Virginia Potts

Virginia "Pepper" Potts is the CEO of Stark Industries. Originally working as Tony Stark's personal assistant, she would take care of his schedule and perform any task he wished. During this time, Potts became good friends with Stark and soon, they had begun developing romantic feelings for each other. However, neither was able to act on these feelings, as they each feared that the other would not accept them. When Stark returned from captivity in Afghanistan, Potts was trusted enough by him to see his Iron Man suits and his workshop. She helped Stark defeat Obadiah Stane, who tried to kill Stark, by overloading the Arc Reactor, killing Stane. After Stane's death, Stark made Potts his new business partner, taking Stane's place. Believing his death was imminent, Stark stepped down as CEO and appointed her as his replacement. After Stark defeated Whiplash at the Stark Expo, both Potts and Stark finally admitted their attraction to each other and began a romantic relationship. During the crisis surrounding the Mandarin's terrorist attacks, Potts was kidnapped by Aldrich Killian and injected with Extremis. She was freed by Stark during the Battle on the Norco and went on to kill Killian herself. Stark cured her of the effects of Extremis, who temporarily gave up being Iron Man just for her. As the War on HYDRA began, the Avengers needed to be remobilized. Without S.H.I.E.L.D. active to run the team, Stark and Potts took over, allowing Captain America to retain field and team leadership while he designed everything else, including creating new armors and rejoining the team himself as an active duty combatant. Sometime after the Ultron Offensive, he and Potts broke off their relationship, which affected Stark and left him wondering why he could not make it work while his father could. However, shortly after the Avengers Civil War ended, Stark and Potts resumed their relationship, where Stark eventually proposed to her. The two married following the Snap and had a daughter, Morgan Stark. The three of them resided on the Stark Eco-Compound until Stark departed for the Time Heist. Later, Potts joined the Avengers in the Battle of Earth as Rescue, wearing the Mark XLIX armor, when Thanos' forces invaded. After Stark died by her side, Potts was present at his funeral, where she set adrift Stark's first Arc Reactor onto a wreath into their residential lakeside. As one of Tony Stark's oldest and closest friends, Pepper knew Stark better than most and has always been there for him, whether he knew it or needed it. Though outsiders would view her as a degrading assistant or lackey, Stark himself appreciated her dedication and how long she took out with him when compared to everyone else and trusted her enough to run Stark Industries but his own self-obsession irritated and occasionally drove her away due to forgetting her birthday and buying her strawberries as a gift, the one thing on earth that she is allergic to. Despite knowing her place, Potts does not take disrespect to herself lightly. A sarcastic woman, when Christine Everhart condescends to her, she retains her decorum but snidely insinuates Everhart to be trash she needs to take out. With Stark, despite being her boss, Potts is not above a barbed remark for him such as buying herself a birthday gift with Tony's money when he forgot and keeping his Arc Reactor in a glass case, reading; "PROOF TONY STARK HAS A HEART". She seems to dislike violence in general, becoming deeply shocked by the explosion of the Hammer Drones at the Stark Expo and disgusted over violently killing Aldrich Killian with Extremis. Even though Potts has proven to be a defining point for Stark's development and maturity, the relationship between the two of them is a definite struggle. At times, although he originally took up the mantle of Iron Man because the world needed it, Potts became to realize that Stark needed to be Iron Man more, causing strain as his tinkering and his suits were only a distraction to what really mattered in his life. His actions over the anxiety of a world with gods and aliens were designed to protect the ones he loves, which included her. However, this also pushed her away further. Ultron was designed to be the last line of defense for Earth against these threats so Stark being Iron Man would no longer be a necessity, but as his mistake created more problems and thus more reasons why he needed to be Iron Man, Potts could no longer be in a relationship with him and they decided to take a break. Despite these setbacks, Pepper decided to look past them and she ultimately got back with Stark once the Avengers Civil War was over and even helped Stark introduce Peter Parker as the newest member of the Avengers though when he declined, Stark decided to propose to her. When Stark was presumed dead again by the world during the Infinity War, Pepper was one of the few who knew he was alive and she demanded Stark to come back to her when she learned he became Iron Man again. 5 years after the Snap, Pepper has since lived a quiet life with Tony and their only daughter, Morgan, in their lakeside cabin. Though Tony showed understandable reluctance at the prospect of possibly losing his family in their plot to undo the Snap, Pepper convinced him to do so anyway, showing that she has grown much more supportive of Tony and is willing to risk her own family's future if it means saving everyone else's. Pepper, despite having no experience on the battlefield, bravely charged alongside many of her allies in the Battle of Earth and carried herself with poise and dignity despite watching her husband die before her once the battle ended.