He is usually depicted as a supporting character in stories featuring Iron Man / Tony Stark, for whom he works as a chauffeur, bodyguard, and personal assistant.

Happy is close friends with his employer, and is among the first people in the Marvel Universe to discover his identity as the armored superhero.

He is also the father of the Teen Abomination, was married to Pepper Potts, and has occasionally been mutated into the giant, savage, nearly mindless, superhumanly strong humanoid known as the Freak.

Created by writers Stan Lee and Robert Bernstein and artist Don Heck, Happy Hogan first appeared in Tales of Suspense #45 (Sept.

[3] Then, 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.

[5] Later, while helping Iron Man rebuild his armor, Happy is again exposed to cobalt rays and is again transformed into the Freak.

[7] Later, after Happy is injured while wearing the Iron Man armor,[8] Stark uses the Enervator to save him, thinking that he has corrected the problems with the device.

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.

After experiencing a moral inversion, Tony is confronted by a new, teenage version of Abomination when he relocates to San Francisco.

While talking with 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.

[13] During the "Iron Man 2020" event, Pepper is introduced to an off the grid navigation incorporated in the Rescue armor that Tony previously developed before Y2K called H.A.P.P.Y.

Happy goes off to investigate a disturbance in the basement and falls prey to the zombie Giant Man who had teleported in from another dimension.

[20] In the spin-off novel Tomorrow Men by Michael Jan Friedman, it is revealed that he has a supervisory position at the Triskelion; the Ultimates' headquarters.

In Ultimate Human, although he is never seen on page, Tony Stark is seen talking to him on a cell phone, and then continuing the conversation after he is in an Iron Man suit.

This version is Tony Stark's bodyguard, chauffeur, and later head of security, as well as a close friend of his and occasional ally of Peter Parker.

[27] Additionally, Favreau voices several alternate timeline variants of Hogan in the Disney+ animated series What If...?, such as one who was accidentally injected with a sample of Bruce Banner's blood, which causes him to mutate into the Freak while retaining his intelligence, and Sir Harold "The Happy" Hogan of a Renaissance-themed universe who can also transform into the Freak.

Happy Hogan, based on the MCU incarnation, appears as an unlockable playable character in Lego Marvel's Avengers, voiced by Chris Cox.