History
Kevin O'Brien was a engineer working for Stark Industries on Lakani, an island in the Pacific Ocean. O'Brien's work managed to get Anthony Stark's attention, even though O'Brien was responsible for an oversight which caused the explosion of his lab[3]. O'Brien became good friends with Stark, and was eventually transferred to Stark's personal research department.[4]
O'Brien impressed Stark by assisting Stark and his bodyguard Iron Man (who was secretly Stark himself) against the Spymaster and the Espionage Elite, saving Stark's life more than once[5]. Stark then decided to reveal to O'Brien his true identity and build a new armor for O'Brien, to be used in emergencies: The Guardsman Armor.
Soon after that, Stark and his girlfriend, Marianne Rodgers, were kidnapped by superhuman crazed Mikas, the Soulfather. O'Brien put on the armor[6], which unfortunately was untested, and the cybernetic circuits controlling the armor stimulated regions of the wearer's brain where fury and envy originate.
O'Brien began to feel jealous of Stark's power and fortune, and he also felt attracted to Rogers. He began to wear the armor and adopted the alias of Guardsman. O'Brien allied with shareholder chairman of Stark Industries, Simon Gilbert, who wanted to obtain the shares of Stark's main shareholder, Anthony Stark. O'Brien showed his support for Gilbert's activities by using his blasts against a demonstration on Stark's plant, injuring four protestors.[7]
However, O'Brien decided that his actions had been inappropriate and turned against Gilbert and his allies, beating them up. He would return to his previous state of mind when seeing Stark and Rogers, and attacked the protestors again.[8]
Stark was forced to don his Iron man armor and fight the Guardsman. Stark defeated the Guardsman, who tried to take refuge in an experimental tank. Stark tried to stop him without injuring him, so he shot the tank, and accidentally hit the fuel depot. The tank exploded and killed O'Brien.[8]
The police performed an investigation and eventually exonerated Iron Man, although O'Brien's brother, Michael, who was a sergeant with the NYPD, decided to re-open the investigation and fight Stark. He was eventually convinced of Stark's innocence and even became the second Guardsman.Attributes
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Powers
Abilities
Weaknesses
Paraphernalia
Equipment
The Guardsman Armor gives him the following powers:
- superhuman strength.
- life support.
- durability.
- sensors.
- flight with boot jets.
- repulsor blasters.
Transportation
Trivia
- While the handbooks list O'Brien as an American, he was first seen as a resident of the island Lakani in the Pacific, and later he frequently mentioned his Irish heritage.
- O'Brien's name was sometimes misspelled O'Brian.
See Also
- 23 appearance(s) of Kevin O'Brien (Earth-616)
- 6 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Kevin O'Brien (Earth-616)
- 4 minor appearance(s) of Kevin O'Brien (Earth-616)
- 4 mention(s) of Kevin O'Brien (Earth-616)
- 7 image(s) of Kevin O'Brien (Earth-616)
- 1 quotation(s) by or about Kevin O'Brien (Earth-616)