Pepper Potts

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Pepper Potts

Pepper Potts as Rescue, on the cover of The Invincible Iron Man Vol. 2, #29

(August 2010])

Art by Stuart Immonen

Publication information

Publisher Marvel Comics

As Pepper Potts:
First appearance
Tales of Suspense #45 (September 1963)

As Rescue:
 The Invincible Iron Man #10 (May 2009)

Created by Pepper Potts:

Stan Lee (writer)

Robert Bernstein (writer)

Don Heck (artist)

Rescue:

Matt Fraction (writer)

Salvador Larroca (artist)

In-story information

Full name Virginia Potts

Team affiliations The Order

The Initiative

Stark Industries

Avengers

Supporting Iron Man

character of

Notable aliases Hera

Rescue

Coast Guard

Iron Man

Iron Woman

Abilities  The Stark-tech mag-field generator implanted in

her chest which grants her:

o Better hearing

o Electromagnetic field sensing

As Rescue

 Armor which grants her:

o Energy projection

o Flight

Virginia "Pepper" Potts is a fictional character appearing in American comic

books published by Marvel Comics. She serves as a supporting character to Iron
Man and sometimes a romantic interest of Tony Stark. Created by writers Stan
 Lee and Robert Bernstein and designed by artist Don Heck, she first appeared in Tales
of Suspense #45 (Sept. 1963).[1] In 2007, she joined the Fifty State Initiative under the
code name Hera. In 2009, she assumed the identity of Rescue after being given her
own variation of a suit of Iron Man's armor by Tony Stark.[2][3][4]
The character has appeared in various media adaptations, including video games,
animated series, and live-action films. Gwyneth Paltrow portrays Pepper Potts in
the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), The
Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers:
Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Beth Hoyt voices an alternate
version of the character in the animated Disney+ series What If...? (2021).

Contents

 1Publication history
 2Fictional character biography
o 2.1Early history
o 2.2The Order
o 2.32008 – present
 3Powers and abilities
o 3.1Armor
 4Other versions
 5In other media
o 5.1Television
o 5.2Film
o 5.3Marvel Cinematic Universe
o 5.4Video games
o 5.5Theatre
 6References
 7External links

Publication history[edit]
Virginia "Pepper" Potts first appeared in Tales of Suspense #45 (September 1963),
which was written by Robert Bernstein with a story plot by Stan Lee and illustrated
by Don Heck. Though she was named Pepper Potts from the start, Stark addresses her
as "Kitty" in one panel, which is thought to be a typo. Heck modeled Potts as Ann B.
Davis’ character of Schultzy from The Bob Cummings Show,[5] and she is rendered with
brown hair done up in a hairdo similar to Schultzy's. Someone on the creative team or in
editorial came to feel that the resemblance was too great, and in Tales of
Suspense #50, Potts' look was altered to give her red hair and a different hairdo.

Fictional character biography[edit]

Early history[edit]
Potts is originally a member of a secretarial pool, and gets her job by fixing an
accounting error made by Stark. She is depicted initially as being infatuated with Stark,
and rejects the advances of Stark's chauffeur and assistant Happy Hogan, who debuted
in the same issue, with acerbic remarks. As Stark's affection for her grows in the
ensuing issues, she becomes part of a love triangle between the two men, and
eventually falls in love with and marries Hogan, eloping with him in Tales of
Suspense #91.[6]

Pepper and Happy Hogan

Pepper and Happy eventually leave Stark Industries, settling in the Rocky Mountains
and then finally in Cleveland, where they adopt children after being unable to conceive,
and disappear from the main Iron Man storyline. After being kidnapped by Stark's
rival Obadiah Stane, Pepper tells Tony to stay out of their lives. Pepper and Happy soon
divorce after she has an affair with a former college boyfriend. After Tony Stark's return
from the Heroes Reborn universe, Pepper and Happy join Tony at his new
company, Stark Solutions, and once again become core characters. After some time,
Happy and Pepper once again became involved and remarry, eventually considering
conceiving a child to supplement their adopted children. Stark entrusts Pepper with a
special remote that could shut him down. However, Pepper, tortured by the
responsibility, is forced to return it, and the trauma causes her to miscarry. Stark is able
to deal with the remote, but feels guilty that he has placed her in such danger.
After Happy sustains massive injuries in a fight with Spymaster during the 2006-2007
"Civil War" storyline, Pepper requests that Tony turn off Happy's life support. [7]
The Order[edit]
After the events of the "Civil War" story line, Pepper joins the Fifty State Initiative as a
member of The Order, a government sanctioned superhero team operating
within California. She assumes the moniker of the Greek goddess Hera, and uses
advanced computer-hardware and prosthetics to monitor and coordinate the team's
missions. Upon the absorption of The Order into the Initiative, Tony Stark offers her a
job on the special-projects team at Stark Enterprises, which she accepts. [8]
2008 – present[edit]
Pepper Potts resumes her activities as personal secretary of Tony Stark. When Pepper
is caught in a terrorist explosion caused by Ezekiel "Zeke" Stane, she sustains multiple
internal injuries, including shrapnel wounds, and rendered unable to withstand a
prolonged surgery. In response, Tony embeds a strong magnet (similar in appearance
to the arc reactor of the movie) in her chest, essentially turning Pepper into
a cyborg dependent on keeping her chest magnet engaged to stay alive, as he was
once.[9]
Pepper's body is further enhanced with new cybernetics and upgrades to the magnet,
which are based on Danny Rand's battery designs, and which afford Pepper new super
abilities.[10]
When Tony is blamed for the Skrull invasion of Earth that occurs in the 2008 storyline
"Secret Invasion", S.H.I.E.L.D. is taken over by Norman Osborn, replaced
with H.A.M.M.E.R., and Stark and Maria Hill are fired, along with all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s
employees. Tony realizes that Osborn is after the identities of superhumans that
registered with the government following the passage of the Superhuman Registration
Act that occurred during the "Civil War" storyline, which is stored in a database in his
brain. Stark decides to go underground with Hill, and to wipe the knowledge in his own
brain. Stark makes Pepper the new CEO of Stark Industries, trusting only her to shut
down the company in his absence. Pepper discovers a secret room in Stark's office
which contains a suit of armor that he made especially for her, [2] which she uses under
the name Rescue.[3] Though Osborn has seized all Stark Industries facilities and
equipment, Pepper states that all components of her armor are legal and that the design
specifications are available to anyone. Despite Osborn threatening her loved ones with
prison if she interferes with his search for Tony or attempts any more heroic actions,
after being freed she endeavors to find Tony herself. [11] They are reunited in Russia,
[12]
 and consummate a now-sexual relationship, but are subsequently captured and
tortured by Madame Masque, who was assigned by Norman Osborn to track Stark
down. Stark admits that he had loved Masque in the past, [13] but when pressed to make a
choice, with his own life on the line, Tony chooses Pepper. Pepper decides to engage
Masque in a physical altercation in order to provide a distraction for Stark to escape. [14]
During the 2009 "World's Most Wanted Storyline" (which ran concurrently with Marvel's
company-wide storyline "Dark Reign"), Pepper, after defeating Masque, disguises
herself as Masque, infiltrating H.A.M.M.E.R. while presenting the Rescue armor to
Osborn as spoils of battle. Pepper reveals herself when she rescues Black
Widow and Maria Hill from Osborn's imprisonment, while the Rescue suit uploads a
virus into H.A.M.M.E.R.'s computers, taking control of the Helicarrier's armory of suits.
[15]
 They then retrieve the hard drive that Hill was assigned by Stark to get, escaping to
give it to Captain America in order to restore Stark's mind.[16] As part of "re-booting" Tony
(in a vegetative state), the magnet in her chest is removed and placed into his. [17]
Though Stark's memories are restored from a somewhat years-old backup, he no longer
remembers the events of the "Civil War" nor his role in it, its aftermath or his affair with
Pepper. Pepper survives the removal of her chest magnet, but demands that a new one
similar to Tony's own chest repulsor be re-installed, which is done. Recovered, Stark
also gifts Pepper with a new Rescue armor, complete with JARVIS. [18]
During the 2011 "Stark Resilient" storyline, when Justine Hammer and Sasha
Hammer use their own armored enforcer Detroit Steel to attempt to sabotage Stark
Resilient (Tony's new company) and its design for a repulsor technology-powered
vehicle, Pepper joins War Machine in helping Stark, during which Pepper experiences
a near-death experience in which JARVIS, masquerading as Happy, gives Pepper a
cryptic warning of the future.[19]
In the 2012 storyline "The Future", Pepper returns to her civilian life following her
destruction of J.A.R.V.I.S., the artificial intelligence that helped her control her Rescue
armor,[4] after its compromise led it to go rogue and attempt to kidnap her. [20] She became
engaged to Marc Kumar, a public relations and marketing consultant, but broke off the
relationship after he briefly became a supervillain. [citation needed]
After Tony undergoes a moral inversion following a confrontation with the psychic Red
Skull, Pepper attempts to oppose his efforts to release Extremis on a large scale [21] with
the aid of an A.I. back-up of Tony's mind he created eight years ago in the event of his
mind being attacked in such a manner. [22] Although the A.I. concludes that Tony's mind is
irreversibly twisted, and is subsequently destroyed by Tony, Pepper states that she
bought one of the largest media companies from under him which she will use to
destroy his reputation by broadcasting his plans to the rest of the world. She then
proclaims that any attempts he makes to create his 'perfect world' will have to be carried
out with people fully aware that he is now nothing but a monster. [23]
As part of the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" brand, Pepper Potts has not been seen in
the public life. When Tony Stark (who was no longer inverted) had hired Mary Jane
Watson to work for Stark Industries, Peter Parker attempted to recruit Pepper to work
for Parker Industries. Pepper declined the offer.[24]
Appearing in her Rescue armor following the "Civil War II" storyline, Pepper Potts
confronted Riri Williams and her Tony Stark A.I. in an attempt to tell Riri the problems of
being a superhero only for them to be attacked by Techno Golem and her Biohack
Ninjas.[25] As Riri flees, Pepper fights against Techno Golem and her Biohack Ninjas as
Techno Golem tries to get answers from Pepper on how she knows Riri. [26] When
Techno Golem's armor breaks and Tomoe tries to attack Riri, Pepper fires her Rescue
armor's gauntlets at Tomoe which knocked her out. Upon Sharon Carter formally
meeting Riri upon the arrest of Tomoe and the Biohack Ninjas, Pepper states to Riri that
they will talk again as she flies off in her Rescue armor. [27] Pepper Potts was present with
Mary Jane Watson, Friday, the Tony Stark A.I., and Tony Stark's biological mother
Amanda Armstrong when they are in the Hall of Armor where Riri voices her knowledge
of each of the Iron Man armors. When Amanda Armstrong offers to have Riri let Tony
Stark's labs be her base of operations, Riri is hesitant as Pepper encourages her. [28]
During the "Secret Empire" storyline, Rescue is among the superheroes that are part of
the Underground where she is part of their resistance against Hydra following their
takeover of the United States.[29]
In the pages of "Iron Man 2020", Tony Stark came to accept that he is an artificial
construct of the real Tony and Pepper Potts is among the people who Tony did not
return the calls to.[30] Pepper and Bethany came up with a way to rebuild Tony that
involves the DNA samples of his parents. As the A.I. Army's rebellion is happening,
Pepper is introduced to an off the grid navigation incorporated in the Rescue armor that
Tony previously developed before Y2K called H.A.P.P.Y. (short for Host Analogue
Program Pre-Y2K) where its personality is modeled after Happy Hogan. Donning the
Rescue armor, Pepper flies to England to seek out Tony's biological mother Amanda
Armstrong while recalling that his father Jude is a Hydra agent. After Rescue subdues
the automated studio equipment at North Star Studios, Amanda is reluctant to give up a
DNA sample as she wants Pepper to move on. Following a fight with Hydra drones and
receiving aid from the automated studio equipment, Amanda is injured as she gives
Rescue her hair sample. While Amanda doesn't know if what is planned is the right
thing, she does believe in Pepper Potts. [31]

Powers and abilities[edit]

The Stark-tech mag-field generator implanted in Pepper's chest was not weapons-
based like Stark's, but borrowed non-weaponized electromagnetic technology from
Rand Industries, which caused a number of physical changes to her body. It cured
her tinnitus, improving her hearing. It allows her to sense electromagnetic fields, and
manipulate them to levitate her body.[10]
Armor[edit]
Potts' Stark-tech armor suit,[2] which is designated Mark 1616,[32] but named Rescue by
Potts,[3] represents a hybrid of repulsor technology and portable electromagnetic super-
field generators that give the suit flight, speed, strength, and magnetic-field
manipulation. Its electromagnetic force fields are powerful enough to enable Rescue to
stop a falling jet airliner without physical contact with it, [33] and can also be used as an
offensive weapon with other armored opponents. [3] The suit's physical strength enables it
to hold up a stilt mansion felled by an earthquake, [33] and to rip the lower leg of the Black
armor.[20] The armor also features an artificial intelligence named J.A.R.V.I.S. that acts as
a guide for Potts.[32] During the 2012 storyline "The Future", Potts and Carson Wyche
come to suspect that the Mandarin has hacked J.A.R.V.I.S. to spy on Potts, and when
they attempt to troubleshoot the Rescue helmet, J.A.R.V.I.S. takes control of the
Rescue armor, and takes Potts and Wyche hostage.[20] J.A.R.V.I.S. is disabled by James
Rhodes with a source-focused electromagnetic pulse from the Black armor.[34] Potts
eventually destroys J.A.R.V.I.S. by placing the Rescue suit's helmet inside
an MRI scanner, ending her career as Rescue.[4]
In the subsequent series Superior Iron Man, Potts uses a purple and white Rescue
armor armed with sonic disruptors.[23] After the Marvel universe was rebooted in
the Secret Wars event,[35] this version of the armor did not appear again. The red Rescue
armor that Potts wears when she meets Riri Williams in The Invincible Iron Man vol. 4
#3 (2017) is based on the Marvel Legends Rescue action figure released in 2015.
[36]
 The Iron Man 2020 event and its Rescue 2020 spinoff depict Potts using a blue
Rescue armor based on the one from the film Avengers: Endgame.[37]

Other versions[edit]
 In the Amalgam Comics Universe, DC Comics' Green Lantern and Marvel's Iron
Man are combined to create Iron Lantern.[38] Iron Lantern is secretly Hal Stark, owner
of Stark Aircraft, a developer of experimental aircraft. One of his test pilots
is Pepper Ferris (an amalgamation of Pepper Potts and DC's Carol Ferris). Like
both her DC and Marvel counterparts, she is involved in a love triangle, this time
with Stark and his chief mechanic Happy Kalmaku (an amalgamation of
Marvel's Happy Hogan and DC's Thomas Kalmaku). When Pepper comes in contact
with a mysterious alien gem, she is transformed into Madame Sapphire (a
combination of Marvel's Madame Masque and DC's Star Sapphire). Pepper Ferris
first appeared in Iron Lantern #1 (April 1997), published jointly by Marvel and DC.
 In the alternate universe of the "Heroes Reborn" storyline, she and Iron Man are
lovers, although she can also be seen in a relationship with Happy Hogan. Stark is
forced to leave her unexpectedly and without explanation, as his very presence in
the universe will endanger her life and the lives of everyone else. [volume  &  issue  needed]
 She appears in the Marvel Zombies universe in Marvel Zombies Return, having just
submitted her resignation to Stark, who at this point is a near-useless drunk.
However, when the zombie Giant Man initiates an outbreak at Stark International,
Pepper and Happy are among the zombified casualties. She is killed by Stark when
he vomits a nanite-ridden formula upon her, which dissolves Pepper into a skeleton.
[39]

 The Ultimate Marvel version of the character can be seen during Ultimates 2. She

and Happy Hogan (with whom she appears to be in a relationship) can be seen
monitoring Tony Stark using the Iron Man armor.[40]
 The Invincible Iron Man #500 shows a flashforward 40 years ahead where her (and
Tony's) son Howard Anthony Stark and granddaughter Virginia "Ginny" Stark are
in an apocalyptic future where the Mandarin has conquered the world. An aged
version of Tony Stark defeats the long-time foe with the help of Howard and Ginny
but Howard and Tony sacrifice themselves in the process. At the story's close,
Ginny buries the two next to Pepper's gravestone. [41]