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Description
Rescue
Real Name: Virginia Potts

First Appearance: Tales of Suspense #45 (September 1963)

Virginia "Pepper" Potts was hired on to be Tony Stark's head administrative assistant when he returned from his mysterious disappearance and shut down Stark Industries' weapons development programs. The two of them hit it off immediately and Potts became one of Stark's closest confidants, let in on the secret of his kidnapping at the hands of terrorists and his subsequent escape when he constructed the first Iron Man armor. Rumors were that their relationship was decidedly more than just professional, but Stark denied this. But the level of trust between the two was so great that when Stark left the company to join SHIELD's Avengers initiative, he left Potts to run Stark Industries in his stead.

As the notoriety of the Avengers' Iron Man grew, so too did attacks on Stark Industries property rise, and unfortunately Stark could not be there to protect them every time. Following the bombing incident in Stark Tower's lobby that cost NYPD detective Misty Knight's arm, Tony Stark insisted on making a new armored suit for a hired bodyguard, but Potts would not have it. She felt that went against Stark's anti-weapons creed and would only lead to an escalation of violence--with SHIELD's new War Machine there were more than enough Iron Man knockoffs in the world. They came to a compromise: Stark built a new armor system designed to specifically save people and de-escalate tense situations, and called it the RESCUE system. The pilot? Potts herself--but only in emergencies.

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But because this is the Marvel universe I'm sure Potts finds herself in more than one super powered fight.

In general I think the MCU's direction of having Tony quit Stark Industries and putt Pepper in charge was a good move to keep Pepper relevant outside of being Tony's love interest, so I've kept that here but I'm leaving the true nature of their relationship and how it evolves vague for now. Outside of that... uh, nothing super interesting story wise outside of connecting the Rescue armor and Misty Knight's origins to the same event. Which, if you remember from Misty Knight's entry, was perpetrated by the "Ten Rings" death cult. Hm...

An important decision I had to make was *what* Rescue armor to base her look on. Thanks to the movie the blue look (which actually originates in the Iron Man Armored Adventures animated show, not the comics!) is the most iconic nowadays, but because these designs I do have a long lead time I had actually done the initial pencil drawings before the film came out, and I became attached to the look I had come up with, and stuck with how I viewed "Rescue" in my head before Endgame. So this is basically based on the second Rescue armor model from the comics, specifically her body--the head, on the other hand, is based on the head of the first Rescue armor model. Outside of that it is clearly based on my established Iron Man armor aesthetic.

Description
Rescue
Real Name: Virginia Potts

First Appearance: Tales of Suspense #45 (September 1963)

Virginia "Pepper" Potts was hired on to be Tony Stark's head administrative assistant when he returned from his mysterious disappearance and shut down Stark Industries' weapons development programs. The two of them hit it off immediately and Potts became one of Stark's closest confidants, let in on the secret of his kidnapping at the hands of terrorists and his subsequent escape when he constructed the first Iron Man armor. Rumors were that their relationship was decidedly more than just professional, but Stark denied this. But the level of trust between the two was so great that when Stark left the company to join SHIELD's Avengers initiative, he left Potts to run Stark Industries in his stead.

As the notoriety of the Avengers' Iron Man grew, so too did attacks on Stark Industries property rise, and unfortunately Stark could not be there to protect them every time. Following the bombing incident in Stark Tower's lobby that cost NYPD detective Misty Knight's arm, Tony Stark insisted on making a new armored suit for a hired bodyguard, but Potts would not have it. She felt that went against Stark's anti-weapons creed and would only lead to an escalation of violence--with SHIELD's new War Machine there were more than enough Iron Man knockoffs in the world. They came to a compromise: Stark built a new armor system designed to specifically save people and de-escalate tense situations, and called it the RESCUE system. The pilot? Potts herself--but only in emergencies.

----

But because this is the Marvel universe I'm sure Potts finds herself in more than one super powered fight.

In general I think the MCU's direction of having Tony quit Stark Industries and putt Pepper in charge was a good move to keep Pepper relevant outside of being Tony's love interest, so I've kept that here but I'm leaving the true nature of their relationship and how it evolves vague for now. Outside of that... uh, nothing super interesting story wise outside of connecting the Rescue armor and Misty Knight's origins to the same event. Which, if you remember from Misty Knight's entry, was perpetrated by the "Ten Rings" death cult. Hm...

An important decision I had to make was *what* Rescue armor to base her look on. Thanks to the movie the blue look (which actually originates in the Iron Man Armored Adventures animated show, not the comics!) is the most iconic nowadays, but because these designs I do have a long lead time I had actually done the initial pencil drawings before the film came out, and I became attached to the look I had come up with, and stuck with how I viewed "Rescue" in my head before Endgame. So this is basically based on the second Rescue armor model from the comics, specifically her body--the head, on the other hand, is based on the head of the first Rescue armor model. Outside of that it is clearly based on my established Iron Man armor aesthetic.