Iron Man #9 may go down as one of the more personally consequential modern day comic book for Tony Stark. That is because it is the issue where series writer Joshua Williamson revealed who was behind the mask of the latest version of Citizen V. The identity of Citizen V was none other than the Tony Stark’s long time best friend Happy Hogan, who was thought to have been dead for over a decade. This reveal is something that could have a lot of consequences for Iron Man’s future beyond just his ongoing series.
HAPPY HOGAN RETURNS AS CITIZEN V
Citizen V is an identity that has been warn by eight different characters. The original Citizen V predates Iron Man and the Avengers, first debuting in 1941’s Daring Mystery Comics #8. Citizen V was the identity that British officer Lieutenant John Watkins assumed to secretly rally resistance against the Nazis during World War II. This would lead him to eventually become an ally of Captain America.
Sadly, John Watkins was killed by Baron Heinrich Zemo, father of the Baron Helmut Zemo, in 1944. Since the death of John Watkins there have been various characters who have taken on the Citizen V identity. That includes Baron Helmut Zemo, who used the identity during the Heroes Reborn era in a failed bid to take over the world.
Most recently in the latest relaunch of the Iron Man series we have seen a eighth version of Citizen V lurking in the shadows. This version of Citizen V has been seen since Iron Man #1 and was shown in later issues breaking into one of Tony Stark’s facilities.
Now we know why the latest version of Citizen V has been watching Tony Stark’s moves as he was revealed to be the returning Happy Hogan. It gives whole new context for a lot of the appearances for Citizen V in Joshua Williamson’s Iron Man run thus far.
IMPORTANCE OF HAPPY HOGAN’S RETURN
Happy Hogan is more than just a supporting character filling the best friend role for Tony Stark. Historically Happy, along with Rhodey and Pepper Potts, acted as important parts of Tony’s conscience that helped to ground him when needed.
This importance was most shown during Civil War when he showed his support for Tony’s decision to back the Superhero Registration Act. Because of this Happy’s death during the Civil War can be considered one of the more underrated moments during that Marvel event. His words of support and death that happened not long after pushed Tony to quadruple down on his views at the time.
Happy’s return is also happening at a point where we’ve seen Tony Stark’s recent actions being put into question. Throughout this current Iron Man series, we’ve seen how Captain America, Fantastic Four, War Machine, and several other heroes concerned with Tony’s decision making. This concern has been justified by how Tony decided to fight fire with fire when Red Hulk used a future viewing machine and Tony created similar tech in Avengers: Armageddon. This is on top of his current attitude in returning to the global solo Iron Avenger direction in this Iron Man series.
With Tony being carefully watched by the superhero community, Happy return couldn’t have come at a better time. Happy could be the trigger one way or another for what direction Tony takes. Especially considering Happy has been considered dead since 2004. This means Happy has not been around for several years in Marvel Universe time and missed many major events that have shaped Tony’s current mindset. Missing all these years gives Happy an outside perspective of who Tony is that the likes of Captain America and Pepper Potts have. Especially considering the last time we saw Happy he was siding with Tony and the Superhero Registration Act being needed during the original Civil War event.
Whatever happens from here there is no doubt that Happy Hogan will play an important part in Iron Man’s future.
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