In reply to this article, I look at some more plausible characters that Olivia Munn could play in Iron Man 2.
My candidates reflect more of the little known minor characters of Iron Man's past, much like the Marvel Universe character Christine Everhart played by Leslie Bibb in the first Iron Man.
Yvette Avriel Debuted around Iron Man #119 as head of Stark's Paris Branch. In #146 she was brought to the United States and promoted to SI's vice-president. After Tony slid into alcoholism, she ran the company until Stane took it over. She then led the employees in resigning en masse.
Paulley: Very plausible given the locations and storylines we know from the movie Veronica Benning Debuted as Stark’s tough-as-nails physical therapist in Iron Man #292. More drill sergeant than doctor, she was just what Tony needed to get him up and walking again.
Married young (she was just 19), Veronica and her husband, Craig, were in a terrible car accident when their brakes went out. He was killed, and she spent weeks in the hospital being put back together, and months after that learning to walk again. The experience taught her two things: (1) she wanted to become a physical therapist, and (2) she never wanted to be close to anyone again. Still, she fell for Tony shortly after becoming his PT, becoming his girlfriend in #300.
Sadly, Veronica and Tony’s relationship ended abruptly when VOR/TEX (inhabiting Tony’s body) tried to rape her.
Paulley: obviously after forgetting the last bit Janice Cord Daughter of industrialist and Stark rival Drexell Cord, Janice first appeared in Iron Man #2, when her father tried to destroy Tony Stark.
Tony and Janice were star-crossed lovers that never quite hooked up-- Probably because they were constantly under fire. Janice withstood her father's death (in a battle with Iron Man), Gladiator's Maggia attack, The Night Phantom, and even The Controller. Sadly, she was soon killed by the Titanium Man (in IM #22).
Paulley: are they not just about open up a viral marketing site about Cordco Brie Daniels The actress made her first appearance in IM #244, when she crashed Tony's house-warming party for his new Pacific mansion looking to make some Hollywood connections. She connected with Stark, but then gave him the brush-off when a gunshot left him in a wheelchair.
Paulley: obviously after removing the wheelchair bit Kathy Dare An obsessed psycho heiress, Kathy Dare is the jilted lover that shot Tony Stark, almost killing him. With the exception of Obidiah Stane, no other regular person has come closer to finishing off Tony Stark.
Dare inserted herself into Tony's life in issue #223, introducing herself as an admirer of his. She soon followed Tony to NY, where she "just happened" to run into him. Although they had hooked up, Tony wasn't serious about the young lady. But Kathy Dare was was deadly serious.
Kathy Dare was described by the press as an heiress, but little known. Of East Coast money, she grew up pampered and spoiled. Something readily evident in her behavior and desires. But something--her looks--made her attractive to Tony Stark, a man not normally known for putting up with divas.
Dare kept popping up whereever Tony went. She followed him to a charity event. After seeing Tony with another women, Dare slashed the tires on his limo. (Later, she would turn her rage on that other woman, Rae Locoste, tampering with the brakes on her car.)
With very little encouragement, Dare had become obsessed with the billionaire playboy. She began calling him repeatedly, and later embarrassed Tony at the racetrack. It was soon clear to everyone but Tony that she had a fatal attraction for the playboy.
And even though Tony was barely speaking to her, Kathy Dare soon began telling the press that she was Tony's fiancée. Her stalking continued, but Stark seemed more amused than worried, especially when she followed him to Rome, sneaking into his hotel room. But later, when she snuck onto the SE compound, telling the security forces that Tony had given her permission to go wherever she pleased, Tony took notice--he dumped her. Big mistake.
Dare convinced Tony's housekeeper to let her in to his home, where she waited for him to come home. She then surpirsed him, shooting him with a .38 caliber revolver in #242. As Tony lay there, shot and bleeding out, she kept talking to him as though nothing had happened. (The wound almost killed Stark. As it was, the damage left him paralyzed.)
Bert Hindel, a sleazy former Stark employee recently fired, acted as her lawyer. He used the trial to trash Stark, making up a battered-woman defense. But in the end, Dare's biography and mental history put her away.
She is described as an heiress, but little known. She is rumored to have been involved with other celebrities, most notably a rock star, whose Malibu beach house burned to the ground shortly after they broke up.
When she went on trial we found out about her disturbing childhood. She had a therapist from age 5 to age 18, from the New Jersey Mental Health Unit in Hoboken. Her wealthy parents raised her to get whatever she wanted. She was spoiled to say the least. She became obsessive, had a dark side. When her little brother refused to give her one of his Christmas presents (a stuffed animal), he was later found at the bottom of a cliff. Her doctors recommended permanent institutionalization, lawyers kept her out.
She was committed in #248, placed in the custody of the CA Board of Mental Health until such time as she would be competent to stand trial.
In #285, Dare's therapist got her a release to attend Tony's funeral, to help her "come to terms with her past." In #286, she blew her brains out, broken up about Tony's death. Apparently, she couldn’t live without him.
Paulley: with that sort story she could feature in the next few Iron Man films Countess Stephanie DeLa Spirosa The Countess DeLa Spirosa, a jet set spoiled heiress and old flame of Tony Stark’s, debuted in Tales of Suspense #69. Having been jilted by Tony in the past, she had never truly forgiven him. Running into him on the heels of the big Iron Man/Titanium Man fight in Alberia, she sensed a way to get her revenge. The Countess stole Tony’s reverser ray, sensing that it would get his attention and get him to chase after her. Tony (as Iron Man) ended up really needing the ray against T-Man, so her plot did not endear her to him.
In TOS #72, she engaged the Thinker to discover Iron Man’s true identity so that she could use it to keep Tony under her thumb (didn’t work).
When she returned in the opening chapters of Volume III (Iron Man #2), the two had apparently buried the hatchet. The Countess’s third husband, Michel Dufours, was heir to one of the most respected and successful families in Europe. When he died in suspicious accident, she inherited the Dufours Precision Manufacturing Corporation, with a nice factory and luxurious chalet in the Alps, near Zermatt, Switzerland. When she noticed some irregularities in the books, she became the first client for Tony’s consulting outfit, Stark Solutions.
It didn’t take Iron Man long to discover that someone was running a huge secret high tech arms business in the caverns below the factory. On top of that, the factory also had a wicked Dreadnaught infestation. Tony linked the factory to the Arms Merchant, a mysterious weapons supplier to bad guys the world over. After Tony beat the Arms Merchant, who just happened to have killed Michel, too, Stephanie decided to stick with the company and run it—because Michel had given his life for it.
Rumiko Fujikawa The 27-year-old grand daughter of Kenjiro Fujikawa, CEO and Founder of Fujikawa Industries, now Stark-Fujikawa, she is Tony Stark's current on again, off again girlfriend. 1st appearance, Vol. 3, #4, as a bikini-clad beach babe that caught Tony Stark's eye prior to Firebrand's scorched-earth tactics. Underneath her spoiled, club kid exterior exists a smart, take charge gal.
Wild party girl from a rigid Japanese family, she was brought up under the thumb of a father obsessed with discipline much like Tony Stark himself-But Rumiko managed to get over it.
Since her family will not let her work at the firm because she's a female, she seems to have devoted much of her energy toward driving her parents nuts. But beyond the spoiled rich girl is the determined spirit of a bright young woman. One who carries authority well and has a good sense of high tech equipment. She took charge of a makeshift hospital during Firebrand's attack of Isla Suerte.
Rumiko and Tony's second "date," in issue 13, wasn't much better as she followed Stark to the Basil Stress Clinic, run secretly by the Controller-Although their romance bloomed. Even though the manipulating Controller used his mind control devices to try to get her to have Tony fire Iron Man, she uncovered the Controller's plans, and smashed the Absorbatron, allowing Iron Man to defeat the Controller.
Later, she appeared to have some measure of authority at S-F, overseeing some measure of the Ultimo Energy Project, giving orders and taking complete charge of the ground battle when things went bad. She also appeared to have a stake in Askew Electronics. But for the most part Rumiko traveled the world, living the jet-set life, although she did have a penthouse in New York.
Her relationship with Tony became on-again, off-again, on-again, before she was killed by a rogue Iron Man (actually spurned industrialist Clarence Ward) in Iron Man #87 (Vol. 3).
Paulley: are they not just about open up a viral marketing site about Fujikawa Rae Lacoste Stark’s understanding gal pal, Rae, was introduced in IM #223, meeting Tony in a Rodeo Drive jewelry store. She was the owner of a ritzy salon/spa in Beverly Hills named Doos An’ Don’ts (located right next door to the jewelry store). Rae should be remembered for a few reasons, but perhaps most importantly for coifing Tony with the 1980’s perm that had more than just a touch of mullet.
Successful and wealthy, but not spoiled or possessive, Rae had an “open” relationship with Tony. (Much later, in #286, she began dating Rhodey—but only after deciding that she and Tony were just friends.) Rae was a polo-playing girl with fine tastes who showed that she actually cared about other people. To wit: After Tony’s shooting, she flew in the surgeon who saved his life. She was a great contrast to the other women in Tony’s life at the time: Kathy Dare and Brie Daniels. In fact, it was her steady support and friendship that helped the paralyzed Tony get back on his feet, so to speak. She treated him like a man, not some guy in a wheelchair.
Ever stylish and hip, she was also a patron of the trendy artist and Grey-Gargoyle-in-disguise Paul St. Pierre.
Meredith McCall Her first appearance was in Iron Man #28, the return of the Controller, but she entered Tony's life much earlier.
Tony knew her very well, "the way only two people can when it's summer and you're both 17, falling in love for the first time." But it was a forbidden love. She was the daughter of Creighton McCall, Howard Stark's #1 competitor. It was a bitter business rivalry, and it doomed the young romance. (In the McCall household, Howard Stark was reffered to as a "cut-throat swine.")
Forbidden to see each other by their families, Tony later said that they didn't break up, it was done for them. Meredith was sent to live with relatives, while he was parcelled off to Europe and school. Neither knew where the other was and they never found each other until Meredith showed up working as a therapist at Pinewood Sanitarium under a new name-- The name of her husband (Richard Stevenson). Ironically, because she was attacked by the Controller, Tony left without ever speaking to her.
The pair met in Annual #14, although Stark was using an LMD of himself to attend the funeral of her husband. Her father Creighton was also killed in that issue and she became a Master of Silence, pursuing revenge against the Face Thief.
For some reason during the Teen Tony fiasco, she turned up as Meredith Alden, a professor at Columbia University, where Tony was attending college. Tony knew her and remembered their romance, even though she was much older than him, but the plot line never developed. No mention was made of the Masters of Silence, although her new husband became a Blizzard-like villain, Frostbite.
Paulley: well only if we completely ignored her back story Indries Moomji They met when she was a passerby, the innocent victim of sabotage at Tony's plant. But soon after this smooth operator entered his life and heart in Iron Man #163, it was Tony who would fall victim--to her.
Tony was crazy about Indries Moomji, falling for her hard. And why not, she was beautiful and exotic. So they quickly became an exclusive couple, but something wasn't right. Rhodey described her as "some kind of gorgeous female," but too perfect, too symetrical somehow.
Indries had some kind of control over Tony (and later even a bit over Rhodey). Subtle, but easily seen, her manipulations would eventually drive Tony Stark over the edge. At Stane's direction she pretended to love Stark, and then dumped him at a key moment, sending him reeling. Stark may have been weak, but he was, after all, only human. Ms. Moomji, it seems, was far more than human. She wasn't just beautiful and exotic, she was customed-designed to manipulate men. The final chess piece to be played by the grandmaster, Stane, her rejection of Tony sent him inside a bottle, and paved the way for Stane to finally take control of Stark International.
A member of the Sisters of Ishtar, a freelance espionage group with a base in the American Southwest, she was hired to target Stark with her special charms. From childhood she was trained to be alluring, to be the perfect object of a man's dreams--any man. Her face and body were surgically altered to perfection. She was given artificial, allure-enhancing pheromones to make her irresistible. Finally, she was educated by the finest psychologists at the finest universities to become the perfect object of desire (if only by way of manipulation).
Although Iron Man (Rhodes) was charged with returning her to Obidiah Stane, he brought her all the way back only to let her go. Whether he felt sorry for her or she manipulated him--or both--he couldn't return her to Stane's clutches. She was last seen walking off into annonymity.
Paulley: obviously would need alot of changes Joanna Nivena In #244, we learned that Joanna Finch (nee Nivena) was Tony's fiancee prior to Tales of Suspense #39, but the marriage never came off--fate had other plans.
She greated Tony when he came back from Vietnam. And then the seemingly happy couple began looking for a home, one with a nice nursery. But Tony pushed her away, he had changed too much that day in the jungle. Eventually, he let her in on his secret. And it was she who convince Stark to use his armor, his curse, to help other people, to be a hero.
She then broke things off with Tony. She knew that he needed to be free to be a hero, and she wanted a simpler life, one with a family. They parted as friends. Soon she married Howard Finch and had a boy and a girl and a simple quiet life.
Years later, when she and Tony ran into each other at an auction he gave her a $4.5 Million Monet for all the fond memories.
Marcy Pearson Marcy Pearson's first appearance was in Iron Man #217. A financial reporter for the Independent News Service, her perceptive questions caused Tony Stark to hire her as SE's Public Relations head—at twice her reporter's salary.
Ambitious and independent, Marcy soon found herself embroiled in the adventures that often happen to Stark’s close staff. Just hired, she was turned into a stone statue by artist Paul St. Pierre a.k.a. the Grey Gargoyle. She also quickly began a romantic relationship with Jim Rhodes.
In #242, she was made the head of SE while Stark was incapacitated (having just been shot by Kathy Dare). Frustrated with his paralysis, Stark planned to turn his entire company over to her in #248, but suddenly changed his mind and remained in charge. The promise of being made CEO, only to have it taken away from her, was a bitter pill for Pearson to swallow, and later, when Rhodes was made the CEO following Stark's death, she was outraged. She offered Rhodey an ultimatum either he resigned or they were threw. Rhodes fired her.
Pearson soon teamed up with Morgan Stark to frame Rhodey for Stark's death, but she was easily caught. Later, she conspired with hacker Philip Grant to sabotage SE.
Marianne Rodgers Although she made her debut in Iron Man #40, Marianne had a past relationship with Tony Stark. Just what it was is unknown, but when she had a dreadful premonition, she reached out to Tony, re-entering his life and heart. Marianne had outright ESPer powers, psychic powers that tortured her and, ultimately, ruined her life.
After a short period of loving Tony, but hating Iron Man, Marianne discovered that they were one in the same. In #45, she and Tony got engaged. But in #49, after being haunted by visions that she would be responsible for Iron Man’s death, she freaked out and abandoned Tony just when he needed her—literally. He was dying, in dire need of a recharge, and she left him there struggling, gasping for help. When he recovered, Tony dropped her, uttering one of his best lines ever: “Our engagement’s off—Effective now! You can leave the ring with my secretary.”
Rodgers tried to get her life back together and returned in #52 with a job in computers. Working too hard, she had an ESP attack and had a breakdown. She was sent to a sanitarium, on Stark’s dime.
In #103, she left the Milford Sanatorium (in Connecticut) when Midas’s manipulation of SI caused the hospital to believe that Stark was no longer paying for her care. Ruled to be all better, she was released. But she had an unstable personality now, and newfound psychic powers, and a desire to kill Tony Stark.
She ended up in Stark Center, a private hospital in California. She stayed there for years, until in #319, when she broke out. It was revealed that her insanity had been the result of looking into Tony’s mind all those years ago and seeing that he was Kang’s pawn (see the Avengers’ “Timeslide” arc). In any case, flush with telekinetic/psychic powers, she tried to stop Tony and save him.
Paulley: dont think the psychic powers will work though Other, unlikely but possible, suggestions include
Bambi Arbogast (an older personal assistant to Stark, often described as battle axe),
Bethany Cabe (a character a little too similar to Black Widow),
Dr. Maya Hansen (from the extremist story),
Katherine Rennie (another older assistant),
The Saboteur,
Dr. Erica Sondheim, M.D.,
Sandy Vincent aka Stratosfire (Roxxon made female villain),
Dr. Su Yin, and
Madame Masque is also still a possibility.