Artwork by Charlotte Southall

One of the great things about Pepper Potts is that Tony Stark is reliant on her but she isn’t remotely reliant on him. In the first Iron Man film she is introduced to us as a PA to the man himself – she’s quick-witted, intelligent and doesn’t take any crap from her boss and later, boyfriend. Armed with a never-ending supply of rad outfits and power suits, Pepper encompasses everything that I want to be. Bold, confident, stylish, successful and just generally amazing.

She truly comes into her own in Iron Man 3 and it is beautiful to watch. The scene when the house is under attack from the Mandarin and she dons the suit to protect Tony I feel is an embodiment of her bad-assery and greatness. The swapping of previously set roles once she is in the suit represents to me just how able and strong (in all senses of the word) she is, thus making her equally as capable to be Iron Man as Tony – an idea that seems unthinkable to many. After the violent ordeal she is put through by Kieran, which culminates in her having Extremis pumped into her – she rises to the challenge and defeats him using and owning her brand new powers. Making her defeat of him two-fold – physically beating him and mentally defeating him through her acceptance and control over what he did to her, rather than crumbling with the metaphorical weight of it.

Another reason why Pepper Potts is the best is that she isn’t afraid to be emotional. She’s real and isn’t incapable of showing emotion and loving people because she is “empowered” (something that I wish wasn’t so frequent with female characters). Her love for Tony only serves to make her more determined to pave her way in the world of business and gain the respect of her (mainly male) peers as the head of Stark Industries.  Her caring nature in a setting of self-absorbed individuals is refreshing and serves to remind us of why she’s so awesome. Her acknowledgement of Agent Coulson’s actual identity, shown through her calling him by his first name Phil rather than Agent is proof that she sees him as more than what he does and as an actual human being – something that rarely seen in the others, with the exception of Steve Rogers.

Although she wasn’t present in Age of Ultron I cannot wait to see more of her in the upcoming instalments and how she has settled into a life with Extremis. To be honest all I really want is a Pepper Potts film, where she kicks ass and cuts people down with her sarcasm for 2 hours. With that in mind and all of my love for her poured into this piece I have one final thing to say:

Stay rad Pepper, stay rad.

By Megan Gibb

Megan Gibb is a nearly 19 year old from Cambridge, based in Manchester for university and has been in love with all things film ever since she can remember. Her fave films are The Terminator, Drive, Forrest Gump and Fight Club but she also has a huge soft spot for 1980’s John Hughes films. Her main interests include shopping for vinyl, eating too much carrot cake and making wall collages of 80’s bands for her and her friends. She can be found on twitter @megang96 and blogs at popdunk.