Real Name: Harold Joseph "Happy" Hogan

Identity/Class: Human mutate

Occupation: Rampaging monster

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: None

Enemies: Iron Man (Tony Stark)

Known Relatives: Virginia "Pepper" Potts-Hogan (wife)

Aliases: Happy, "the Living Cobalt Time-Bomb," "the Walking Bomb"

Base of Operations: Stark Industries' Long Island plant, or wherever he was recreated

First Appearance: Tales of Suspense I#74/1 (February, 1966)

Powers/Abilities: The Freak possessed superhuman strength and durability. He was described as surpassing normal strength by 100 times, which would make him able to lift 10,000 - 20,000 pounds, putting him in the Class 10 range. He was pained by bullets fired from a distance, and Iron Man was reluctant to use his repulsor rays on him, so just how tough his skin was remains uncertain. The Freak had limited intellect and was a rampaging monster, though he did recognize Happy's attraction to Pepper.

    At one point, the Freak absorbed a further amount of cobalt radiation and grew at least 2-5 times more powerful. In that form, he could also discharge blasts of cobalt energy from his hands, release lethal levels of radiation from his skin, and threatened to build to critical mass which would result in a nuclear explosion.

Height: (Hogan) 5'11"; (Freak) 7' 9"
Weight: (Hogan) 221 lbs.; (Freak) 789 lbs.
Eyes: (Hogan) Brown; (Freak) black
Hair: (Hogan) Brown; (Freak) none

History:
(Tales of Suspense I#70/1) - Happy Hogan was critically wounded while aiding Iron Man against Titanium Man (Boris Bullski), and subsequently hospitalized.

(Tales of Suspense I#74/1) - In an effort to save a desperately injured Hogan, doctors used an experimental surgical technique with a cobalt ray machine powered by Tony Stark's untested Enervator. The process indeed saved Happy, but also mutated him into the monstrous, virtually mindless Freak, who broke free and went on a rampage. Iron Man arrived too late to prevent the machine's use, and the Freak smashed him aside when the hero tried to contain him. Iron Man then followed the Freak as he left the hospital and lumbered aimlessly through the streets.

(Tales of Suspense I#75/1) - Iron Man led the Freak back to Stark Industries, but his armor ran out of power in the process, and he collapsed. The Freak continued on into the factory complex and encountered Pepper Potts, who fainted at the sight of him (because that's what women did in the Sixties, you know). The Freak picked her up and carried her away to an upper level; but when the Freak emerged out of a window and stood on the ledge, the police fired upon him, causing him to drop Pepper. Having recovered, Iron Man saved the falling Pepper, and then led the Freak back to Stark's lab; in an effort to reverse Happy's mutation, Iron Man exposed him to the Enervation-intensifier. However, the process appeared to be working too slowly, and Iron Man's armor turned red hot from the device's power feedback, as the Freak continued to advance on him...

(Tales of Suspense I#76/1) - But the Enervation-intensifier finally began to work, and Hogan returned to normal.

(Iron Man I#3) - At Stark Industries, Hogan was exposed to cobalt rays while helping Iron Man rebuild his armor, and he was again transformed into the Freak. After smashing Iron Man through a wall, the Freak encountered Pepper and took her with him (she fainted again, of course). Roaming aimlessly, the Freak climbed up the framework of a partially constructed building, where he was again assaulted by Iron Man, who had convinced the police not to fire at the Freak. Instead, Iron Man led the Freak into an armored car, where they pumped in anesthetic gas to render him unconscious.

(Iron Man I#4) - Stark again used the Enervatation-intenisifer to drain off the energy from the Freak, returning him to Hogan's form.

(Iron Man I#26) - Seeking to add the Freak to his collection, the Collector (Taneleer Tivan) kidnapped Happy and Pepper, which drew the attention of Iron Man. The Collector ran some tests with his Converto-Ray to determine which particular element would effect the transformation of Happy into the Freak. But Iron Man convinced the Collector to let Happy go free if he could find something equally worthy for his collection in exchange.

   The Collector dispatched Iron Man to a dark dimension to obtain the Solar Sword from Val-Larr of Luminia. Iron Man did so, but the Collector--having discovered the needed element while Iron Man was gone--began to bombard Happy with cobalt rays, and he started to transform into the Freak. After receiving the Sword, the Collector reversed the process and returned Happy to normal, then he attempted to use the power of the Solar Sword to recapture the lot of them. Iron Man managed to force the Collector to release everyone, and he returned the needed Solar Sword to Val-Larr.

(Iron Man I#67) - The use of the Enervator on the injured Eddie March caused him to transform into a virtual duplicate of the Freak.

(Iron Man I#84) - After suffering from massive internal injuries while standing in for Iron Man, Hogan was hospitalized. Despite the previous events, Stark thought he had corrected the problems with the Enervator, so he transported the device to the hospital and authorized its use in an effort to save Happy. Surprisingly enough, the Enervator again transformed Happy into the Freak, who went on yet another rampage. The Freak wandered into the hospital's cobalt storage room--having absorbed the isotope's radiation, the Freak increased his power and became a "walking bomb," glowing with energy that would eventually reach critical mass and explode with the force of a nuclear bomb.

   Iron Man and the Freak continued their battle until they ended up in the sewers, where they shattered some water pipes and caused a flood of water that flushed them both out into the East River. Their struggle continued on land until the Freak bear-hugged Iron Man, which overloaded his thermocouples with energy and fused his circuitry. Before horrified onlookers, the Freak left the fallen Iron Man on the ground, then grabbed hold of a passing elevated train and got away.

(Iron Man I#85) - After getting a recharge from a bystander's portable radio, Iron Man returned to Stark International, where he created his first suit of polarized armor; with his newly-built armor completed, Iron Man went in search of the Freak.

   Using a built-in radiation-detector, Iron Man tracked his quarry to the Queensborough trainyards by following the Freak's cobalt emissions. The two fought fiercely for some time, as Iron Man made the Freak expend some of his deadly radiation, hoping to keep him from exploding. Finally, Iron Man assembled and activated a miniature version of his Enervation-intensifier, and powered it with the third rail of the subway track. The tiny device successfully drained the Freak's power, once again returning him to Happy Hogan, and Iron Man returned Hogan to the hospital.

Comments: Created by Stan "The Man" Lee and Adam Austin (a pseudonym for Gene Colan--as pointed out by Grant Rybicki, the Continental Op)

This profile is ONLY to cover the Freak, and is not intended to cover Happy Hogan (who has had hundreds of appearances); ditto for Eddie March.

    I think there is some untold story behind the Freak that Eddie March would be mutated into such a similar form by the same machine. Perhaps the Freak is an extradimensional entity and the cobalt energy and/or the Enervator open a portal and summon it to Earth. Something...

...And with that in mind, I think the Freaks had similar appearances to both of the Crushers (Caldwell Rozza and Juan Aponte), so perhaps there's some common link between all four of them?--Ron Fredricks   

    The Freak hasn't returned in over 40 years.

Hogan's version of the Freak has an entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1960s Handbook.

Profile by Kyle Sims. Expansion by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Freaks (Harold "Happy" Hogan and Eddie March) have no known connection to:

• Freak - agent of Silvereye, stabbed by Blade when he rebelled against his control--Blade: Vampire Hunter II#2
• Freak of Science (Rico Gawren) - mutated student--Speedball#5/3
• Freakmaster ( ) - normal appearance, child of two freaks in freakshow of Quentin Carnival, mutated many normal people into freaks--[Ghost Rider II#70], 79
• Freakout (Arthur Amadeus van Krijg) - member of Derangers, former rock star, drug abuse caused him to lose sense of pain, died from injuries from fight with Sasquatch/Langkowski while under control of Bedlam--Alpha Flight I#49, 53d
• Freak Quincy ( ) - radio wave attracting nutjob--Iron Man I#255
• Freaks - agents of Master (Sinoda)--Monsters Unleashed#7
• Freaks (Six, Gorilla Girl, Muck Monster) - group of circus Freaks, former pawns of Moondark--Marvel Team-Up I#91
• Freaks - agents of Freakmaster --Ghost Rider II#70
• Freakshow (Kevin ) - young mutant, nearly fell to death when attempted to impress others after High Evolutionary temporarily eliminated all mutant abilities. fly, wm, blond--X-Force I#101
• Freakshow - of Earth-928 circa 2099 A.D. (Breakdown, Contagion, Dominic, Psyclone, Tantrum) --X-Men 2099#6
• Freex - super-team of Earth-Ultraverse--Freex#1
• Rick James - American singer who was Super-Freaky, yow!
• Living Bombs - sacrificed themselves to try to kill Vision in protest of relationship between him and Scarlet Witch--Avengers I#113
• any other characters with similar names, or any other Freaks...I'm talking about you!

(Eddie March) While wearing Iron Man armor and controlled by the power prism Krimonn, Tony Stark's friend Eddie was badly injured in a fight with Thor. Though knowing that his Enervator had previously transformed Happy Hogan into the Freak, Stark used the device in an effort to save Eddie, hoping that the precautions he had added would be enough to prevent the unwanted transformation--he was wrong, and Eddie, too, was transformed into a virtually mindless, rampaging Freak. As Iron Man, Stark tried to stop the mutated March, while at the same time trying not to actually injure him, and protected him from police who fired on him. Iron Man herded the Freak back into the hospital, where he managed to knock him out with a few nerve punches. Upon collapsing into unconsciousness, the Freak returned to the form of Eddie March, and Dr. Donald Blake was able to operate on his strengthened form to save his life. --Iron Man I#67

Enervator Invented by Tony Stark, it was a large cobalt ray projector which emitted an unspecified wavelength of radiation. The ray rapidly healed and revitalized injured humans, and could even bring them back from the seeming brink of death. However, when the Enervator was actually used on separate occasions to treat the injured Harold "Happy" Hogan and Eddie March, it had the side-effect of mutating them into monstrous Freaks. Some time later, Mordecai Midas used his "golden touch" to paralyze six of Iron Man's associates into gold-encased "statues"; Iron Man and fellow Avenger Yellowjacket (Henry Pym) used Enervator technology to power a bio-ray, which returned them back to normal--none of the six showed any signs of the previous mutating effects. --Tales of Suspense I#74/1 (Tales of Suspense I#74/1 - 76/1, Iron Man I#67, 84, 108

Enervation-intensifier Invented by Tony Stark, this large device somehow siphoned the energies of the Enervator and neutralized its mutating effects. It was used on two occasions to restore Happy Hogan to human form after he had been mutated into the Freak. Some time later, Hogan was transformed into the Freak on a third occasion; he was also enhanced with cobalt radiation, and he could have exploded with the force of a nuclear bomb when he reached critical mass. Stark created a miniature version of the Enervation-intensifier, then confronted the radioactive Freak as Iron Man. Drawing power from the third rail of a subway track, Iron Man activated the device and was able to use it to return Hogan to normal before a potential explosion occurred. --Tales of Suspense I#75/1 (Tales of Suspense I#75/1 - 76/1, Iron Man I#4, 85

images: (without ads)
Iron Man I#85, p11, pan1 (main image - Freak [Hogan], glowing from cobalt radiation)
Iron Man I#3, p13, pan4 (headshot - Freak [Hogan])
Tales of Suspense I#75/1, p8, pan1 (Freak [Hogan])
Iron Man I#85, p16, pan2 (Freak [Hogan], with cobalt radiation building to potential explosion)
Iron Man I#67, p9, pan3 (Freak [March])
Iron Man I#67, p10, pan1 (Freak [March])
Tales of Suspense I#74/1, p8, pan1 (doctors use Enervator on Hogan)
Iron Man I#67, p8, pan4 (Enervator being used on March)
Iron Man I#4, p1, pan1 (Tony Stark uses full-sized Enervation-intensifier on Freak [Hogan])
Iron Man I#85, p16, pan3 (Iron Man with miniaturized Enervation-intesifier)

Appearances:
Tales of Suspense I#74/1-76/1 (February-April, 1966) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Gene Colan (pencils), Jack Abel (inks)
Iron Man I#3-4 (July-August, 1968) - Archie Goodwin (writer), Johnny Craig (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Iron Man I#26 (June, 1970) - Archie Goodwin (writer), Don Heck (pencils), Johnny Craig (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Iron Man I#67 (April, 1974) - Mike Friedrich (writer), George Tuska (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Iron Man I#84 (March, 1976) - Len Wein & Roger Slifer (writers), Herb Trimpe (pencils), John Tartaglione (inks), Len Wein & Marv Wolfman (editors)
Iron Man I#85 (April, 1976) - Len Wein & Roger Slifer (writers), Herb Trimpe (pencils), Marie Severin (inks), Len Wein (editor)

First posted: 11/22/2003
Last updated: 07/19/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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