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eruthrosSo below this point are some pages of Pepper's Rescue plots; I've seen a bunch of tumblr photosets that mostly do the flying and smiling parts, but not so many that capture the then-JARVIS-needs-to-be-destroyed parts.
This run is not as long as it looks - Invincible Iron Man v 5 was numbered from 1 to 33, and then skipped to #500. For reasons. So this is actually, like, three years, starting in 2009 and continuing until 2012, when Fraction stopped writing Invincible Iron Man. As a result, almost every page here is written by Matt Fraction with art by Salvador Larroca; I'll note the exceptions.
So the first time Pepper gets a suit is part of a long arc starting with the five nightmares plotline, in which we learn what Tony's biggest nightmares are and then for reasons they all end up coming true. Which means Pepper's injured in a terrorist bombing and ends up with shrapnel in her chest, in exactly the same way that Tony was injured before, and for reasons the only way to save her it to put a repulsor in her chest, in exactly the same way Tony was saved before. For reasons. The following are from IIM #004:
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It's pretty repetitive, so I didn't include it, but this goes on for a while actually - like, here's another page on the same theme. But eventually Tony tells her that it's okay, the repulsor isn't a bomb:
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Which leads to this often-reblogged scene in which Pepper uses the electromagnet to fly:
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After the five nightmares arc is over, Pepper gets a repulsor upgrade; she still doesn't have an Iron Man/Rescue suit at this point. #008:
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Then Tony's life and most of his friends' lives go to hell (because Matt Fraction's Iron Man); Pepper ends up as the CEO of his company just in time for it to all go to shit, Tony's on the run, Maria's on the run, etc. #010:
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Pepper being Pepper, she puts the suit on and flies out of the office. #011:
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So we spend a couple of issues getting to know the suit as Pepper uses it to rescue people. #012:
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Later in #012, Pepper catches a plane; it takes a bunch of pages, in which JARVIS does some math and Pepper applies the ... repulsomagnetic fields. Aftermath:
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She's under arrest because ... reasons. Norman Osborn, who runs HAMMER (a government organization) basically then tells her she can't be a superhero, because there are a bunch of rules for superheroing. She rescues people using the suit anyway. But then has to deal with being an illegal superhero and also having a giant chest impant in #014:
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This is also, btw, an arc where Maria Hill, Natasha Romanoff, and Pepper Potts do amazing shit together and I ttly ship them. Like, Natasha and Maria on the run from the law, the three of them breaking out of prison together, you know. If you're looking for that sort of thing in comics.
Pepper and Tony then end up prisoners of Whitney Frost / Madam Masque; this is one of the times that the Rescue suit acts on its own, so I included it just because I happened to know where it was. (It's also a ladies fighting over a dude scene, as happens.) IIM #016:
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The Rescue one-shot was published at the same time as IIM #029, but takes place around this point in the arc. In it, Pepper has doubts about being a superhero; she ends up at a gym, talking to a spirit/vision/something of her dead husband, Happy, about her possible failure to save some people from a tanker truck explosion and how she feels about that. From Rescue #1, written by Kelly Sue DeConnick, art by Andrea Mutti:
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Pepper tries and fails to prevent an accident; she ends up saving a car full of people but a tanker truck hits a convenience store and she goes in to save people. This takes many pages; here are a few of them.
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... and then Happy talks to Pepper about how she is the reason the people she saved got a chance, and Pepper picks up her boxing gloves and goes back to the heavy bag, implicitly deciding to keep superheroing. Flash forward a couple issues of IIM, and Tony is in a complicated comics coma, and the only way to save him involves Pepper giving up her chest repulsor and, with it, the Rescue suit. #021:
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They start the procedure, following Tony's instructions as recorded in Pepper's suit:
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Whether or not Tony planned the whole thing in advance is kind of up in the air; there are people who are pretty dubious about Pepper's "gift" of a suit since it just happens to have instructions to save Tony's life in it. And there are people who think Tony meant it sincerely. People also differ on whether Tony means the suit to be solely protective or used for superheroing. YMMV. Skip ahead to Pepper's recovery from having the repulsor removed, in #023:
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Later in that arc, Pepper saves the day with a phone call and not bluffing about stuff. Loads of running around, Tony's saved, and eventually Pepper gets her repulsor back. But she has to argue with Tony to get it, despite his promises. #027:
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Eventually Pepper convinces Tony that she should get the repulsor back and get a new suit. #029:
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This was printed in IIM #032, but it's a separate short within the comic, so it has a different artist - Jamie McKelvie instead of Larocca. Still Matt Fraction writing. Also it makes no goddamned sense. Rescue and War Machine get taken out in a fight, and Pepper ends up collapsed with life support shutting down. And then JARVIS talks to her while pretending to be her dead husband Happy:
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Pepper spends a while trying to balance the superheroing and the CEOing, in much the same way Tony did in previous IIM arcs. She takes out some bad guys with just her repulsor in what is possibly the most reblogged Pepper panel on tumblr (you must have me mistaken for Tony Stark's secretary. She takes the suit out sometimes, especially when there's a giant mess, as here in the Fear Itself/Worthy arc. #506:
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Pepper ends up fighting Mokk (who was previously the Grey Gargoyle / Paul Duval), who's a giant stone thing who will kill her as soon as she looks at him. Reasons. Pepper loses the fight in #509:
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Later in the same issue, some footage of Pepper crying while wearing the suit gets leaked to the press:
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And since Pepper is getting all the same plots Tony did with his suit, we have to do a follow-up board meeting in #511:
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The next time Pepper gets into the suit, she and JARVIS have a ... weird conversation. #515:
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Later Pepper ends up meeting the new Iron Man as Rescue. (Tony's retired, reasons, the new Iron Man is Rhodey, but Pepper doesn't know that; she thinks he's dead, and that the new Iron Man is some random person who is stealing Stark technology.) And she still does some non-Iron Man related Rescuing as in #521:
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After Pepper chases down the new Iron Man, she suspects that Rhodey's driving the suit. But she doesn't understand why Tony wouldn't have told her and Carson about it until she starts to suspect that something is wrong with JARVIS. #523:
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... at which point JARVIS takes Pepper and Carson hostage and ties them up back to back and villain monologues at them. #524:
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And as a consequence, Pepper has to destroy JARVIS / the helmet of the Rescue suit. #526:
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Surprise! JARVIS has been secretly an agent of the Mandarin (probably) or the Hammers (maybe), possibly since the moment Tony made him back in #029! And thus the whole time Pepper had the new Rescue suit! (Tony was also kind of secretly an agent of the Mandarin at the time. The Mandarin hacked his brain after he had to reboot it. Reasons.) So when Pepper had that dream-vision-thing where JARVIS was Happy, JARVIS was actually trying to warn her about the Mandarin's plan, because despite the Mandarin's programming JARVIS had come to love Pepper.
And this whole plot means Pepper doesn't have a suit anymore. And in #527, the last issue of Fraction's run, she's pretty sad about it:
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The end! Seriously, that's how Rescue ends and basically how Fraction's IIM ends. JARVIS was a bad guy all along, fell in love with Pepper, and had to be destroyed. Then Tony took the War Machine suit away as well. And then Tony goes into space, leaving Pepper and Rhodey behind, suitless, so that Tony's in the right place to start off Kieron Gillen's run:
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... and off he goes into space. Having replaced the Rescue and War Machine suits with flowers. Time to start a new volume!
This run is not as long as it looks - Invincible Iron Man v 5 was numbered from 1 to 33, and then skipped to #500. For reasons. So this is actually, like, three years, starting in 2009 and continuing until 2012, when Fraction stopped writing Invincible Iron Man. As a result, almost every page here is written by Matt Fraction with art by Salvador Larroca; I'll note the exceptions.
So the first time Pepper gets a suit is part of a long arc starting with the five nightmares plotline, in which we learn what Tony's biggest nightmares are and then for reasons they all end up coming true. Which means Pepper's injured in a terrorist bombing and ends up with shrapnel in her chest, in exactly the same way that Tony was injured before, and for reasons the only way to save her it to put a repulsor in her chest, in exactly the same way Tony was saved before. For reasons. The following are from IIM #004:
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Tony Stark in the Iron Man uniform walking in some wreckage; Pepper Potts is lying on some wreckage.
Tony: Pepper.
Pepper: My hero.
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Pepper is lying in a hospital bed; Tony is sitting at her bedside and holding her hand.
Pepper: Tony. I think there was a bomb.
Tony: Yeah. There was. When the building came down, you were running and -- you got hurt, Pep. There's bits of stuff in you. Near your heart and near your spine. You're too weak to have it removed, but if we don't do something, the stuff could move and really cause damage.
Pepper: Oh...kay? So what do we do?
Tony: Do you remember when I got hurt in the Middle East, Pepper? Something very similar happened. I had shrapnel rubbing on my heart. Then I put one of these in my chest and it kept the shrapnel still while I healed enough for the procedure. We'll have to make you like me. Pep ... like I used to be back in the day.
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Pepper is standing in Tony's SHIELD workshop and touching the breastplate of an Iron Man suit. Tony is sitting at a computer.
Pepper: And then you follow him and do what you do and be done with it.
Tony: That pretty much seems to be the course we're locked on, yes. Something on your mind, Pep? You seem fidgety.
Pepper: I'm fine.
Tony: Pain manageable? Rehab all right? I mean, the progress is clearly remarkable --
Pepper: I'm fine, Tony. It's just -- I can feel it, you know? It's heavy and weird and alien and -- Tony, I don't want this weapon of yours inside of me. Whatever that means for me -- a wheelchair or a -- or more surgery or worse. I don't care. I'm not a bomb. I don't want to be a bomb, Tony.
Tony VO: This is how Pepper sees me.
Tony: One day at a time, okay? Just get well first, and we'll go from there...
Tony VO: A walking bomb.
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Pepper is standing in a room and looking at an Iron Man suit; Tony comes in behind her.
Tony: Pepper?
Pepper: Yeah.
Tony: You okay? What are you doing in here?
Pepper: They're officially discharging me tomorrow.
Tony: That's great news. Are you in pain? Are the implants --
Pepper: No. I am in absolutely no pain. I can hear better than ever, I feel stronger than I ever have in my life, and I'm totally mobile again. I'm a walking, talking, billion-dollar miracle, Tony. Take it out.
It's pretty repetitive, so I didn't include it, but this goes on for a while actually - like, here's another page on the same theme. But eventually Tony tells her that it's okay, the repulsor isn't a bomb:
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Pepper and Tony standing in front of some displays and Iron Man suit and etc.
Tony: It's true -- the Iron Man was always designed to be a weapon. The mag-field generator implanted in my chest was meant to run a war-array and save my life. That was what I built. That's what it's been built as ever since. But this one -- it's not weapons-based.
Pepper: I ... what?
Tony: Do you know Danny Rand? Runs, uh, Rand Industries? Kung fu guy, kind of a space cadet? Anyway, his company's done some really innovative work with electromagnets lately. They've never been a weapons concern, so -- so the tech we borrowed from them isn't a weapon. Pepper, you're not a bomb, you're a battery.
Pepper: Oh. Oh, that's great -- I just -- Tony, I just assumed --
Which leads to this often-reblogged scene in which Pepper uses the electromagnet to fly:
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Pepper Potts and Tony Stark are standing facing each other and holding hands; the camera zooms in closer as the conversation continues, and Pepper begins to float in the air.
Pepper: It buzzes in my chest when I pass machines. I can feel it, like a new sense.
Tony: That’s exactly what it is. You’re picking up electrical fields, magnetic fields, all kinds of invisible frequencies.
Pepper: Wow.
Tony: Do me a favor and close your eyes.
Pepper: Okay.
Tony: Okay. You said it feels like magnets pushing apart, right?
Pepper: Yeah.
Tony: Focus on that. Just let yourself feel that weird new feeling.
Pepper: Okay.
Tony: Now let it get bigger.
Pepper: Ohh… Okay…
Tony: Let it radiate out, right? It starts in your chest, imagine it’s a stone dropped in the middle of a pond. Imagine it’s rippling out.
Pepper: I can feel it, Tony. Just like you said.
Tony: Yeah. I know it feels like a weight you’re burdened with, but it’s not … Start thinking about it like an extension of yourself.
Pepper: And this is just a magnet?
Tony: Well, not just, but — there’s magnetism involved, yeah. It’s pretty miraculous. Open your eyes and see.
Pepper: Oh, Tony, I --
Maria Hill, via a screen: Director Stark.
After the five nightmares arc is over, Pepper gets a repulsor upgrade; she still doesn't have an Iron Man/Rescue suit at this point. #008:
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Pepper Potts lying on a reclining chair/bed wearing a skintight suit; Tony plugs stuff into her chest repulsor and then works on a computer.
Tony: Hang on -- you'll feel a --
Pepper: Nnng
Tony: -- a little shock of something.
Pepper: Aahhhh right right right. Okay okay okay. I --
Pepper VO: -- feel amazing --
Pepper: I always forget how it feels to get hooked up.
Tony: It's a pip, yeah? When I had extremis in me it kind of felt like that all the time. It's pretty great, living on the bleeding edge... which is here you'll be when we're done here today. Just in time, too, as I don't have any labs capable of doing this kind of work. You're being upgraded, Pepper. The repulsomagnetic tech in your chest is upping your metabolism, your core strength, reaction time, reflexes... even your intelligence is leaping up 25 to 30 IQ points.
Pepper: Tony Stark. Are you transforming me into your dream girl?
Tony uses the screens on the wall to put up pictures of his dream girls; Pepper's still on the chair in the background.
Tony: Actually my dream girls at the moment are a gaggle of Icelandic flight attendants I met snowboarding. Triplets. Their parents owned a yoga studio, if you can believe it.
Pepper: I'm a little disturbed that in the middle of a complicated biotech procedure, you've got your own Girls Gone Wild slideshow so readily available. In fact, I think it's wildly inappropriate.
Tony: Oh, come on, Pepper. You know you were always my dream girl.
Pepper: ...
Then Tony's life and most of his friends' lives go to hell (because Matt Fraction's Iron Man); Pepper ends up as the CEO of his company just in time for it to all go to shit, Tony's on the run, Maria's on the run, etc. #010:
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Pepper Potts throwing stuff around her office; she knocks a lamp off the desk, throws an office chair, and happens to find a secret chamber with the 1616 suit in it.
Pepper: Dammit Tony! What do you want me to do -- grrahh -- holy crap. Hello, girl.
Pepper being Pepper, she puts the suit on and flies out of the office. #011:
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Pepper in the suit; she's looking at the HUD and talking the JARVIS, and we're seeing some of the specs as well; then we pull back and see the suit from the outside.
Pepper: Um. Hello? On? System on?
JARVIS: Initializing all systems. Good afternoon, Miss Potts.
Pepper: Oh wow... hi? JARVIS?
JARVIS: Yes ma'am, Just Another Rather Very Intelligent System. Mr. Stark put me together to aid your operation of the Mark 1616.
Pepper: 1616? Tony made sixteen hundred suits?
JARVIS: No, ma'am.
Pepper: Oh.
JARVIS: I'm the interface that will bridge the gap between the Mark 1616 and yourself. I contain the entirety of the Stark dataspine and have a playlist of 96,000 of your favorite songs.
Pepper: So Tony made you to take care of me.
JARVIS: The repulsor technology disc in your chest provides power; along with the other enhancements Mr. Stark implemented within your biology, you are this machine's most perfect pilot. I am merely here to make the experience more enjoyable, and to answer your questions from time to time. So, hello, Ms. Potts. It will be my pleasure to serve you. Are you ready to begin your training?
Pepper: Hell yes.
So we spend a couple of issues getting to know the suit as Pepper uses it to rescue people. #012:
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Pepper flying in over a collapsed school and saving some people before she flies away again.
Pepper VO: JARVIS tells me this suit -- the 1616 -- has been created for heavy rescue and recovery. We were working on subsonic speedburst takeoff and landing drills up and down the coast with the first temblor hit. Dumb luck I saw the school. A hybrid of repulsor technology and portable electromagnetic superfield generators gives the suit flight, speed, strength, magnetic field manipulation -- all kinds of tricks. There's not a single weapon anywhere on this suit. Everything is defense. Protective. There's not even a degree of heat generated by its thrust. I kind of love it.
JARVIS: There's a hospital 1793 KM from here with failing --
Pepper: Let's go.
In the last panel, Norman Osborn is watching video of Pepper in the suit.
Someone offscreen: Director Osborn, the suit's on the move again.
Norman: Follow it.
Later in #012, Pepper catches a plane; it takes a bunch of pages, in which JARVIS does some math and Pepper applies the ... repulsomagnetic fields. Aftermath:
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People using slides to get out of a downed airplane as Pepper talks to the police.
Pepper VO: We didn't die. Nobody died. The rest is a blur. One second flying, towing this massive weight behind me, heavier than anything I've ever carried -- the next, telling police how I did it. Thanking God I'm wearing a suit of armor so nobody can see my kneecaps shake. I'm walking the officials through every step of what happened. I'm offering up the suit's recording and data from the whole incident... I didn't even notice the press show up. And when the cops and the press all started to back up... it didn't even occur to me to turn around until:
Military dude: Pepper Potts, you're under arrest.
Pepper VO: Hi, Mom.
She's under arrest because ... reasons. Norman Osborn, who runs HAMMER (a government organization) basically then tells her she can't be a superhero, because there are a bunch of rules for superheroing. She rescues people using the suit anyway. But then has to deal with being an illegal superhero and also having a giant chest impant in #014:
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Pepper talking to Dr. Lisk in a truck in the Holland Tunnel.
Pepper VO: I hate breaking the rules.
Pepper: I hate breaking the rules, and I'm sorry I'm making you break them with me, but we're ninety feet under the Hudson right now, and that means we can't be tracked. So thanks for meeting me like this, Doc.
Lisk: Please. The Hippocratic oath doesn't stop where Norman Osborn starts. Or at sea level, for that matter. And seeing as how I'm the guy that put that damn thing in your chest, Ms. Potts... ...then I should be the one to make sure it's not killing you.
Pepper: Thanks, Doc. It's been a busy few weeks and since we're no longer SHIELD employees I've lost my health care.
Lisk: You'd be surprised how many of our former coworkers are in similar situations. Me and Mike take care of 'em, don't we, Mike?
Mike: We do our best.
Lisk: Yes we do. So: wear and tear. Like what, Potts?
Pepper: Held up in a stilt mansion in an earthquake. Stopped a few rockslides. Caught an airplane. Two airplanes, actually. Lifted a semi off of train tracks. Um... got a school bus unstuck. Did some avalanche rescue and recovery work...
This is also, btw, an arc where Maria Hill, Natasha Romanoff, and Pepper Potts do amazing shit together and I ttly ship them. Like, Natasha and Maria on the run from the law, the three of them breaking out of prison together, you know. If you're looking for that sort of thing in comics.
Pepper and Tony then end up prisoners of Whitney Frost / Madam Masque; this is one of the times that the Rescue suit acts on its own, so I included it just because I happened to know where it was. (It's also a ladies fighting over a dude scene, as happens.) IIM #016:
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Tony tied up on the floor and trying to knock Whitney over as she fires a gun at Pepper, who is tied to a chair. JARVIS then controls the Rescue suit and fires the repulsors to block some energy rays.
Tony: Whitney, no --
Pepper: Tony, she's still got --
Whitney: You can't have him!
JARVIS: Ms. Potts. Solar reserves at 6%. Please stand by.
The Rescue one-shot was published at the same time as IIM #029, but takes place around this point in the arc. In it, Pepper has doubts about being a superhero; she ends up at a gym, talking to a spirit/vision/something of her dead husband, Happy, about her possible failure to save some people from a tanker truck explosion and how she feels about that. From Rescue #1, written by Kelly Sue DeConnick, art by Andrea Mutti:
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Pepper in the 1616 suit, flying by a highway; she sees an accident about to happen.
Pepper VO: On the way here I realized something ... I've been trying to make myself into someone I'm ... not.
JARVIS: Charge report, Ms. Potts: as of right ... now, we are operating with a power reserve of less than 50%.
Pepper: Should I worry?
JARVIS: One should never worry, one should always plan.
Pepper: Are we going to fall out of the sky before Broxton, JARVIS?
JARVIS: It's not likely, Ms. Potts. No.
Pepper: Thank you, JARVIS.
JARVIS: Ms Potts --
Pepper: I see it.
Pepper tries and fails to prevent an accident; she ends up saving a car full of people but a tanker truck hits a convenience store and she goes in to save people. This takes many pages; here are a few of them.
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Pepper lying on the floor in front of an explosion; there's a news helicopter overhead and a police car nearby.
Pepper: Status!
JARVIS: Roof collapse imminent, as is the arrival of HAMMER and power fail --
Pepper: -- life signs inside?
JARVIS: Faint, but present. I would remind you, Ms. Potts -- ... you're running on diminished reserves.
Caption: 00:04:40
Back to the gym where Pepper is still talking to Happy.
Happy: ... did you go back in?
Pepper: What are you, new? Of course I went back in! What was I going to do -- leave him to burn to death? I ... I made my call ...
And back to the convenience store, where Pepper is now inside the building and trying to rescue the last person; they're both on the floor surrounded by flames.
JARVIS: Ms. Potts ... ? Ms. Potts, can you --
Pepper: -- I - I'm here, JARVIS. I see him.
Caption: 00:01:00
Pepper VO: ... I know he was alive then, Hap. He was still breathing. Dead bodies don't bother to breathe.
Caption: 00:00:47
Pepper: I've got you ... which way, JARVIS?
JARVIS: You won't make it back the way you came in. You'll have to do your best to shield his body and take him through the wall.
Caption: 00:00:32
Pepper: Keep breathing. Just keep breathing ...
Caption: 00:00:21 00:00:13
Pepper carries the unconscious person out of the building, and is interrupted by HAMMER right after she sets him down.
Caption: 00:00:03 00:00:02
JARVIS: Ms. Potts ... Ms. Potts ...
Caption: 00:00:01
JARVIS: Ms. Potts, EMT can take the young man from here. Your power level should you need to perform evasive --
Caption: 00:00:00
HAMMER helicopter: Attention! This is HAMMER -- you are engaging in illegal activity!
JARVIS: ... oh dear.
Pepper and Happy in the gym:
Pepper: Some hero, I am ... I ran.
Happy: Pep, whether that fella made it or not, you are the only reason he stood a chance.
Pepper: Tony would've stopped it from happening. I couldn't do it ... inside that gazillion dollar rescue suit, I'm still -- I'm still just ... me.
Happy: I think I know what this is about.
... and then Happy talks to Pepper about how she is the reason the people she saved got a chance, and Pepper picks up her boxing gloves and goes back to the heavy bag, implicitly deciding to keep superheroing. Flash forward a couple issues of IIM, and Tony is in a complicated comics coma, and the only way to save him involves Pepper giving up her chest repulsor and, with it, the Rescue suit. #021:
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Pepper sitting and writing a letter to Tony.
Pepper VO: Dear Tony... I keep trying to get these thoughts out of my head and onto paper but [scratched out] it's too hard. I could never say these things out loud. Too [scratched out]. I'm throwing a tantrum and I know it. Of course I'll do whatever you [scratched out] ask to [scratched out] help bring you back. Because that's what I do/have always done for you, right? You ask me and I come running. And I know this I all [scratched out] so much bigger than me or you and me. But dammit, Tony, when is it my time? When do I get to stop living to support your life and start living my own? When does heaven and earth move to help me or to bring my dead husband back [scratched out] from the dead? Or the flaming wreckage that was my life? When do man and god alike work to alleviate my pain for once? When is the movie about me and not Tony [scratched out] Stark? I want a sign. I want some sort of sign that things will get
Rhodey, offscreen: Yo, Potts.
They start the procedure, following Tony's instructions as recorded in Pepper's suit:
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A holographic image of Tony, projected from the Rescue suit, is talking. Tony is still in a coma, and Pepper is lying beside him prepped for surgery.
Holographic Tony: What's up, Doc? If you're hearing this, Rhodey escorted you to where I've been hidden and we're ready to start surgical prep. As you're the man that saved Pepper's life by putting all this crazy Iron Man stuff in her, now you'll save mine by taking it back out. Gathered amongst you -- all of you, why you're all so omportant to this, why I needed you all here and all on the same page -- is that, between you all, are the bits and pieces I need to be made whole again. The first step -- and Pepper, I'm sorry about this, but we can put a new one back in you later -- -- the first step is removing the repulsor unit from Pepper's chest and inserting it into mine.
An image of Pepper' letter, captioned "You ask me and I come running." Then back to the surgery.
Holographic Tony: That's the key. That's the heart of the operation, if you will. This electromagnetic repulsor battery is going to fuel my entire biology from now on. After terrorists blew up one of my buildings with Pepper inside of it, the poor girl suffered profound traumatic injuries. To enhance her recovery, we put a Stark-Rand electromagnetic repulsor generator inside of her. After it regulated and accelerated her healing process, I gave her the option of keeping it. It made her more human than human. It powered her suit and made her a super hero. Taking it out and allowing her body to come back online, as it were, will make her merely the amazing Pepper Potts again, which I think we can all agree ain't so bad... In the meantime, my mind has completely forgotten how to operate my body -- let alone who I was and what I used to be. So we're going to fix all that with surgery, science, and cool machines. And of course, your willingness to go through all this with me.
Whether or not Tony planned the whole thing in advance is kind of up in the air; there are people who are pretty dubious about Pepper's "gift" of a suit since it just happens to have instructions to save Tony's life in it. And there are people who think Tony meant it sincerely. People also differ on whether Tony means the suit to be solely protective or used for superheroing. YMMV. Skip ahead to Pepper's recovery from having the repulsor removed, in #023:
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Pepper is sitting in a hospital-style push wheelchair; Maria is pacing around the room.
Pepper: I miss it. Already. Y'know? The repulsor tech. The RT rig in my chest. It made me feel ... it made me feel so much better.
Maria: You just had it yanked outta you. I'd assume getting kicked in the face feel better than you feel right now.
Pepper: No, no, it's more than that. Aside from ... the physical stuff. And I know it was doing things physically to me. I know that -- but it was ... company. That's what I miss. I was more than just me. It made me smarter. Did you know that? It did. Or Tony did. Having the RT just ... my mind moved so fast, Maria. This is how smart Tony was all the time, and then it's -- I remember thinking -- this is what it must be like for him -- y'know? It's funny -- how it all worked -- I was finally the alleged smart one and we still slept together.
Maria: You what?
Later in that arc, Pepper saves the day with a phone call and not bluffing about stuff. Loads of running around, Tony's saved, and eventually Pepper gets her repulsor back. But she has to argue with Tony to get it, despite his promises. #027:
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For the entire conversation, Pepper and Tony are sitting in a diner talking. Pepper gets increasingly upset, and Tony throws his head back and seems to give up on the conversation towards the end. Dr. Lisk sits next to Tony for the whole onversation.
Pepper: Don't screw with me on this, Tony. I want it back.
Tony: I -- Pep -- This is profound surgery we're talking about. Not some kind of ... in-and-out ... what's the word.
Pepper: "Elective." I've got the scar splitting me in half to prove it. And when we took the repulsor disc out of me and put it in you -- -- you promised me you'd give it back. Years, I've spent, Tony. Years of my life. Building toward this. Toward becoming this. I want my RT back. I want my suit back. I want to be Rescue again.
Tony: Pepper... ...I don't want you -- I don't want to be -- -- because of one of my suits -- because of my tech -- my anything -- I do not want to be responsible for you getting hurt.
Pepper: Too late. And that's a bunch of crap, anyway. I'm no one's damsel in distress and, besides, I saved your life as Rescue. And I sprang Hill and the Widow out of Avengers tower when it was under Osborn's control. Dr. Lisk here did it once. He can do it again. I'm healthy and strong, Tony. I can take care of myself and you know it. And I want a new suit. I know I can't have a ... liquid ... thing ... like you. But ... but you're back, right? And you're smarter than ever? So make me something even better. More power. More speed. Shinier.
Tony: Pep --
Pepper: And your new suit has multiple repulsor nodes -- can the new Rescue have multiple electromagnet repulsor ... things? I'd be able to save even more lives. While you're off fighting the bad guys. In fact that'd keep me even more safe, when you think about it. Less chance to get hurt.
Tony: Pepper, dammit --
Lisk: I wish I was anybody else but me right now. Anywhere else but here.
Tony: Okay, first off, I resent the implication that I've designed this, or any other iteration of the Iron Man, to be primarily a weapon --
Pepper: "Hulk-Buster"?
Tony: Don't get cute. I almost -- we -- all of us -- we almost lost everything. Everything. I will not lose you.
Pepper: Tony. How much do you remember? About your time on the run?
Flash back to Pepper and Tony making out; then back to the diner.
Tony: None. Nothing. Why?
Pepper: You have nothing left to lose. Tell me -- what's the civilian application for a "unibeam"?
Tony: Here's the deal. You're the COO of Stark Resilient and I absolutely need you to run the damn company. You figure out how going back into the field doesn't compromise your contractual obligations to Stark and we'll talk. Until then -- see you 'round the office, Ms. Potts.
Pepper: I knew you'd say that, Mr. Stark. We should get moving if we're going to make your 10:30 appointment.
Eventually Pepper convinces Tony that she should get the repulsor back and get a new suit. #029:
(original size)
Pepper and Tony in an elevator.
Tony: So...
Pepper: So indeed. Big party Friday night, huh? A gala? Just like the old days ...
Tony: Guess so. Only there's no money, I'm completely nervous, we're inviting everyone who could possibly make and/or break us, and I can't get drunk. Other than that? Yes. It is exactly like the good old days.
Pepper: Tony Stark. You'll be fine. Watching you, in your tuxedo, in the middle of a gala, is a bit like watching a predator in his natural environment stalking prey. You'll be fine.
Tony: You don't have to do this, Pepper. You don't have to do this right now, I mean. I know you can, and I know you want to adjust ...
Pepper: But I do, Tony. You know I do. Getting back on the horse, brushing the dust off, no fear. Go big or go home. I think I saw that on the back of a truck once. Just above a dangling pair of rubber testicles.
Tony: You're a big girl, Pepper. And the world can be a very dangerous place. I know you know this but I just wanted to say it again anyway: the suit can only protect you from so much. I can only protect you --
Pepper: You don't need to protect me, Tony. I promise. How were you able to fabricate the suit in such a --
Tony: Melted down some old ones. Don't worry about it.
(original size)
Pepper looking up at the Rescue suit.
Tony: I think you two already know each other... Pepper, Rescue; Rescue, Pepper.
Pepper: Oh, Tony -- she's -- -- she's beautiful.
JARVIS: Good morning, Ms. Potts. Lovely to see you again.
Pepper: JARVIS! Oh my...
JARVIS: Beginning initiation sequence. Ms Potts, please climb aboard at your leisure.
This was printed in IIM #032, but it's a separate short within the comic, so it has a different artist - Jamie McKelvie instead of Larocca. Still Matt Fraction writing. Also it makes no goddamned sense. Rescue and War Machine get taken out in a fight, and Pepper ends up collapsed with life support shutting down. And then JARVIS talks to her while pretending to be her dead husband Happy:
(original size 1 2 3)
Happy and Pepper standing on a beach together:
Happy: Pepper. I love you. I don't want -- I don't want you to get hurt, is all. I love Tony, too, don't get me wrong, but I -- I just -- you've gotten ... he's gotten you so worked up with this super hero stuff that --
Pepper: No. That's not you.
Happy: Pepper, it's me. It's your husband. I don't -- I -- okay. Fine. Maybe I've been talking to you like you were already -- I don't want you to die, Pepper. It's not like that, it's just -- I don't want you to get hurt. I want you to understand the gravity of what dressing up like Iron Man gets you. It's the only way I can think to protect you.
Pepper: No. No. This isn't really happening. The clocks are always the same and reams aren't like that. And you're being mean in a way that -- you -- you -- you're not my Happy, are you?
Happy: No.
Happy becomes JARVIS in an Iron Man suit; he's standing in front of strange giant robots.
JARVIS: No, of course not.
Pepper: JARVIS? I don't understand.
JARVIS: I've come to care a great deal about you, Ms. Potts. And I'm trying to warn you. I want you to stay safe and stay alive. And chasing after Tony Stark playing at being a super hero will get you killed. If you only knew what was coming...
Pepper: I don't understand. What are those things?
JARVIS: Ask Tony. If you live. If you can remember.
JARVIS turns back into Happy.
Happy: Can you do that? Do you think you can do that?
Pepper: I'll try. I'll do my best.
Happy: That's why I love you, Ms. Potts. You never, ever, give up.
And outside of Pepper's dream/vision/whatever, Rhodey is lying on the rubble in his War Machine suit near Pepper.
Rhodey: Don't give up, Pepper! Can you hear me? Hold on just a while longer. Tony's coming, Pepper. Tony'll be here soon. Just keep holding on...
Pepper spends a while trying to balance the superheroing and the CEOing, in much the same way Tony did in previous IIM arcs. She takes out some bad guys with just her repulsor in what is possibly the most reblogged Pepper panel on tumblr (you must have me mistaken for Tony Stark's secretary. She takes the suit out sometimes, especially when there's a giant mess, as here in the Fear Itself/Worthy arc. #506:
(original size)
In the top panel, some DC building is on fire. In the rest of the panels, Pepper Potts is wearing Rescue and talking to Carson Wyche.
Reporter VO: -- in Washington tonight the nation reels as a bold attack on the mall saw both the Capitol Dome and the Washington Monument crumble --
Pepper: God. Oh god.
Carson: Pepper? I saw in the system logs that you put the Rescue suit on. You going out?
Pepper: I'm terrified to go back out there, Wyche. I am literally shaking. I don't know what to do.
Carson: You don't have to do anything. You're not -- I mean, being a superhero isn't -- it's not your job, Pepper, is what I'm saying.
Pepper: Isn't it? I've checked in with the Avengers -- global response to the catastrophe has been scattered and chaotic at best. Communications are down. Casualties are through the roof ... Wyche, there's no one left.
Pepper ends up fighting Mokk (who was previously the Grey Gargoyle / Paul Duval), who's a giant stone thing who will kill her as soon as she looks at him. Reasons. Pepper loses the fight in #509:
(original size 1 2)
Pepper Potts wearing Rescue without the helmet; Mokk is holding her in one hand.
Pepper VO: Dammit. "Pepper Potts died at the hands of a giant stone monster wiping sweat out of her eyes." Goodbye, cruel -- wait, what?
Mokk isn't looking at Pepper, but off at the sky, where we see the Serpent summoning him. Mokk throws Pepper to the ground.
Mokk: ...
The Serpent: To me, my Worthy.
Pepper VO: Half a world away, his master summons him home.
Pepper: Whullf --
Pepper VO: And like a good dog, he obeys. He could've done it. But he didn't. Think he wanted me to know. I'm outclassed. I'm an amateur and I'm hopelessly outclassed.
Later in the same issue, some footage of Pepper crying while wearing the suit gets leaked to the press:
(original size)
A panel shows footage of Pepper crying at her desk; Pepper, on a plane back from her encounter with Mokk, talks to Carson on the phone.
Pepper: They have footage of what?
Carson: You, Pepper. It's footage of you, and you're in the suit, and you're crying in your office. No I have no idea how anybody got it. Obviously we have a mole or something, or --
Pepper: Okay, that's -- that's Cabe's department now, but -- but who cares, Wyche? How is it that -- I mean the world is ending, I'm sure people are crying all over right now.
Carson: You don't understand. You're wearing the suit -- the armor, Pep. It's already being spun --
A panel showing Justine Hammer being a talking head on the news.
Justine: -- of course people are scared and panicked right now. You'd have to be crazy not to be. What this speaks to is yet another case of a Stark employee cracking under pressure. I mean you don't see Captain America out there crying or --
Back to Pepper, who looks downcast.
Pepper: Oh.
Pepper VO: I'm an amateur. And I'm hopelessly outclassed.
Pepper: Where's Tony?
And since Pepper is getting all the same plots Tony did with his suit, we have to do a follow-up board meeting in #511:
(original size)
Pepper is leaning on a desk in front of the Stark Resilient board of investors, in front of a screen showing the footage of her crying in the suit.
Some board dude: There. Ms. Potts, we're not -- we have no authority here, we have no power, per se -- but as head of the board of investors in Stark Resilient we are allowed -- -- from time to time -- -- to call a meeting with management to express our concerns. We are, in a word, concerned. This image -- or rather this imagery -- sends the wrong message to the world, we feel, Ms. Potts. We understand this -- we know there was a global catastrophe you were involved with at the moment. No one would dare -- -- we were all afraid, Ms. Potts, is what I'm saying. The board would never dream to suggest you're not allowed to -- -- Ms. Potts, our investment in Stark Resilient was predicated on your managing operations, not gallivanting about the globe in crisis times --
Pepper: I don't care who you are or what the by-laws permit you to do. "Gallivanting"? "Crisis times"? Get the hell out of here.
The next time Pepper gets into the suit, she and JARVIS have a ... weird conversation. #515:
(original size)
Pepper wearing the Rescue suit without the helmet; the helmet is on a desk behind her and they're talking to each other.
JARVIS: It seems as though it's been an abnormally long time since we were last in action, Ms. Potts. Or am I imagining things?
Pepper: I've been busy. Life gets in the way of playing dress-up.
JARVIS: Your time as Rescue was hardly playing "dress-up," ma'am, if I may offer a dissenting opinion. You saved lives. You did good. We did good. Are you upset because of the photographs that were leaked to the media? Are you upset because of the shareholders losing faith in you?
Pepper: This is the worst pep talk in the world, JARVIS.
JARVIS: Ma'am, I don't mean to discourage you, I was only hoping to remind you that --
Pepper: -- don't need encouragement -- -- I know what I can do. I know what we can do. Just not sure I want to do it again. Only one way to find out --
JARVIS: Oh ... good. Good.
Later Pepper ends up meeting the new Iron Man as Rescue. (Tony's retired, reasons, the new Iron Man is Rhodey, but Pepper doesn't know that; she thinks he's dead, and that the new Iron Man is some random person who is stealing Stark technology.) And she still does some non-Iron Man related Rescuing as in #521:
(original size)
Pepper and Carson in bed together; the rescue helmet is sitting on the bedside table and talking to Pepper.
JARVIS: Ms. Potts? Ms. Potts.
Pepper: JARVIS. It's late.
JARVIS: I'm sorry ma'am, but there's a situation in Vancouver. Two unknown mechs attacked a tech firm downtown. A fire was started and multiple gunshot injuries reported.
Pepper: Oh no.
JARVIS: The action continued outside where other unknown mechs --
Pepper: How many?
JARVIS: ... a dozen at last report. Ma'am, I suggest contacting the nearest available Avengers or --
Pepper: Like hell. Back soon, honey.
Carson: ZzRrrk.
Pepper: JARVIS -- let Vancouver PD know -- -- Rescue is inbound.
After Pepper chases down the new Iron Man, she suspects that Rhodey's driving the suit. But she doesn't understand why Tony wouldn't have told her and Carson about it until she starts to suspect that something is wrong with JARVIS. #523:
(original size 1 2)
Pepper and Carson talking to and leaning over the Rescue helmet, which is sitting on a counter talking to them.
Pepper: JARVIS. I know you've been listening, JARVIS. Did Tony Stark believe you've been compromised?
JARVIS: I don't know precisely what Mr. Stark believed, Ms. Potts. I don't understand, ma'am -- have I done something to displease you? Mr. Wyche? I'm afraid I wouldn't do that if I were you, Mr. Wyche. I wouldn't --
Carson or Pepper: Spare me the HAL-9000 crap, JARVIS.
Pepper: I ... I think I can plug in here and rummage around some, but ... this was the kind of thing Pim would've been better at, dammit.
JARVIS: I'm warning you now, Mr. Wyche -- -- stop prodding around my mind.
Carson: Or what, JARVIS? You're just a damn helmet sitting on my coffee table.
Something explodes and knocks Carson and Pepper over. In the next panel, we see that JARVIS is controlling the Rescue suit, which is standing in the doorway aiming at Pepper and Carson.
JARVIS: I'm sorry, Ms. Potts. You understand this is the last thing I wanted for us ... ... but if you ask more questions, the answers will only serve to hurt you more. I'm trying to save you, you see ...
... at which point JARVIS takes Pepper and Carson hostage and ties them up back to back and villain monologues at them. #524:
(original size 1 2)
Carson and Pepper tied up on the floor of their kitchen. JARVIS is standing over them in the Rescue suit.
Pepper: JARVIS ... what are you doing? Why are you doing this?
JARVIS: I don't want you to get hurt, Ms. Potts. No offense, Mr. Wyche -- you're a fine man but my concern is with her. I cannot speak to your concerns as to whether or not Mr. Stark considered me compromised. My diagnostics have revealed nothing of concern. I do not believe I have been compromised. That said I've no idea beyond my diagnostics how I could tell. Were I to compromise an AI as sophisticated as myself, obscuring diagnostics would be my seventeenth step.
Pepper: He sounds insane.
Carson: He's artificial intelligence. He's not insane because we didn't program him to be insane.
JARVIS: I'm not insane. Of course I'm not insane. I'm in love. I lo--
Carson: Pepper, move --
Pepper: Hah. You always did know just when to save the day.
Rhodey: There goes your security deposit.
JARVIS: I won't let you endanger Ms. Potts.
And as a consequence, Pepper has to destroy JARVIS / the helmet of the Rescue suit. #526:
(original size 1 2)
Carson Wyche, Tim Cababa, and Walter Macken working together.
Tim: Where is Pepper, anyway? Can't help but notice she isn't here to pile more pressure on top of me, too.
Carson: She's with Rescue back at the Resilient facility. They -- they're breaking up.
Pepper is standing next to an MRI? machine and sending the Rescue helmet into it; she kisses the helmet before pressing the button.
JARVIS: I don't understand, Ms. Potts. Why are you doing this?
Pepper: Because you're compromised. Because in trying to save my life and keep me safe you're going to get other people killed. And because I can't trust you anymore.
JARVIS: That's not possible. My first objective is --
Pepper: Compromised. All of it. Something witchy has been hiding out deep down in the Stark code. See? Did you know you've been sending data to an IP address that resolves in mainland China? It wasn't until you started exerting independence that anybody thought to dig that deep but, look, there it is.
JARVIS: Ms. Potts, I don't -- We've been played. All of us. It's not your fault. But -- but --
Pepper: Thank you for everything. The chance to do more, to be more, to give back. For everything you gave me -- -- goodbye.
JARVIS: Ms. Potts? Ms. Potts, wait, please, I --
The helmet collapses or explodes.
Surprise! JARVIS has been secretly an agent of the Mandarin (probably) or the Hammers (maybe), possibly since the moment Tony made him back in #029! And thus the whole time Pepper had the new Rescue suit! (Tony was also kind of secretly an agent of the Mandarin at the time. The Mandarin hacked his brain after he had to reboot it. Reasons.) So when Pepper had that dream-vision-thing where JARVIS was Happy, JARVIS was actually trying to warn her about the Mandarin's plan, because despite the Mandarin's programming JARVIS had come to love Pepper.
And this whole plot means Pepper doesn't have a suit anymore. And in #527, the last issue of Fraction's run, she's pretty sad about it:
(original size 1 2)
Pepper and Rhodey in a car together.
Pepper: (on the phone to Tony, who is ignoring everyone) We're around. If you need us.
Pepper: Dammit.
Rhodey: He's working.
Pepper: He's isolating.
Rhodey: Yeah. So he can work.
Pepper: Don't you start, Rhodey, you're still on my list.
Rhodey: But we were right --
Pepper: -- don't --
Rhodey: -- Pepper ... I was the only person Tony knew he could trust. We didn't know how far Mandarin's control went. And as it turns out, you were compromised. So yes, I'm sorry I faked my death. But if I hadn't, a lot of people would've been worse off or dead for real, you included.
Pepper: I know. I just don't like being wrong. He took your suit away too, right?
Rhodey: Yep.
Pepper: Do you miss it?
Tony wearing an Iron Man suit and sitting on the shoulder of a giant robot that's collapsed next to the Golden Gate Bridge.
Rhodey VO: Every damn day.
Tony: Sigh. I think I'm depressed.
The end! Seriously, that's how Rescue ends and basically how Fraction's IIM ends. JARVIS was a bad guy all along, fell in love with Pepper, and had to be destroyed. Then Tony took the War Machine suit away as well. And then Tony goes into space, leaving Pepper and Rhodey behind, suitless, so that Tony's in the right place to start off Kieron Gillen's run:
(original size)
Tony wearing an Iron Man suit designed for SPACE. He's chatting with all the folks who work for Stark Resilient.
Rhodey: The you .. then you go to Maui, Tony, you climb Kilimanjaro, or --
Tony: Earth is for other people, Rhodey. I need the shock of the new. I can't sit around waiting for the future to happen to me. I'm going to go hunt the future and come back energized. You guys'll do great.
Walter: Do you -- um -- have food? Water? Do you --
Tony: Suit recycles all I need. It's perfectly capable of sustaining me for a few weeks. Nice working with you, Macken.
Walter: You too, sir.
Tony: I'll miss you most of all, Scarecrow.
Pepper: How long will --
Tony: -- long enough. Don't worry about me anymore. I hope you like the flowers. People like flowers, right? I didn't know how else to say I'm sorry, so ... so like a breakup, I'm apologizing and I sent flowers. I'm sorry for everything. I'll do better next time. You might want to step back. Things are about to get bright.
... and off he goes into space. Having replaced the Rescue and War Machine suits with flowers. Time to start a new volume!
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Date: 2013-03-30 07:34 pm (UTC)And then they should just have that Andrea Mutti instead of Larroca anyway (even tho you were right and his work l8r on in this entry and with the diff colorist does improve).
#MY CONCLUSIONS HERE :'D
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Date: 2013-03-31 01:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-30 08:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-31 01:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-30 11:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-31 01:56 am (UTC)