Pepper Potts

"I do anything and everything Mr. Stark requires. Including occasionally taking out the trash."

- Pepper Potts

Virginia "Pepper" Potts is the former personal assistant turned Executive to Tony Stark and Stark Industries. Originally working as Tony's personal assistant, she would take care of his schedule and do pretty much any task he wished. When Tony returned from captivity in Afghanistan, she was trusted enough by Tony to see his Iron Man suits and his workshop. She helped Tony defeat Obadiah Stane who tried to kill Tony by overloading the Arc Reactor killing Stane. After Stane's death, Tony made Pepper his new business partner taking Stane's place.

After Tony defeated Whiplash, Pepper and Tony started dating. Pepper even saved Tony when she temporarily got powers in the Battle at Roxxon Oil Drill.

Early life
Pepper worked in finance at Stark Industries when she found an error in Tony Stark's calculations. She rushed to Tony to correct the mark forcing her way to see him past bodyguards using pepper spray. Tony was impressed and hired her as his Personal Assistant, naming her Pepper as a joke.

Tony goes to Arizona
Tony and his best friend Rhodey go to the Yuma Proving Ground to test a new Stark Industries weapon. After testing it, Pepper gave the weapon's specifics to the generals who where present.

Tony gets captured in Afghanistan
After Tony had a one night stand with Christine Everhart after a party to celebrate Tony, Pepper greeted her the next morning with her clothes, coldly escorting her out. A few hours later, Tony went missing in Afghanistan. When Tony returns from Afghanistan after his capture and escape, Pepper along with Happy Hogan are there to greet him off of the plane. She expresses her gratitude that he has returned having not liked looking for a new job shedding a sly tear. She accompanies him to get a burger from Burger King and to a press conference where he announces that Stark Industries will no longer produce weapons where she is approached by Agent Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D. for an interview with Tony Stark.

Obadiah betrays Tony
Later, she goes to Tony's workshop to bring him a cappuccino and bagel and he asks her to help him replace his Mark I Arc Reactor with a new one before telling her to destroy it. She actually has it put in a glass frame before revealing it is her birthday and realized Tony would forget and brought herself something.

At Tony's annual charity ball, Pepper is already their wearing her "birthday present" when Tony asks her to dance. Both realize some hidden feeling and go to take some air where they nearly kiss before Pepper asks for a martini. Tony leaves to get the drink but then leaves after Christine Everhart provides him with pictures and information of the Ten Rings, leaving Pepper.

Battle of Los Angeles
When he returns, Pepper is angry but after Tony tells her he needs to destroy the weapons and stop the Ten Rings, Pepper agrees to help him. He gives her a USB to copy all the files from Stark Industries realizing that Obadiah Stane ordered to kill Tony. Leaving to arrest Obadiah with Agent Coulson and other agents, they are confronted by Obadiah in his Iron Monger suit. Tony arrives in a de-powered Mark III armor and battles Obadiah where he tells Pepper to overload the main arc reactor, which kills Obadiah charges up Tony's Mark I arc reactor saving his life. She is later present at a press conference where Tony announces he is Iron Man.

CEO of Stark Industries
Six months later, Potts was promoted to Stark Industries' CEO while Tony was getting his affairs in order. Unbeknownst to her, he had developed terminal complications from the poisonous side-effects of the arc reactor's palladium core. As a result, he began to spiral out of control and eventually his increasingly reckless behavior pulled them apart entirely.

Their reconciliation came on a night when Stark's arch-rival, Justin Hammer, unveiled his latest military marvel, a series of humanoid combat drones. When the drones activated and attacked Stark, apparently of their own accord, Pepper and Natasha Romanoff confronted Hammer and demanded they be shut down. When they found that Hammer had lost control of them, Romanoff departed to deal with them while Potts remained at the expo. Stark swooped in and saved her when she strayed close to one of the damaged drones right before it was about to explode. Pepper was extreamly scared and quit the job of being CEO, giving it back to Tony. Tony and Pepper then kissed after awhile and then Rhody interupted them saying that they looked like "two seals fighting over a grape".

Interrupted by Phil
Pepper Potts is having a romantic date with Tony Stark at the top floor of the Stark Tower, but they're later interrupted by the sudden arrival of Phil Coulson, who has to crash J.A.R.V.I.S.'s systems in order to get in the tower, since Stark is trying to close him outdoors. Pepper has befriended Coulson during their previous meetings, and asks him about his personal life, as well as convincing Stark to listen to him and to read what documents he's giving him. Pepper is well aware of The Avengers Initiative, due to Stark's inability to keep a secret (especially a government-related one that he cares little for), and she manages to convince her boss and boyfriend to help S.H.I.E.L.D. save the world from Loki Laufeyson.

Battle of New York
Later, when the Chitauri have started their invasion, Pepper is on a private plane, safe in distance from the battle. Stark, before sacrificing himself to destroy an atomic missile sent on Manhattan, tries to call her on the phone, but she doesn't hear it and doesn't call up.

After the battle, when the Avengers are disbanded and everyone comes back to their normal lives, Pepper rejoins with Stark, helping him redesign and rebuild Stark Tower together while having their romantic moment.

Nightmares
After the battle of New York, Tony found himself troubled by acute insomnia and doubting his ability to protect "the only thing he couldn't live without", Pepper, in a world of gods, aliens and other dimensions. He isolated himself in order to create more armor, forcing Pepper to become the head of Stark Industries once more. This strain resulted in him becoming increasingly distant from Pepper, as his efforts to ensure that he could protect her ironically drove him to spend less time with her.

One day Pepper was visited by an old acquaintance, Aldrich Killian, who asked her to join his organization A.I.M. and told her about a serum they had developed called Extremis, an offer she declined.

Destruction of Tony Stark's mansion
After Tony publicly threatened the terrorist Mandarin, Pepper tried to convince him to leave the city, but then scientist Maya Hansen arrived at their mansion to warn Tony about the Mandarin as well. Shortly thereafter, armed helicopters attacked the mansion with missiles. In order to protect Pepper, Tony commanded the Mark XLII to form around her. Once Pepper and Maya were safe outside the collapsing structure, Tony summoned the suit once more, this time to himself, in order to defeat as many terrorists as he could. During the attack, he was left for dead.

Captured by Killian
Later that night, Pepper found the helmet of Mark VII, and noticed it contained a message from Stark, telling her he was actually alive, but couldn't return home until he found the Mandarin.

Pepper and Maya moved to a safe place as the latter apparently wanted to tell Stark something else more than to be in alert for Mandarin's attack. Hansen revealed to Pepper she had been working on the Extremis and that her boss, Killian, was selling it to the Mandarin. Killian found them, but it was revealed that Maya was still working for him and not against him, that they needed Tony Stark's intellect to stabilize the virus, and that Pepper could be used as an incentive.

Battle at Roxxon Oil Drill
Pepper was injected with Extremis, and taken to the Norco, a docked oil tanker where Killian intended to keep her as collateral and as a trophy. As her Extremis infusion progressed through its second bonding stage, he also ushered the Iron Patriot armor into the room, which then deposited the U.S. president onto the floor before them. Pepper was shocked when Killian explained how the president was to be executed, before he stuffed Ellis back into the suit and sent him back out.

The execution was interrupted when Stark and Colonel Rhodes launched their rescue attempt, but were caught by Extremis soldiers. After several minutes of fighting explosions rocked the room where Pepper was imprisoned, sending her tumbling out onto a gantry, and almost to within reach of Stark. He tried grabbing her, but failed, and Pepper plummeted to the deck of the tanker.

Her Extremis virus saved her from the lethal fall however, regenerating the damage from the fall. When she came to, she found Killian advancing on Stark. She intervened with a surprise attack of her own, first bashing Killian away with a metal bar, then with a Stark explosive and repulsor ripped from a passing Iron Man armor. Detonated by the repulsor, the explosive munition obliterated Aldrich Killian.

After being reunited, Tony and Pepper reconciled. Stark promised Pepper he could find a cure for the Extremis in her body, but also that he would no longer be obsessed with his job, as he ordered J.A.R.V.I.S. to activate the "Clean Slate" protocol, which caused every Iron Man armor to be destroyed in a firework-like explosion, in celebration of Christmas.

Powers and Abilities
Extremis (formerly)

Relationships

 * Iron Man - Love Interest
 * War Machine - Ally
 * Black Widow - Former Assistant
 * Iron Monger - Ally turned Enemy

Trivia

 * In Iron Man 3, Pepper, for a brief moment, dons the Iron Man Mark 42 suit by Tony Stark to save her from the explosion who in turn saves him from the falling debris. This is a reference to her comic book hero counterpart, Rescue.