Chapter 3 of The Untitled MCU Project features the second installment of the Iron Man franchise, “Iron Man 2”. If you’ve been following along, you know that I started The Untitled MCU Project as a way for me to both watch all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in order (including catching up on the many films that I missed when they first came out), and also to deploy some creative energy in a way that incorporates two of my favorite expressive outlets - writing and photography - while we are “safer (quarantined) at home” during the largest global pandemic in more than a century. Especially during a time of uncertainty, where our lives have been flipped upside down, it’s been refreshing to be able to turn toward some of our favorite superheroes for “guidance” and inspiration for how to persevere in the face of adversity.

As The Untitled MCU Project is picking up steam, I’m remembering how much I actually loved the Marvel movies I’ve already seen and it’s making me super stoked to finally be able to fill in the gaps when I get to the movies that I haven’t seen yet. As I watch these films from now two different lenses, both how entertaining they are and what can they teach us, I’m learning and absorbing even more than I expected when I first decided to embark on this creative journey. Here are the life and leadership lessons I learned from “Iron Man 2” in Chapter 3 of The Untitled MCU Project.

Lesson 1: Leave Behind a Brighter Future

At the beginning of the film, we see the renaissance of the Stark Expo, which seems to be loosely inspired by the New York World’s Fair of days past. During his grand opening keynote, Tony Stark says, “It’s not about me. It’s not about you. It’s not even about us. It’s about legacy. It’s about what we choose to leave behind for future generations.” Tony might be speaking about his developed technologies that Stark Industries is known for in this instance, however, I think it is not only applicable but extremely relevant to many of the problems we currently face as a nation.

For many years, scientific experts have warned about the strain on our natural resources and how our current habits and behaviors will continue to negatively affect our world with regard to climate change. As our Earth is dying, we have the responsibility to change how we approach things like energy production and food habits so that we create more sustainable and viable options in order to prolong the amount of time that we can live on this planet. The changes we make now have the opportunity to positively affect our future generations.

We can also apply this lesson to how we function as a global economy. Currently, we operate under the guise that “trickle-down economics” is how you bolster and sustain the middle class. Unfortunately, as the name suggests, the economic impact to the bottom part of that pyramid is but a mere trickle. However, if we choose to operate on principles that take care of everyone as a whole and vote on measures that will allow our tax dollars to go toward causes that help everyone instead of just helping corporations or the super-wealthy, we set our future generations up for success. In doing this, we will build up the base of the pyramid, which will ultimately benefit everyone in our society.

Even though Tony Stark is notoriously egotistical, even he understands that the things we do today will affect our future generations. It is our responsibility to make sure that the choices we make as a society aren’t just beneficial in the immediate, but are instead beneficial in the longterm, even if it’s not something we personally will see tangible results from. The best way for us to make sure we are agents for change is to show up and vote now so that we can provide a better future for generations later.

Lesson 2: Know Your Love Languages

Immediately reading the headline for this next lesson you’re probably thinking, “there is no way this is relevant to a superhero movie”. Or maybe you’re thinking, “what the heck is a love language anyway?” For those that don’t know, “The 5 Love Languages” is a book written by Dr. Gary Chapman that goes into researched-backed detail about how we both express and receive love as human beings. Through his research, he has concluded that there are essentially five different love languages that we speak which can be summarized as Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, Acts of Service, Gifts, and Physical Touch. These Love Languages are relevant to not only romantic relationships, but any relationship dynamic, both personal and professional as well.

So how do these love languages relate to “Iron Man 2”? When Tony Stark is speaking with Nick Fury about finding a replacement for palladium to keep his heart and the arc reactor working, Nick Fury tells Tony that he hasn’t tried everything and then speaks of his father, the late Howard Stark. Fury says, “He (Howard) said that you were the only person with the means and knowledge to finish what he started”. Tony responds, “I don’t know where you get your information, but he wasn’t my biggest fan”. The conversation continues as Fury asks Tony what he remembers about his dad. Tony responds, “He was cold, he was calculating. He never told me he loved me. He never even told me he liked me, so it’s a little tough for me to digest when you’re telling me he said the whole future was riding on me and he’s passing it down. I don’t get that. You’re talking about a guy whose happiest day was when he shipped me off to boarding school”. In this very short exchange, we can probably infer that Tony’s love languages are Quality Time and Words of Affirmation and that Howard’s were likely Acts of Service or Gifts. Here, this mismatch of love languages led to a lifetime of misunderstanding between father and son. Tony has held onto the notion for his whole life that his father didn’t even like him, and maybe didn’t love him, all because his father didn’t communicate love in a way that made sense to him. Howard may have not been understood the way to best communicate and express his love for his son directly, but based on what he would say to Nick Fury, Howard Stark thought incredibly highly of his son.

This misunderstanding of love languages can lead to difficulties in any relationship - romantic, familial, or platonic. But knowing your love language and asking the love languages of those people in your life can help you better show up for one another on a daily basis. The acknowledgment that you might each “speak” a separate language when it comes to how you give and receive love, both romantically and platonically, can have a huge impact on how you communicate with one another.

Lesson 3: The Obvious Answer Isn’t Always the Obvious Answer. Look at Problems from a Different Angle

As Tony is attempting to find a replacement element for the palladium in the arc reactor, he is under the assumption that he has tried “every iteration and combination of every known element”. Finding a suitable replacement for the palladium is essential because unfortunately, the same arc reactor technology that is keeping Tony alive is also simultaneously killing him. When Tony Stark is speaking with Nick Fury, Fury tells him that he hasn’t tried everything. Of course, Stark is bewildered by this statement, because he knows he’s used every combination of elements known to man. Yes, this is the same conversation that helped us learn the last lesson, but it’s important to this one too. The obvious answer here is that Tony’s problem is essentially unsolvable. However, his interest is piqued when Nick Fury tells him there is still a solution out there because if there is one thing for certain, it’s that Tony Stark is not a quitter.

It is at this point that Stark starts to look at the problem from a different perspective. He is given a secure case that is filled with the arc reactor blueprints as a gift from his late father, which happen to look strikingly similar to the layout and floorplan of the Stark Expo. As he is now approaching looking at the problem from a fresh perspective, he can see that his “obvious answer” that there would be no solution whatsoever was incredibly inaccurate. With his renewed vigor, Stark continues to attack the problem at hand and ends up finding a way to invent a brand new element that would ultimately save his life as well as power the arc reactor technology without poisoning him, the way the palladium had done. His late father, Howard Stark, was correct, Tony was indeed the only person with the means and knowledge who was capable enough to finish what he had started.

Sometimes, all it takes is looking at a problem from a totally different angle, with a new perspective and a fresh approach or a fresh set of eyes in order to find a solution that was missed initially. When we give ourselves permission to get out of our own head and out of our fixed mindset we are able to reach heights we never dreamed imaginable.

Since we’ve already seen looks for both Pepper Potts and Iron Man in Chapter 1, I decided on looks inspired by Natalie Rushman and Tony Stark, both while in Monaco.

Thanks for enjoying Chapter 3 of “The Untitled MCU Project”.

Natalie Rushman

Photos by: Krystyn Slack

Tony Stark as F1 Driver in Monaco

Photos By: Krystyn Slack