humans, and don't need to cushion their landings.
• Throw the Mook at Them: It's easy to miss, but shortly before all the drones get destroyed by the Death Blossom laser during the final fight, one of them gets grabbed by Iron Man and then thrown on another drone, destroying both of them.
• Time Bomb: Become this after Vanko activated their Self-Destruct Mechanism. While no precise time limit is given, it takes them approximately 30 seconds of movie time to blow up, forcing Iron Man to hurry up to go pick Pepper and put her into safety before the explosions kill her.
• Tin-Can Robot: Downplayed, but their overall appearance looks a bit like this trope.
• Too Dumb to Live: Following Iron Man inside the Stark Expo's Unisphere wasn't really a good idea, and led to the destruction of roughly all the Air Force Drones. The other drones don't seem to have a particularly good sense of self-preservation either, as they keep attacking the heroes, including by trying to fight them hand-to-hand, even when it's obvious they don't stand a chance. Justified though, as they are programmed to act this way.
• Victory by Endurance: It's heavily implied the reason Vanko sent them after Iron Man and War Mar Marchine is to force the heroes to burn most of their energy and ammunition against them (notably Iron Man's one-time use Death Blossom lasers) before he goes fight them himself.
• Villain Override: They are victims of this during the expo, in which Vanko takes control of all of them to go after Iron Man.
• Walking Armory: Much like Iron Man's and War Machine's armors, all the drones are equipped with a huge amount of weaponry:
  • The Army Drones have machine gun and multigrenade launcher on their wrists, and a autocannon on their shoulder.
  • The Navy Drones also have machine gun on their wrist, plus two missile launchers on their shoulders and missiles mounted in a pod on each arm.
  • The Air Force Drones have machine guns on their wrist and their back, and two wrist-mounted missile launchers.
  • The Marine Drones have machine gun as well as missile launcher on their wrists.
• Walking Tank: The Army Drones. They are basically walking tanks with a humanoid shape.
• We Have Reserves:
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Due to them being drones, the heroes have absolutely no issues with destroying them in violent ways. Considering they're basically mindless machines, it's hard to blame them.
• Why Am I Ticking?: As it turns out, Vanko installed a Self-Destruct Mechanism in every drones and activates it at the end, causing all of them to explode after half a minute of ticking.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: The one that tried to kill the kid certainly didn't hurry to actually fire, which gave Iron Man enough time to show up and blast it into pieces. In addition, when the drones start landing in the Oracle Dome, they wait until all of them have arrived and even allow Iron Man and War Machine to close their helmets before attacking.
• Would Hurt a Child: During the climax, one of the drones tries to kill a child with an Iron Man mask ^note apparently a young Peter Parker. In its defense, it genuinely thought he was the real (and very adult) Iron Man.
• Wronski Feint: Most of the Air Force Drones get victims of this tactic during the climactic chase scene, with some of them following Iron Man in a carpark and crashing into pillars, another one colliding with an advertising screen a few moments later (although this one manages to recover pretty quickly), and finally all the remaining ones being destroyed after trying to follow Iron Man in the Stark Expo's Unisphere.
• You Are Number 6: As shown on Vanko's computer, each individual drone has a number assigned to it that follows a figure symbolizing its branch from the U.S. Armed Forces and the diminutive of the branch's name:
  • The Army Drones are referred as lozenge - ARM - 0101 up to 0108.
  • The Navy Drones are referred as barred square - NAV - 0301 up to 0308 (oddly, there are no number 0201 to 0208),
  • The Air Force Drones are referred as triangle - AIR - 0301 up to 0308.
  • The Marine Drones are referred as star - MAR - 0401 up to 0408.
  • Whilpash is referred as a big triangle - HSD - 001.
  • War Machine is referred as a green lozenge - VTRB - 0001.
  • Iron Man is referred as a white circle - IRM - 0001.
• Zerg Rush: They are clearly a lot weaker than Iron Man and War Machine, with their only advantage being that they vastly outnumber them. Therefore, they try to use sheer number to overwhelm the two heroes in the final battle. This might have worked if Iron Man didn't have the Death Blossom lasers...

Associates

French Prison Guard

French Prison Guard

Species: Human

Citizenship: French

Portrayed By: Karim Saleh

Appearances: Iron Man 2

A French prison guard who helped Justin Hammer to get Ivan Vanko out of jail.

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• Bilingual Bonus: All of his lines of dialogue are in French.
• Corrupt Cop: Or prison guard, in his case. Justin Hammer bribes him to break out Ivan Vanko and bring him to him.
• French Jerk: He is french, and is a Corrupt Cop.
• Ignored Expert: He's aware of Vanko's unpredictable nature and tries to warn Justin Hammer about it, but Hammer dismisses it.
• Jail Bake: He helps Ivan Vanko to escape from his cell and fake his death by giving him a meal tray with some plastic explosives hidden in place of the potatoes.
• Karma Houdini: Despite his complicity in Vanko's prison break, which led to the deaths of at least two people, he's never seen receiving any comeuppance.
• No Name Given: His actual name is unknown.
• Only Sane Man: He seems to be the only associate of Justin Hammer who realizes just how dangerous Ivan Vanko really is.
• Wardens Are Evil: He's a prison guard, and has no problem with letting a prisoner escape and sacrificing another.
• You're Insane!: Tells Justin Hammer that Vanko is crazy, in the latter's presence.
  French Prison Guard: Je te laisse pas avec lui, il est ouf !^Translation"I'm not leaving you alone with him, he's crazy!"

Ivan Vanko / Whiplash

Ivan Vanko / Whiplash

"What your father did to my family over 40 years, I will do to you in 40 minutes."

^{Click here to see the upgraded Whiplash suit}
"You lose."

Species: Human

Citizenship: Russian

Affiliation(s): Hammer Industries (formerly)

Portrayed By: Mickey Rourke

Voiced By: Carlos Segundo (Latin-American Spanish dub), Alfonso Vallés (European Spanish dub), Takayuki Sugo (Japanese dub), Michel Vigné (French dub), Benoît Rousseau (Canadian French dub)

Appearances: Iron Man 2 | What If...? ^note Archive footage from Iron Man 2

"If you could make God bleed, people would cease to believe in Him. There will be blood in the water, the sharks will come. All I have to do is sit back and watch as the world consumes you."

Son of Anton Vanko, a former partner of Howard Stark, who forced his father's exile to Siberia, and a subsequently miserable life turned him to revenge against Howard's son Tony.

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• Aborted Arc: His death was deliberately made ambiguous in case Marvel Studios wanted to bring him back in future movies. Unfortunately, Mickey Rourke hated the movie so much that Vanko is unlikely to ever return unless they pull an Other Darrin.
• Affably Evil: Vanko's shown to be a pretty nice guy as long as you're on his good side, and even if you aren't, he isn't above some polite conversation.
• Arch-Enemy: To Tony Stark, though it's very one-sided on his side as Tony views him more as an annoyance than a threat. However, Vanko had dedicated his life to killing Tony due to his father having been screwed over by the latter's.
• Badass Normal: Electro-whips aside, Vanko's just a normal guy fighting true Powered Armor. Until his second suit, which is indeed Powered Armor and much stronger than Tony's and Rhodey's. He's implied to be a fearsome guy in his past (Mafiya tattoos and all).
• Big Bad: In Iron Man 2, he's the major threat and the one pulling the strings, but he's content to let Hammer think he's just an underling.
• Canon Foreigner: There were four people who took on the mantle of Whiplash before the release of Iron Man 2, but none of them were named Ivan Vanko.
• Canon Immigrant: Vanko's version of Whiplash is later migrated into mainstream Marvel comics universe.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Like Tony, his "superpowers" are all part of his suit.
• Composite Character: Of Whiplash (the whips) and Crimson Dynamo (the Powered Armor, being Russian, and his name), with some elements of Morgan Stark (his motivation for revenge, using remote-controlled drones) thrown in for good measure.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Unlike Stane who had known the Stark family for many years, Vanko introduced himself to Tony in his debut film and held a grudge against the Starks after what they did to his father. While they both used advanced suits of armor to battle Tony Stark, Stane possessed great ambition and plans while Vanko simply wanted Tony dead and had little care about what would happen to him afterward.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Discussed Trope; Tony asks why he didn't take his arc reactor, inferior to his but still functional, to an enemy nation or the black market and make a fortune. He also could have lived a comfortable life on Hammer's dollar with the quality of work he was providing. In both cases, he preferred using his talents to get revenge on Tony instead of making money.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Was this to Justin Hammer.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Let Hammer believe he was helping him embarrass and upstage Tony when, in actuality, he was placating him while developing the tech he would use in his revenge scheme.
• Driven to Suicide: Unable to kill Tony and wounded by him, he activates the self-destruct device inside his Whiplash Power Armor and other Hammer Drones, gloating to Tony, "You lose." while he laughed.
• Dual Wielding: Can swing two whips at once.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He screws over the deal with Justin Hammer, goes full-on vengeance rampage mode and doesn't care about the collateral in his wake - but he doesn't bother to try to kill Justin when he more than has the capability to with the man's company at his mercy. Whether because he considered the man beneath him or simply didn't want to kill the person that got him so much farther to begin with isn't known, and this is after Justin deliberately cut corners and didn't bother to actually get Vanko's bird for him by buying another instead.
• Evil Counterpart: He built a miniature arc reactor out of scraps and used it to power weapons that gave Iron Man a good run for his money. The novelization even has Tony Stark note that if their fathers had been in reversed positions and it was Howard who was deported and left to descend into drunken depression, Tony might have ended up just like Vanko.
• Evil Is Bigger/Lightning Bruiser: His Whiplash Mk II armor is noticeably brawnier and more heavily armored than the Iron Man or War Machine suits while retaining a similar level of agility and maneuverability to them, in contrast to the slower, more mech-like Iron Monger.
• Evil Is Hammy: He smiles with glee upon inflicting harm on Tony Stark.
• Evil Plan: "What your family did to mine in forty years, I will do to you in forty minutes."
• Flunky Boss: Hacks War Machine and the "Hammeroids", sending them against Tony before he finally takes him on personally.
• Genius Bruiser: He looks like a thug and is implied to be part of the Russian Mafia, but he's also one of two people capable of making arc reactor technology, and then he used it to make his own Powered Armor.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has the traditional scar down his eye.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Firmly believes (and not without some measure of justification) that he should have and could have been where Tony is now, if not for Howard Stark screwing his father.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: He swallows down vodka as his father dies before him.
• Large Ham: Mickey Rourke is clearly enjoying himself, best represented by Vanko frequently breaking into a smug smile.
• Lightning Lash: His electro whips cut really well.
• Made of Iron: His harness gives him a good degree of protection. Happy drives a car into him and Vanko is barely stunned, and after being flung through the air onto the asphalt, he's still conscious enough to taunt Tony, if dazed and bleeding heavily.
• The Mafiya: If his tattoos are accurate, he's a member.
• Never Found the Body: His death isn't shown on screen and it's never stated if his remains were recovered, leaving wiggle room for a potential return. In the original ending (which was included as a deleted scene), he's explicitly killed onscreen by War Machine.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: He shows that he's both fluent and eloquent in his early face-to-face confrontation with Tony Stark, but speaks to Hammer in broken, barely intelligible English just to mess with him.
• Oral Fixation: His toothpick.
• Pet the Dog: In his only displays of kindness, he shows he likes cockatoos, even the one Hammer gets him in place of Vanko's own back in Russia. He had a few other Pet the Dog moments in Russia to help flesh out his character, which were cut from the film, much to the annoyance of Mickey Rourke.
• The Quiet One: Vanko is very quiet, especially when compared with Tony or Justin. In several of his most prominent scenes, Vanko says barely anything at all; during the climax, his only words are "Good to be back" and "You lose."
• Related in the Adaptation: This version of Whiplash is the son of Anton Vanko, the first Crimson Dynamo in the comics.
• Renegade Russian: Tried selling Soviet nuclear fuel on the black market at one point.
• Revenge Before Reason: Why he's not using his technology for practical purposes; he only wants revenge.
• Shock and Awe: His whips are charged with electricity.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Tony's, specifically, that caused a drunken depression and a piss-poor childhood.
• Spiteful Spit: After his first fight with Tony, he spits blood on the ground and shouts "You lose!" at Tony as the police take him away.
• The Stoic: Vanko is extremely calm and collected, even when held in captivity or being scolded by his billionaire employer. When Hammer tells his guards to start taking Ivan's bird and other comforts away, you can see when he stops protesting and when he starts just going with it silently. It's like flicking a switch.
• Tattooed Crook: Displays tattoos that are common with Russian criminals.
• Tragic Villain: All his disdain for Tony's family is well-founded (save for the fact that his own father was a crook). His father was cut off from the project he helped start, was deported to a winter wasteland to die in bitter swill of alcoholism and disgrace, and he himself got wrapped up in organized crime to make a living. Beneath his cold exterior is a genius mind that even Tony Stark is impressed by.
  • Mickey Rourke, the actor, wanted to play up more on this aspect of the villain, but due to Executive Meddling from Marvel, his ideas ended up on the cutting room floor.
• Troll: He enjoys antagonizing Hammer just for the sake of doing it, such as telling him the drones won't be ready for the expo presentation when they most definitely are.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: His harness, and later his Powered Armor, aren't shown to have any onboard weapons like the Iron Man or War Machine armor, except for the whips. Vanko still overpowers both of them because the whips are just that effective. It makes sense; the Iron Man and War Machine armors are filled to the brim with ranged weaponry, most of which is explosive. Up close, they either miss or hit and damage both Vanko and themselves. The whips bring the attacker in close and immobilize them while delivering an electric discharge to fry and mangle the armor.
• Worthy Opponent: He believes Tony to be the only one worthy enough to talk straight to. Other times he is either silent or in Hammer's case pretending to be an incompetent, broken English-speaking Cloud Cuckoo Lander. With Tony, he makes his intentions clear and even follows Tony's sarcastic advice when upgrading his weaponry.
• Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: His harness had yellow electricity for its whips, but the full set of Powered Armor he makes for himself gives them blue lightning.
• You Killed My Father: It is more of your father killed my father. Howard Stark left Vanko's father to die in exile, and this motivated Vanko to kill Tony Stark since Howard is already dead.

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