Iron Man 2

Besides being a roller-coaster of a good time, Iron Man 2 delivers a beautiful exposition of competing Magicians striving to reach the Strength archetype, the balancing of vastly conflicting agendas in the service of establishing a moral outcome.

Though Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.) is definitely a channel for Magician energy, he seems to be tainted by a consistent narcissism brought on by a palate of the blending of the Three of Cups and Temperance reversed. During the first Iron Man he seemed to balance this with consistent Fool behavior (especially exhibited when playing with Pepper Potts as well as with his car collection), Iron Man 2 saw him pouring this same three-card personality profile into an attempt to reach Emperor status; to be the protector of the country etc. I wonder if someone driven by reversed Temperance could ever expect an outcome of the Emperor, it seems to me that he would have to pass through a Five of Pentacles or maybe even a Tower to do so.

Magician number two; Ivan Vanko (played by Mickey Rourke, in what I think is his most entertaining role since Angel Heart) was a difficult combination for me to pinpoint. Several cards came immediately to mind; his Magician seemed primarily motivated by the reversed Six of Cups, clinging onto the past so thoroughly that he was far beyond questioning his motives or where it might lead him. Actually, in the way he was open to new ideas led me to think that he was carrying some heavy Fool energy, but I ruled that out because of the bitterness that drove is personal behavior.  The combination of the Magician, the reversed Six of Cups, shadowed by the Five of Pentacles finally seemed to make the most sense.

Both seemed to be striving towards Strength, though there were heavy overtones of Justice in the background. Interestingly, I think that Ivan was far more congruent with his sense of ethics than Tony Stark was. Tony sort of presents the Justice card up front, but you don’t get the sense that he really means it. He is confusing the Emperor with Justice, probably skewed by the reversed Temperance again.

Some of the other cards in the spread were the King of Swords reversed blended with the Knight of Pentacles (hmmm, might be the third card of the reversed 6 of Pentacles in there; we know who we were talking about); a right-hand man exhibiting The Sun, Knight of Swords all gathered around a Three of Pentacles, and a seductress archetype that seemed to be a Knight of Cups married to the Queen of Swords being driven by the Eight of Wands.

As for Pepper Potts (played by Gwyneth Paltrow), she feels like a Queen untainted or combined with any other card, but which Queen?

Magicians are hungry cards, more so than many of the others in the deck. To get a feel for them it is important to look at their neighbors to accurately predict their agenda. Magicians can be seen as chameleons, changing their colors and even personality traits much more than an Empress, Strength, or most of the other Major Arcana. This makes them a little tricky to understand in the spread. We are tempted to see the appearance of the Magician as a good thing, but as we can see from Iron Man 2, understanding the Magician is a call to really understand what our ethics are composed of.

Rating: Iron Man 2

Though Iron Man 2 didn’t seem to deal with any particularly deep issues, it was a Three of Cups/Eight of Wands combination; what more do you want from a Saturday matinee?