“Where do you think you are, grandpa? The Silver Age?”
Iron Man #210
Marvel (September, 1986)
“Happy’s Story” WRITER:Danny Fingeroth PENCILER: Mark Bright INKER: Sam De La Rosa COLORIST: Adam Philips LETTERER: Rick Parker MANAGING EDITOR: Michael Higgins EDITOR: Mark Gruenwald
Hurting for money but determined to get his new fighter a break, Happy Hogan goes to Tony for a loan against Pepper’s wishes. With the money he gets Jake Jordan into some big-time fights. But when they meet with Tony it is soon revealed that Jake is really Spymaster in yet another disguise, looking to steal the secrets for Tony’s new space station and some of his armor tech. Spymaster threatens Pepper and their adopted kids, tearing Happy between his friend and his family. It’s Happy’s conscience that wins in the end when Spymaster gets some Iron Man-fighting tech, courtesy of his current employers at AIM. Although Happy gets beat up enough to end up in the hospital, he did buy Iron Man enough time to counter Spymaster’s gear and take him down.
What they got right: It was good to see what Pepper and Happy have been up to. Characters from the early days of Iron Man stories as far back as Tales To Astonish, it’s too bad they eventually left. While it would be hard to return them it’s good to check in now and then. Spymaster made a good threat for this story.
What they got wrong: At one point Tony is talking to Rhodey about staying away from people he’s close to for their safety…except the comic itself pointed out that it didn’t stop Stane for kidnapping them the last time (I do not have this story to confirm how things happened.) And yet it ends with Pepper convincing Tony to do exactly that and stops him from visiting Happy in the hospital. I’ve been a strong advocate of having a few friends to help the hero out behind the scenes (and even a few clueless depending on the situation), and this is another tale doing everything it can to force the hero to work on his own. No wonder Tony is a terrible team player, he keeps having his life written in a way to push him towards that end.
Recommendation: Not a must-have story but still a pretty good one that’s worth checking out.
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