Rebel, Rebel

Stark International’s headquarters has been attacked by an armored individual who not only knows that Tony Stark is secretly Iron Man, but also claims to be his deceased best friend, Rebel O’Relly.[1][2] As the two battle it out, Tony can hardly believe that this is O’Reilly. However, his armor’s scanners matches all of the attacker’s vitals proving the impossible: Rebel is still alive! Rebel keeps Tony off guard thanks to a cloaking device. That is until Stark uses his infrared sensors to look for places that are cooler than normal due to on board cooling systems in Rebel’s suit.

As the battle rages in the air above, Liz Ross leads a security team up to Tony Stark’s ruined office. There they find Pepper Potts crying over her lover, Happy Hogan, whom she believes is dead after Rebel’s initial attack.[3] When Liz tries to get Pepper to leave the scene, she is beyond hysterical. When Liz slaps Pep across the fact, she hits back knocking off Ross’ armored helmet. This reveals the fact that Liz has lost most of her hair and has giant tumors growing on her scalp. Pepper is shocked by this discovery and asks Liz what happened to her, but gets no response.[4]

Meanwhile, in downtown Manhattan, lawyer Jennifer Walters is leaving her office for the day. She gets into a cab but before she can give the driver her destination she is abducted by the Hulk who yanks her into the sewers below. Jennifer is shocked to see what has become of her cousin, Bruce Banner. The Hulk explains to Jen that his skin is burning and he needs help.[5] Walters agrees to do whatever she can to help her cousin.

At that same moment, at a government save house, Jasper Sitwell has kidnapped psychologist Leonard Samson to learn the location of Bruce Banner so the government can learn the secrets of the Hulk. When Samson refused to give up Banner, Sitwell had him injected with a syringe of gamma isotope just to see what happens. Leonard instantly collapsed to the floor and is presumed to have died. However, when Jasper orders his men to get rid of the body, Samson wakes up and undergoes a startling transformation and begins attack his kidnappers.

As this is all happening the battle between Iron Man and Rebel continues on, stretching out to a construction site in Manhattan. It’s by this time that Tony is able to hack into Rebel’s armor and remotely shut it down. Tony suddenly realizes that Rebel couldn’t have accidentally killed Happy Hogan since his bio-scanners would have instantly recognized that Hap wasn’t Tony Stark, meaning that this was all a set up to force Iron Man to kill his opponent. Ripping off his attacker’s helmet, Iron Man is shocked to discover it is Rebel O’Reilly after all and that someone had turned him into a cyborg. When Tony asks who did this to him, all Rebel can do is beg Tony to help him.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Rebel O’Reilly, Hulk, Betty Ross, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, Jennifer Walters, Jasper Sitwell, Leonard Samson

Continuity Notes

1. It should be noted that this is a pocket universe created by Franklin Richards to save the lives of the Fantastic Four and the Avengers in Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1. As such, only Iron Man and the Hulk are the only original characters in this story. Everyone else featured here is actually a construct created by Franklin to populate his imaginary Earth. See Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4 for more details on that.

2. Rebel O’Reilly died when a prototype of Iron Man’s Promethean armor overloaded and exploded in Iron Man (vol. 2) #1. It’s later revealed in issue #10 that Rebel was resurrected by Doctor Doom.

3. Happy is in fact still alive and will be hospitalized for his injuries as we’ll learn in Iron Man (vol. 2) #12.

4. Liz contracted a very aggressive form of cancer when she was exposed to the same gamma bomb radiation that turned Bruce Banner into the Hulk back in Iron Man (vol. 2) #1. This will also be confirmed in issue #12.

5. The Hulk is suffering from an excess amount of gamma radiation that he absorbed containing the gamma core on Avengers Island. As seen in the Industrial Revolution storyline that took place in the 6th issues of the 2nd volumes of Fantastic Four, Avengers, Iron Man, and Captain America.