long as Iron Man himself
(who debuted the year prior). Originally depicted in the comics as a
Soviet spy, she soon became a regular member of The Avengers, the
superhero squad set to make their way to theaters in 2012. Cold War-era
villains would be just a tad out of place in the hyper-modern world of
these movies, and the film's Black Widow
has nearly every trace of Russian-ness scrapped, other than retaining
the given name "Natasha Romanoff." She's still a spy, though, and
sports the character's trademark black catsuit.
Whiplash
The movie's main villain is actually something of a hybrid, combining two classic Iron Man antagonists: Whiplash and Crimson Dynamo.
He's got the abilities of Whiplash, as made somewhat obvious from the
electric whips attached to each of his arms. While Whiplash was an
American and disgruntled former Tony Starkemployee, Mickey Rourke's
character is a Russian scientist — much closer to the original Crimson
Dynamo (there have been about a dozen). Essentially the USSR's answer
to Iron Man,
Crimson Dynamo was a Soviet researcher in an armored suit (Iron Man had
a lot of problems with Russians back in the '60s). Rourke's character
and the first Crimson Dynamo even share the same last name, "Vanko."
Justin Hammer
Visually, maybe the greatest discrepancy in depiction between the
comic books and the movies. The comic book version of Justin Hammer is
gray-haired and clearly a couple decades older than Tony Stark, while
Sam Rockwell is actually a few years younger than Robert Downey Jr. The
motivations of the character remain consistent, though, as both are
rival industrialists looking to bring down Stark Industries through
less-than-wholesome means. This character is the recipient of yet
another