Happy Hogan

Harry "Happy" Hogan is an American retired boxer and the personal chauffeur for Tony Stark. The two met in late 1963 when Hogan, a bystander, witnessed Stark crash his vehicle in a stock-car race in Indianapolis. Hogan pulled Stark from the wreckage, saving him moments before the car exploded. Hogan refused the large reward that Stark offered him, instead requesting a steady job. Stark thus hired him as his personal chauffeur. Arriving at Stark's main plant in Flushing, Hogan met Stark's secretary Pepper Potts. He tried to ask her out, but she thoroughly brushed him off, beginning an antagonistic relationship between the two.

Biography

Becoming the Freak

Hogan's initial feelings for Pepper Potts grew ever stronger in the following years as Pepper's own feelings were generally directed to Tony Stark—secretly the hero Iron Man. Happy grew desperate to prove his worth to Pepper, and the opportunity to do so would soon show itself. During a fight with Titanium Man in Alberia in late 1965, Iron Man tasked Happy with retrieving a stolen transistor weapon and delivering it to him on the battlefield. Hogan did so successfully, but suffered a damaging energy blast from Titanium Man that left him on the brink of death. Hogan was content, as Pepper's concern had shown she loved him as he ran out onto the field. He called Iron Man "boss," demonstrating that he had figured out his identity. Happy collapsed in Tony's arms, and Stark realized that Hogan had helped him in spite of their romantic rivalry in the past. Iron Man went on to defeat Titanium Man as Happy fell into a coma. Happy was later abducted from his hospital bed by the Black Knight, who hoped to use him as leverage in a revenge plot against Iron Man and, more broadly, the Avengers. Iron Man successfully rescued Happy, but became drained of his power in the process and required the help of the authorities to return Happy to safety. There, the surgeons in charge decided to use Tony Stark's untested invention, the enervator, as a last-ditch effort to revive a dying Hogan. When Iron Man was able to recharge and heard of this plan, he was concerned given that the device was likely to have catastrophic side effects. Indeed, Hogan's life was spared by the enervator, but he was consequently transformed into a hulking man the surgeons called the Freak. Iron Man arrived and tried to fight him gently, but the Freak easily overpowered him.

Lacking the means to disable his friend safely, and unwilling to use his more powerful weaponry, Iron Man decided to lure the Freak back to his lab in hopes of reversing the enervator's effects. Still largely drained from his encounter with the Black Knight, Iron Man used his remaining energy to reach his lab, but collapsed shortly before he could arrive. The Freak disregarded him however, hearing the voice of Pepper Potts within. Inside, Senator Harrington Byrd was speaking with Pepper and angrily demanding to see Iron Man or Tony Stark. The Freak stalked toward Pepper, but Byrd got in his way, prompting him to throw the senator across the room. Pepper didn't recognize Hogan in his new, colossal form, and fainted as he approached. He carried her body out through a second-story window, where he was spotted by Byrd's police escort outside. As a dizzied Iron Man came to, the police shot at the Freak, inadvertently causing him to drop Pepper. A desperate Iron Man jumped into action, using his repulsor ray to safely slow Pepper's fall. She awoke as a result, confused but unharmed. Iron Man flew inside and activated his enervation intensifier, his only recourse to defeating the Freak and saving Happy. He was forced to set the machine to full power, and its dangerous feedback began affecting him as well. Iron Man narrowly held on long enough for the intensifier to return Happy back to his true form. The intense energy forced him to doff his red-hot Iron Man suit and change back into plain clothes as Happy fell unconscious. He revived Happy, who was peaceful but perfectly amnesiac, not recognizing Tony or himself.