Iron Man 2 : Movie Trading Cards

I’ve fallen back into my trading card kick lately, which hasn’t really seen the light of day since junior high school, when I had an extensive collection of Marvel Masterpieces and DC Cosmic Cards. After a neighborhood debacle in which an entire box of cards was stolen from one kid, they stopped being ‘trading’ cards and became ‘hide them deep within your closet so no one will take them’ cards. However, working with Topps recently as a sketch card artist sucked me back into the game – especially where collecting sketch cards are concerned.

The Iron Man 2 trading cards from Upper Deck are just such a set, featuring the usual movie stills that comprise most of the set, as well as die cut cards, foil embossed ‘armor’ cards, and foil edged cards. While these add variety, the set also includes three types of cards which add value : Movie Memorabilia cards, which include swatches of actual screen-used costumes embedded in the card itself, autograph cards, and original sketch cards which have actually been drawn on by artists.

While every pack of cards includes one of these ‘chase’ cards, there’s no guarantee that any of the really fancy ones will exist in any given box or pack. Upper Deck usually does a great job with even distribution, but I think that this caveat is thrown in there just in case something goes amiss. It’s not easy to keep track of thousands of identical, sealed packs of cards.

In many cases, trading card sets which are based on TV shows or movies suffer from the same problem : fuzzy graphics. The graphic designers screengrab things from low-quality copies and that’s what you get on your trading card. The Iron Man 2 set of cards uses incredibly clear, beautiful graphics which must have been culled from something very close to the original hi-def footage, and this is awesome. It’s not as if you need to see Mickey Rourke’s face any closer than you absolutely have to, but there’s plenty of Scarlett Johannson, and she can get as close as she wants.

Hardcore card collectors want to know one thing : how many fancy cards did you get in a sealed box of 24 packs? The answer is three.

Most exciting (and I mean this in the most innocent way) is the trading card that features a swatch of Black Widow’s costume. I’m not sure which part of Scarlett this was rubbing against, but I can dream. I can dream. This goes along excellently with my piece of Masi Oka’s shirt from Heroes. It’s a great way to get an actual piece of a really fun film into the hands of people who enjoy it, but might not be able to afford a life-sized, screen-used prop.

I also scored two sketch cards. One of these features obscure villain Sidewinder – a failed economics professor from Kenosha who decided that dressing up like a snake and messing stuff up would be an awesome way to spend his life. I very much appreciate the use of lesser used Marvel characters, as I have to wonder is Sidewinder has ever appeared on a trading card, ever. The art is by Dan Schaefer (who has worked on sketch cards for Marvel Masterpieces, Star Trek, and other sets as well), and it’s awesomely weird. It has nothing to do with the Iron Man movies, but it’s my understanding that Upper Deck encouraged use of non-movie imagery, which I can dig.

The second sketch card is by Mark Pennington, and it’s an awesome little ink piece. Pennington was kind enough to number his cards, and I scored #95. Browsing eBay, I see that cards #9, #19 and #77 are done identically, so while I adamantly believe that every sketch card in a set should be a unique work, it’s still a nice little card of Iron Man’s beautiful face.

Other sketch cards have fetched up to around $300 on eBay, so the potential for profit is significant, if you’re into that kind of thing.

So, Upper Deck, what do I have to do to become one of your sketch card artists? I have credentials, and I promise to not draw MODOK more than five times! I won’t even ask for money – just let me draw some superheroes!

I’m a big fan of Iron Man, and this is a neat set of cards. Pick some up and see if you get anything fancy!

[Cards graciously provided by Upper Deck]