Happy Hogan (character)

Created by writers Stan Lee and Robert Bernstein and artist Don Heck, Happy Hogan first appeared in Tales of Suspense #45 (September 1963).[1]

A former boxer with a history of losing his fights, Hogan is hired by Tony Stark as his chauffeur and personal assistant after Happy saves Tony's life in Tales of Suspense #45 (September 1963). Happy learns that Tony is Iron Man in Tales of Suspense #70 (October 1965).[2]

In Tales of Suspense #74 (February 1966), a desperately ill Happy is mutated into a giant, savage, nearly mindless, superhumanly strong humanoid known as the Freak when doctors try to cure him using a cobalt ray machine powered by Stark's experimental "Enervator" device. Freak breaks loose and goes on a rampage, escaping before Iron Man can arrive to stop him.[3]

Iron Man leads the Freak back to his laboratory, but runs out of power and collapses. The Freak encounters Pepper Potts, who faints at the sight of him, and he carries her away. The police fire on him, causing him to drop Pepper. Iron Man saves Pepper, and leads the Freak to his lab again. He is restored to his normal self in Tales of Suspense #76 (April 1966) when Iron Man exposes him to the Enervator once again, though he is afflicted with temporary amnesia that lasts until Tales of Suspense #83 (November 1966).[4]

Later, while helping Iron Man rebuild his armor, Happy is again exposed to cobalt rays and is again transformed into the Freak. The Freak smashes Iron Man through a wall, and takes Pepper with him. Iron Man is able to again return Happy to normal.[5]

The Collector later kidnaps Happy and Pepper, hoping to add the Freak to his collection. This draws Iron Man's attention, who intervenes and rescues his friends.[6]

Later, after Happy is injured while wearing the Iron Man armor,[7] Stark uses the Enervator to save him, thinking that he has corrected the problems with the device. But again it transforms Happy into the Freak, who goes on another rampage. He exposes himself to cobalt radiation, causing him to glow with energy that will eventually reach critical mass and cause him to explode. The two battle, until Stark is able to use the Enervator to again revert Happy to normal, apparently for the last time.[8]

He marries Pepper Potts in Tales of Suspense #91 (July 1967), but they later divorce.

Happy has worked for almost all of Stark's companies, including Stark Industries, Stark Enterprises and Stark Solutions. However, when Tony/Iron Man disappears during the Onslaught saga, Hogan refuses to be employed by Stark-Fujikawa, but is re-employed when Stark returns. He also remarries Pepper Potts.

With the events of the 2006 "Civil War" storyline causing Tony Stark considerable moral, political and emotional problems, Happy Hogan continues to give Tony much needed advice. In an important moment of crisis, he says to Tony: "You, my friend, are the only cape in the bunch [of superheroes] that's both one of us [that is, human] and one of them. Who else can see both sides the way you do?" On the night of his anniversary with Pepper, Hogan is attacked by the Spymaster, who is seeking to use Hogan as bait to draw out Iron Man. Spymaster threatens to kill Hogan first, then Pepper. Angered, Hogan grabs him by the neck and they fall several stories,[9] leaving Hogan in a vegetative coma.[10]

While he is in the coma, Pepper tells Tony of Cobra McCoyle, a former boxing friend who took too many hits to the head. Cobra is unable to even feed himself and must be taken care of. Pepper tells Tony that Hogan has declared he never wants to end up like McCoyle. At the end of Iron Man (vol. 4) #14, Hogan apparently dies. The issue leaves it ambiguous whether Hogan dies naturally or whether it is because Tony Stark digitally interfaced with and shut down Hogan's life support.[10]

Following this, Tony experiences occasional hallucinations of Happy, which Doc Samson attributes to the Extremis process; as a result of Tony's mind being accelerated by the Extremis process to allow him to interface with his armor directly; his subconscious mind often processes information that he was not consciously aware of, with this information being 'filtered' by the part of Tony's mind that stored his guilt to stop him facing it, resulting in illusions of Happy or Steve Rogers appearing to prompt Tony to acknowledge key information that he had not registered himself.[11]

Later, when Tony (slowly losing his mind to prevent Norman Osborn from getting the Superhero Registration Act information) and Pepper are in hiding, Pepper reminds him of all his friends and allies with Happy being one of them. Tony then replies, "Who's Happy?"

After experiencing a moral inversion, Tony is confronted by a new, teenage version of the Abomination when he relocates to San Francisco. While talking with the Teen Abomination, Tony learns that he is Jamie Carlson, the son of former Stark Industries employee Katrina Carlson who was exposed to gamma radiation during an accident at the company when Tony was busy fighting a wizard from another dimension during an earlier time. Initially planning to analyze and use the Teen Abomination's powers for himself, Tony changes his mind when the analysis of the boy's DNA reveals that Happy Hogan was his father, leaving Tony resolving to heal the boy, as Happy was one of the few people he ever respected.[12]

• Happy Hogan at Marvel.com