Hero Profile: Rescue

Behind every great man is a great woman. Considering how great Tony Stark thinks he is, Virginia “Pepper” Potts has to be one of the greatest women on the planet. Or perhaps the most patient. Pepper is one of the oldest characters of the Iron Man series, but has been rather spotty in her appearances. There was a ten to fifteen year gap between her appearances. This is a good and bad thing. The bad is of course that she was more or less dropped for a number of years. That’s just being a dick to your characters. The good is that she is one of the most developed female characters. She started off as a doe-eyed bit of eye candy, but today is perhaps the most accomplished woman in the Marvel-verse. She’s CEO of a Stark corporation, how many other people can say that?

She makes this look good.

Pepper began as a secretary at Stark Industries before becoming Tony’s personal assistant. She’d found an accounting error that Tony himself had missed, which he probably found simultaneously impressive and annoying. She was almost instantly smitten with her new boss, but Tony being Tony, he didn’t pay her too much attention. As a matter of fact he doesn’t seem to realize his own feelings for her until after she married his friend and chauffer Harold “Happy” Hogan. Pepper and Happy drop out of the comic book scene for a number of years, they make a guest appearance every now and then but weren’t primary characters again until around 2000. Which, interestingly enough, is just before the Iron Man movie. What a coincidence.

She doesn’t really get much in terms of significant character development until the Civil War. She’d once again become Tony’s secretary and Happy had gone back to his chauffer duties. Part way through the Civil War storyline, Happy Hogan is kidnapped and used as live bait against Tony by a villain known as Spymaster. Happy is able actually able to fight off the supervillain for a time, before flinging the both of them down several stories. Happy is left in a vegetative state, and at Pepper’s request, Tony quietly deactivates Happy’s life support. It isn’t much, but it is a lot more development than she received during that ten plus year absence I mentioned earlier.

She can't actually blast you,
But she can tear your arms off.

After that, she takes part in the Fifty State Initiative. FSI was a government run program aimed at putting a team of superheroes in every state of the union. The Midwest guys probably got the easiest detail, just saying. Pepper is given the codename Hera and is put in charge of coordinating and monitoring team missions. It’s not the easiest or most glamourous job Pepper has ever had, but it’s her first real attempt at the whole superhero thing. And she was damn good at it. After the project was shut down, damn budget cuts, she was offered another job from Tony, which she graciously accepts. I’d be calling it nepotism if she wasn’t really, really qualified by this point. She is pretty much a secretary again, until she’s caught in a terrorist bombing. Them’s the brakes when you work for Tony Stark.

Pepper is badly injured, lots of shrapnel wounds and multiple injuries to her organs. Being the sort to find creative solutions while under pressure, Tony implants a powerful magnet into her chest to keep the damage from worsening. Huh, Tony must have been suffering from some serious bit of deja vu while setting up that one. The implant saves Pepper’s life, and has the weird side effect of clearing up her Tinnitus. Lifesaving, and annoyance removing, its brilliant. She receives further cybernetic upgrades, turning her into more or less into a cyborg.

She is made CEO of Stark Enterprises when Tony is forced to go into hiding. Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin, was placed as director of a new government agency known as H.A.M.M.E.R and unlike SHIELD, they were too lazy to make it a real acronym. Oh, and it’s evil. While making it seem like Osborn has the world’s best interest at heart he is really after the Superhuman Registration Act database, which has a number of superheroes secret ID’s recorded, and is stored in Tony’s brain. While acting as CEO, Pepper discovered a secret chamber in Tony’s office which had a Mark 1616 armor inside. Shockingly, it was in her size and compatible with her electromagnetic pacemaker. Naming it the Rescue Armor, Pepper flew off to help Tony. They are able to save the database from Osborn, consummate their relationship, and even restore Tony’s mind (it had been damaged as he forcibly deleted the database from his memories). Down side, Tony had no idea about anything that happened over the last few years. Back to square one Miss Potts.  

Don't look so shocked Pepper. The surprising
thing is that it took Tony this long to design
you an Armor.

Rescue becomes a regular hero in her own right over the next few years, specializing in high speed search and rescue missions. The shield generators in her armor makes her able to pluck civilians out of the worst possible situations, from burning buildings to near drownings. Her armored exploits are cut prematurely short. J.A.R.V.I.S (Tony’s old AI) whom helped her control the Rescue armor, was compromised, making the computer program go rogue and attempt to kidnap Pepper to make her his bride? Or something like that, he was out of his mind. J.A.R.V.I.S is destroyed leaving Pepper without an armor, and forcing her back to her civilian life. But somehow I doubt Rescue is done for good, she’ll just be on vacation until Tony needs to have his butt saved. An assistant’s work is never done.

The magnetic field generator implanted in Pepper is similar to but fundamentally different than Tony’s Arc Reactor. It is non-weaponized, so she can’t fire a Repulsor blast from it, but she can manipulate electromagnetic fields and sense them at a distance. Pepper’s armor is based around the same principle, very few weapons and prioritizing defense and speed. She can create powerful electromagnetic shields, and fly at high speeds. In the armor she’s strong enough to bench press a building. She is also a capable business woman and CEO, she’s saved Tony’s business on a number of occasions while the boss was indisposed.

Pepper has spent most of career as a minor character, but has been gaining popularity in the last few years. She only has appeared as Rescue once, to my knowledge, but I could see that changing sometime in the near future.

I’d say that the biggest bump for Pepper was the Iron Man movies. She’s the no nonsense personal aid for Tony in the first film, and continues to grow throughout the next few films. She hasn’t been shown in her Rescue armor, but they do a nice little nod to it in Iron Man 3, with both her using Tony’s suit, and getting a few cybernetic upgrades by the end of the film. Who knows, maybe we’ll see a Rescue in Iron Man 4.

 She appeared in Iron Man: Armored Adventures, which is kind of a weird CGI series where Tony and the principle cast are reimagined as teenagers. Pepper is as energetic as her nickname would have you believe. It’s only mildly annoying. For most of the series she is merely a supporting character/love interest but she gets her armor by the final season, and while it’s a heavy redesign from the original, it’s still a great suit.

You’re probably wondering why I’m drawing attention to such a small character. Heck, she has spent less than five years as a superhero before losing her powers. The answer is simple, Pepper is a positive step forward for female characters. Look where she started, the lovesick puppy following Tony Stark around. She’s since walked away, had her own life, returned, and continually stepped up to help Tony and the rest of the Marvel-verse. Sure she’s a minor character now, but who know, some day Rescue could be a name as well-known as Iron Man or War Machine. Here’s hoping. Next time, Bruce Banner’s titanic cousin, Jennifer Walters the She-Hulk.

She swoops in like Superman to save the day. Way to go Pepper.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper_Potts#cite_note-IronMan526-3

 http://marvel.wikia.com/Rescue

 https://forums.marvelheroes.com/discussion/29414/so-in-light-of-enhanced-lady-deadpool-enhanced-pepper-potts-rescue-armor

 http://www.trollishdelver.com/2013/03/pepper-potts-armours-up-in-new-iron-man.html