Appearing in "Be Superior - Chapter 5: The Origin of Teen Abomination"
Featured Characters:
- Iron Man (Tony Stark) (Main story and flashback)
- Teen Abomination (Jamie Carlson) (Main story and flashback) (Origin revealed)
Supporting Characters:
- Stark Industries (Only in flashback)
- Katrina Carlson (Only in flashback) (First appearance; dies)
- Steven (Only in flashback)
- Happy Hogan (Only in flashback)
- Unnamed members (Only in flashback)
Antagonists:
- Black Lama (Jerald) (Only in flashback)
- Whiplash (Marco Scarlotti) (Only in flashback)
Other Characters:
- She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters) (Mentioned)
- Bruce Banner (Mentioned)
- Pepper Potts (Vision or hallucination) (Only in flashback)
- Troy (a bully) (Only in flashback)
Locations:
- Earth-616
- San Francisco
- Skateboard Park (Only in flashback)
- Carlson Residence (Destroyed) (Only in flashback)
- Earth-7511 (Mentioned)
Items:
- Endo-Sym Armor
- Iron Man Armor Model 4 (Only in flashback)
- Iron Man Armor Model 1 (Vision or hallucination) (Only in flashback)
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Be Superior - Chapter 5: The Origin of Teen Abomination"
At Stark Island, Tony Stark is strapping Teen Abomination into a chair to get a blood sample. He runs off some patter about breathing deeply and readies a series of waldo-arms, before revealing it was a ruse, and manually stabbing the boy in the arm. As Teen Abomination breaks free, Tony threatens him, citing his wealth and intelligence.
With the blood, Tony's mainframe can parse out Teen Abomination for data. But data only goes so far, so Tony pours himself a whiskey, offers the boy a couch, and asks for a recounting of the one thing every superhuman has: an origin story.
Teen Abomination - Jamie - says his origin is tied to his mother, Katrina Carlson, a scientist who used to work for Stark Industries. Years ago she had to bring her son to work on the day of a fateful gamma radiation experiment due to a babysitter's plans falling through. Tony Stark was also supposed to be there, but according to his bodyguard, Happy Hogan, something had suddenly come up. Katrina had responded bitterly, hinting at a personal history.
When the experiment began, however, subpar radiation shielding broke, bombarding everyone in the lab with gamma rays. The quick action of Happy Hogan saved lives, but the damage was done: Katrina lost her job, and the project was scrapped.
Tony interjects, saying he remembers the project, but was distracted at the time because he was trying to maintain a double life as a super-hero. The day of the accident, he was fighting the Black Lama, a wizard from another world with a magic orb. The Black Lama had unleashed a mental attack, stirring dark emotions. Tony had pushed the attack back on the Black Lama, and the blast had knocked him back into his own universe. Close to passing out, Tony had then returned to Stark Industries, planning to do something...
... but he cannot remember what, which surprises him. He can't remember anything about Katrina. Jamie says that the rest of the origin happened two weeks ago, when a bunch of kids were bullying him in a skate park. They broke his skateboard and he had to walk home. Angry, he shouted at his mother, who had not been able to find a paying scientific job in some time, and was worried about money, when she offered to talk to his teachers about the other boys. Pubescent hormones surging, Jamie punched the bannister... and the resulting wave of energy demolished his house and killed his mother. Now a teen abomination, Jamie came to San Francisco to ask Tony to turn him back using Extremis. Tony muses it probably wouldn't work - gamma mutates are powered by negative emotions, and Jamie's self-loathing could mean he never goes back to normal.
Tony wonders who Jamie's father is. Jamie says he he doesn't know, just as the computer finishes examining his Y-chromosone: Jamie's father is Happy Hogan, dead a year or more thanks to the actions of the Spymaster. Realising that Jamie is the son of one of the few people Tony has ever respected, he decides he must look after the boy. He originally planned to betray Jamie and monetize his superhuman powers, but now he swears he will find a way to heal him, starting first thing tomorrow. Jamie assumes that Tony needs to go on patrol, but Tony says there is no need: the fleet of drone cameras he unleashed shows him any major crime in the city, and there is nothing tonight.
Tony sends Jamie away to sleep, then goes to his private lab. He scans through both the Iron Man armor's internal memory of that day, and the Stark mainframe's security footage... and finds the files of that date are just gone. Stymied, Tony wonders who this mysterious adversary could be...
Solicit Synopsis
THE SECRET ORIGIN OF TEEN ABOMINATION.
• TONY STARK’S actions of the past come back to hurt him in the present.
• Has his negligence bred monsters?
• And will those monsters destroy him?