Pepper Potts

Tony Stark’s path towards shaping the world in his own image continues in the pages of Superior Iron Man. For those not up to speed, the golden Avenger, Tony Stark, has found his personality inverted. Now with a carefree playboy attitude, sinister cunning, and a shiny new suit fused with a symbiote, the Superior Iron Man is set to wipe out a portion of the Earth’s population to ensure environmental stability. There’s only two people in his way, first is his former right hand woman Pepper Potts and the other is, well, himself. A copy of Tony Stark’s own mind from eight years ago is his secret contingency plan walking around in the Silver Centurion armor. The war between man and machine is waged and only one can come out on top.

After taking out fellow San Franciscan hero Daredevil and putting would-be villain Teen Abomination at his side, the superior Tony Stark is close to unstoppable. There’s only one person with the gumption to take him back from the fold and that’s Pepper Potts. Her ultimate weapon is Tony’s own contingency plan a Mark II Iron Man armor with the mind of an eight years younger Stark. It’s a battle of the wills between the superior and inferior.

Superior Iron Man returns. While it is entry lacks a great deal of the edge that has made the book so compelling, it carries through a lot of the series’ promise. The issue opens up in good form, as Tony Stark strong-arms the American military to buy blueprints to a superweapon else he sell them to Russia or China. However this is the issue where Pepper Potts finally steps to rival her employer turned mad man. Tom Taylor, as always, injects his characters with rich personality and charm. However Teen Abomination, who received an extended origin last issue, has little to do beyond act the role of a wall of muscle. Pepper Potts reads like she’s missing a few traits, though she is trying to stand strong in what Tony himself would deem a nightmare scenario.

Jumping out of the pages of Marvel’s still ongoing event Avengers & X-Men: AXIS, Superior Iron Man marks a new status quo for the armored hero. Tony Stark was hit by a mental wave created by Doctor Strange and the Scarlet Witch, altering his personality into slightly sinister version of himself from his pre-superhero days.