In 1972, four unarmed student protestors were killed — by repulsor rays.
No, it wasn’t Iron Man who fired on them, but he was responsible.
In actuality, of course, on May 4, 1970, at Kent State University, 28 Ohio National Guardsmen fired some 67 rounds that killed four unarmed students and wounded nine others.
Some of the students who were shot had been protesting against Richard Nixon’s bombing of neutral Cambodia by U.S. military forces. Others just had the bad luck to be walking nearby.
In response to the shootings, hundreds of U.S. colleges and high schools were closed when four million students went on strike in protest.
The Armored Avenger, as the official superhero of the military-industrial complex, was thematically suited to approach this controversial topic — and he did just that in Iron Man 45 (March 1972).
In Iron Man 31 (Nov. 1970), writer Allyn Brodsky and artist Don Heck introduced the character of lowly Stark Industries technician Kevin O’Brian (whose name later became “O’Brien” for some reason).
When anti-technology Luddites riot against Tony Stark’s factory on a small island, O’Brian wades in to help Tony with a stun ray of his design. Impressed, Stark offers to employ O’Brian at his main research lab in New York.
But O’Brian is even sharper than Stark realizes. In Iron Man 33 (Jan. 1971), while Iron Man is rescuing him from a lab explosion, the technician realizes that the superhero and Tony Stark share the same speech patterns.
In Iron Man 34 (Feb. 1971), O’Brian uses a stun rifle to rescue the captured Stark from Spymaster and in Iron Man 37 (May 1971), when Iron Man suffers a heart attack during a battle with Ramrod, O’Brian again comes to the rescue, taking him to the Avengers Mansion.
There, Tony Stark confirms O’Brian’s suspicions — revealing that yes, he is Iron Man.
In Iron Man 43 (Nov. 1971), O’Brian first dons the green-and-blue armor Stark has fashioned for him to use in an emergency as a “fail-safe measure.” The code name given to the armor — “Guardsman” — is an indication writers planned for this storyline to take a tragic turn.
“Now, now, lad … it’s just for protection, remember?” O’Brian tells himself. “But still — I never truly realized — how much a sense of power a suit like this could give–!”
In Iron Man 44 (Jan. 1972), while carrying the unconscious Iron Man to Avengers Mansion, O’Brian runs afoul of the suspicious Captain America and holds his own in the ensuing slugfest.
“With these hands, I’m a powerhouse,” O’Brian thinks. “I almost decked the great Captain America. Bet nothing could stop me — if I wanted to pull out all the stops!”
At the same time, O’Brian has been having obsessive fantasies about Marianne Rogers, Stark’s precognitive girlfriend.
In Iron Man 45 (March 1972), when young protesters appear at Stark Industries, calling it a “death factory,” the emotionally disturbed O’Brian wades into them as the Guardsman.
“I’m not completely familiar with this armored equipment yet … But I should be able to cool ’em off with a little blast from repulsor rays,” O’Brian thinks. “Stand back, ye blasted trouble-makers! This is how Stark Industries deals with your kind!”
And with that one swift “Zwak!,” four protestors are down.
“They aren’t breathing!” one of the students shouts.
O’Brian is stricken with remorse, even as other protestors yell, “He’s killed them, that’s what he’s done!” and “It’s another Kent State!”
Iron Man arrives too late, zooming down and thinking “But who’s that? Kevin! He’s wearing the armor I designed for him … even though I told him never to wear it unless I asked him to!”
Iron Man is horrified to learn that O’Brian turned his repulsor rays on students, and thinks, “Now what do I do? My best friend on one side, and an army I can’t attack on the other!”
As O’Brian slips away, Iron Man flies off to avoid hurting more students, who shout, “We’ve done it! We’ve scared off the great Iron Man! First Iron Man .. next the factory itself! Move in! We’re gonna burn it to the ground!”
O’Brian reemerges to scare off the students, and power-hungry Stark board member Simon Gilbert, who’s been watching from the boardroom, applauds the four protestors’ apparent deaths. But Iron Man crashes through the boardroom window to reassert Stark’s authority, and the confused O’Brian takes sides against Iron Man.
O’Brian thinks, “He’s my best friend … but he’s on their side … wants to see me punished for blasting those revolutionaries! And he also stands between me and … Marianne!!”
As Iron Man and the Guardsman clash, police face off against the protestors. Iron Man defuses O’Brian’s armor and tries to do the same to the situation outside as the issue ends.
The title of the Iron Man 46 story is Menace At Large!, which is the Daily Bugle’s headline about the Stark riot. “New ‘Superhero’ Wounds Four Students at Long Island Plant!’ is the subhead to J. Jonah Jameson’s front-page editorial.
“Jameson’s so wrapped up in hating superheroes, he’s even taken to siding with students against them … against us!” Gilbert snarls.
When O’Brian, enraged by jealousy, attacks the protestors again as the Guardsman, Iron Man fights him to a standstill. But the Guardsman hurls a barrel of napalm, which he says, “…will be endin’ our friendship … for keeps!”
Engulfed in flames, Iron Man gives O’Brian a chance to come to his senses and rescue him (a dangerous ploy that had once worked with the deranged X-Man Angel).
It doesn’t work.
“Burn, blast ye … BURN!” shouts O’Brian. “Not until I know you’re dead can I be sure Marianne is mine at last!”
Iron Man activates his fire extinguisher system as the Guardsman deploys a top-secret “aero-tank” with a laser cannon.
The superhero attempts to foul the tank’s steering mechanism with his repulsor rays, but as recent events have underlined, they’re tricky things. The repulsors penetrate the fuel tanks and explode them, fatally wounding O’Brian. The protest is stopped at the cost of Kevin’s life.
The storyline becomes an object lesson in why Iron Man shouldn’t share his superpowers with others, and it’s a lesson Tony Stark learns.
“All the guilt that isn’t his is mine, for inventing the armor!” Stark says.
Turns out that with great power comes great responsibility. Who knew?
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