Iron Man (vol. 2) #9
Rebel Without a Cause
After battling a mysterious armored figure at Stark International, Iron Man has confirmed that it is in fact his old friend Connor “Rebel” O’Reilly.[1][2] Someone brought him back to life as a cyborg and sent him to attack Tony Stark. Rushing Rebel’s body to the Baxter Building, Tony now hopes that Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four can help him figure out who did this to Rebel and why.[3]
With O’Reilly’s vitals dropping, they rush him to the lab where they begin working on saving his life. In order to keep Connor’s life support going, Tony has plugged his own armor into it to keep it powered.
However, the link has an unexpected side effect: It causes Tony to see past memories from Connor’s perspective. When he tells Mister Fantastic this, Reed suggests disconnecting as it could have untold effects on Stark’s psyche. Tony declines, saying that he needs to keep O’Reilly alive and will suffer any harm that might cause. Tony views memories of his past with Connor during their time at State University together.[4]
Tony sees how Rebel developed his devil-may-care attitude and frequently put his life at risk because he felt he couldn’t compete with his wealthy friend who, no matter what happened, never seemed to lose. He also sees back to the early days of development of his Promethean Armor. He and Connor were excited at being the first to create a high-tech suit of armor. However, they are soon interrupted by Victor Von Doom who shows them a newspaper to gloat over the fact that the Russians had already beaten them to the punch. Tony waves this off, saying that his armor will be more sophisticated than anything the Russians could produce. Tony then sees that on the night before the big test, Rebel’s long time girlfriend dumped him because she couldn’t stand how he always puts his life at risk.
That’s when Tony sees something he never knew about: On the night before the big test of the Prometheus Armor, Rebel had checked to make sure Tony was fast asleep. He then took the suit on an unauthorized run into Russia to pit Tony’s invention against their technology. While Rebel was easily able to blast his way past surface-to-air missiles, fighting their operative the Titanium Man was not so easy. Easily beaten in battle, Rebel returned to America with the damaged armor and decided to keep this defeat a secret. As it turns out, it was this earlier battle which caused the malfunction in the suit that took Rebel’s life to begin with.[5] The final memory that Tony sees is of Rebel being dug up by Madame Hydra and her minions.
By this point, Reed has grown concerned that Iron Man is going in too deep and might suffer serious psychological damage. He unplugs Tony, who demands to be plugged back in. Unfortunately, it would be far too dangerous as despite their efforts to save Rebel’s life, he is living on borrowed time and doesn’t have a whole lot of life left. Back in his right mind, Connor then asks Tony to give him the opportunity to die like a hero.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Rebel O’Reilly, Mister Fantastic, Thing, Titanium Man, Hydra (Madame Hydra), Victor Von Doom (flashback)
Continuity Notes
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, Mister Fantastic, the Thing, and Doctor Doom 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.
Iron Man fought Rebel and discovered his identity last issue.
It’s later revealed in issue #10 that Doctor Doom was the mastermind behind resurrecting Rebel.
The majority of memories that Tony sees in Connor’s mind are all fabrications that were implanted to sell the idea that Franklin’s Counter-Earth had existed longer than it really has. This is also explained in Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4. The only true memories involve those involved in the construction and testing of the Prometheus Armor.
The disastrous run on the Prometheus Armor that took Rebel’s life was first depicted in Iron Man (vol. 2) #1.