Thanks to Spider-Man: Far From Home, I Now Stan Happy Hogan
**Mild spoilers for Spider-Man: Far From Home.**
Happy Hogan has been a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Tony Stark took his first step as Iron Man. He was always his trusted driver and best friend, and it helped that the actor who brought him to life, Jon Favreau, also directed Iron Man and is the reason we ever got Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark to begin with. So, the idea that Happy Hogan has been an iconic secondary character for over a decade is fun in itself, but that just reached new heights for me.
Add his involvement in Spider-Man: Far From Home to the mix, and I suddenly find myself being a Happy Hogan stan. That’s not to say I didn’t like him before, I just didn’t care this much. Now though? There’s an extra layer to Hogan that had me crying in both Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home.
His love of Tony Stark didn’t end when Tony died. If anything, he found a new purpose outside of being a Stark Industries employee. That purpose? Making sure that all of Tony Stark’s kids are happy, biological or otherwise.
In Avengers: Endgame, we got very little of Happy Hogan, but what we did get was a Happy who was there when he was needed most. At Tony’s funeral, his tiny daughter Morgan is sitting by herself on the front porch. Happy is with her, and he asks her what she wants, and it harkens back to one of the most iconic scenes from Iron Man back in the most heartbreaking of ways.
What makes this so sweet on Happy’s part, though, is that he doesn’t care about anything other than making Morgan happy. His response to her asking for a cheeseburger was to tell her about her father’s love of them and that he’d get her all the cheeseburgers she wanted. So, fast-forward to Spider-Man: Far From Home, and you get probably my favorite scene in the entire movie.
Peter Parker is on a Stark jet with Happy, and they’re talking about Tony, the two expressing how much they miss him and what having him in their lives meant to them. For Happy, it isn’t about sharing his grief with Peter, but rather, making sure that Peter knows what he meant to Tony and what it means for the Iron Man legacy to live on.
Peter Parker thinks he has to live up to some standard that Tony Stark left behind, but as Happy points out, Tony never knew what he was doing. He always just figured it out along the way, and that’s what Peter has to remember. There isn’t a right or wrong answer, just doing what you think is right.
So, when Peter goes back into the Stark lab and starts to work on a new Spidey suit, it’s like watching Tony in the first Iron Man, lost in his science and excited to be the hero people need, and that’s all Happy’s doing. It’s incredibly poetic, and I now stan Happy Hogan and will fight for his honor.
(image: Marvel Entertainment)
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