Why Whiplash's Costume In Iron Man 2 Makes No Sense
2008's "Iron Man" truly kick-started the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe that now sits as the highest grossing film franchise of all time (via Box Office Mojo). We were introduced to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), a rich pretty-boy genius who inherited all of his parents' wealth and his father's company, Stark Industries, with seemingly no desire to even really know about what they were involved in. This ultimately leads Tony to be captured and tortured, where he discovers Stark Industries' weapons in the hands of terrorists. He then creates the Mark 1 suit to get himself out of captivity and begins a journey to save his company and his parents' legacy.
After defeating Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), who was the true culprit of Stark Industries' evil endeavors, Tony has to deal with the consequences of revealing his identity as Iron Man at the end of the first movie in "Iron Man 2." He flaunts his alternate identity and in doing so, brings on disastrous events and enemies in Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) and Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke). Vanko even uses blueprints from Howard Stark's prior work with the Arc Reactor to fashion himself with nearly indestructible electric whips, confronting Tony in an intense battle at a Monaco IndyCar race.
However, with everything Ivan, aka Whiplash, knows about physics and Arc Reactor technology, what ends up being his suit to battle Tony Stark's Iron Man for the very first time makes no sense.
It lacks any kind of body armor
Aside from the intricate metal mechanisms that outline Ivan's body and seemingly funnel the energy and electricity of the Arc Reactor into the whips, he's basically naked from the waist up. He only has prison bottoms and tattered boots on as far as what's able to be seen. Based on the electrical currents that flow through the whips and the metal exoskeleton, there would logically need to be some kind of skinsuit or body armor needed to protect him against stray volts of electricity crackling off of the whips, not to mention any kind of body armor would have protected him much better against outside attacks from Iron Man or Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) driving a car straight into his abdomen. Iron Man was even able to defeat him thanks to his own armor in the form of his suit and basic skills in hand-to-hand combat.
After this first encounter with Iron Man, Ivan manages to create a sort of Iron Man suit of his own, with plenty of armor and circuitry to help funnel the electricity to his whips. This means he at least learned from prior mistakes in his original design, leaving him considerably less vulnerable to hand-to-hand combat, counterstrikes, and stray electricity. It will be interesting to see if any of Ivan's designs will be referenced or used in the upcoming "Armor Wars," which will be released sometime during Phase Four of the MCU.