Howard Stark

For the American football player, see Howard Stark (American football).

Howard Stark
Howard Stark.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Iron Man #28 (August 1970)
Created by	Archie Goodwin, Don Heck
In-story information
Alter ego	Howard Anthony Walter Stark
Team affiliations	Hellfire Club Brotherhood of Shield S.H.I.E.L.D.
Supporting character of	Iron Man Captain America

Howard Stark is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe. He is the father of Tony Stark and the founder of Stark Industries. He is named after Howard Hughes.

The character is portrayed by John Slattery in the 2010 film Iron Man 2 and Dominic Cooper in the 2011 film Captain America: The First Avenger.

Fictional character biography

Howard Anthony Walter Stark was a brilliant inventor throughout his life. He and his father Howard Stark Sr. worked on various projects, and later founded Stark Industries. Throughout his young adulthood, Stark worked on various government projects dating back to the World War I and World War II era, like the World War I Captain America project with John Crowe Ransom, which came to completion during World War II; the World War II Manhattan Project; and the "Arsenal" robots, hidden in a subbasement in his mansion. The robots were only supposed to be activated if the US was overrun during a presumed Cold War conflict (but both known models have been accidentally awakened and stopped by the Avengers). During the 1950s, Howard Stark was an agent of the secret science organization known as The Shield, partnered with Nathaniel Richards.

Howard married Maria Collins Carbonell and together they had a son: Anthony "Tony" Stark. He constantly pushed Tony to be the best, telling him that someone must have "iron in their backbone" to be successful. Behind his heroic facade, however, he was an alcoholic who had a strained relationship with his son; in Iron Man 2, Tony says, "My father never told me he loved me — he never even told me he liked me." Due to his power as a businessman, he was offered membership to the exclusive Hellfire Club, but it seems Stark was uninterested in anything other than the lavish parties the club threw. It is believed Stark was also a member of the V-Battalion. He was targeted by the Red Skull (Johann Schmidt), and is rumored to have met the Watcher, Uatu. Stark also prevented Obadiah Stane from taking control of Stark Industries at least once.

On the Ides of March, Howard and Maria were killed in a plane accident. It has been hinted that the incident was not random and possibly arranged by the V-Battalion, but this has never been confirmed; earlier indications were that the accident was caused by Republic Oil, but this is also unconfirmed. Tony ran his father's company, started a charity in his mother's name, and later became Iron Man.Template:Tales of Suspense

As part of the Marvel NOW! event, Iron Man was space travel to hunts the Rigellian Recorder android 451 for his crime, 451 showing him an old tape from Earth revealed that 451 meets Iron Man's father Howard when he is unexpected, the footage Howard explain him untold truth had years ago with 451.

Other versions

House of M

In the House of M, Howard was alive while Maria's status is unknown. Howard turned over control of the company to Tony when he turned sixteen. Although officially listed as retired, he worked with Tony to build an armor capable of taking on the Sentinels and powerful mutants during the conflict.

They began to work on Sentinels with Forge and Henry McCoy after being awarded them an exclusive contract. They planned to incorporate a "Vision Project", although there were problems with the control scheme. The two also competed on the wildly popular 'Sapien Deathmatch' television show.

When Tony investigated a resistance group as Iron Man, Sentinels attacked. One, remotely controlled by Howard, scolded him for getting involved. Howard was secretly plotting against Magneto with Hank Pym.

"Genome bomb" locations were discovered by Tony as Iron Man and the House was notified. Howard had programmed the Visions and Sentinels to serve him. He said this had all been part of a plan to make the mutants respect Tony for saving them. Tony would then use that as a chance to directly strike against Magneto. Tony refused to go along. Magneto suddenly appeared and personally dealt with Howard, killing him.

Ultimate Howard Stark

The Ultimate Marvel version of Howard Stark starts off with Maria Cerrera (his second wife), a brilliant scientist suffered a genetic accident while she was pregnant. After Maria died during childbirth, Howard uses a newly invented biological armor to save the life of their son: Antonio "Tony" Stark. A few years later, Zebediah Stane (Stark's business rival) kidnaps and tortures young Tony to attempt to learn how to manufacture the bio-armor for his own personal gain. Not long afterwards, Howard arrives with a SWAT team and arrests Zebediah. After the incident, a transparent version of the armor is developed, and Tony begins attending a prep school. Fast forward to an older Tony who develops a prototype power-armor and befriends James Rhodes, a fellow student.

After finding out that bullies were ordered from an unknown individual to kill Tony, Howard decides to enroll Tony, Rhodes, and Nifara, who witnessed the attack, into the Baxter Building also enrolled Obadiah Stane (Zebediah Stane's son) in the school. Shortly after their arrival, Tony and Howard witness Obadiah murder a pair of students and make it look like an accident. Howard witnesses Tony makes his first "Iron Man" armor with the intent to punish Obadiah.

Sometime later, Stark was arrested, based on planted evidence, (by Obadiah) for the gruesome murder of Zebediah Stane. While the elder Stark was wrongly imprisoned for the murder of Zebediah Stane, the teenage Stark is forced to run Stark Enterprises. Obadiah drugs a prison guard with a "hypnotizing bio-drug", and the guard tries to kill Howard. He fails, but Howard was shot in the process and ends up in ICU.

While his son Tony is trying to fix all of his current problems, Howard is recovered enough to go to prison, but the guards sent to escort him were not sent by the Police Department. Howard fights them off and escapes. Tony meets with him, and says that he thinks Loni (Howard's first wife and Obadiah's mother) is the mastermind behind the scenes trying to kill them all. Iron Man, War Machine, Nifara, Howard, and Obadiah set off to Utah to find Loni. They arrive and their chopper explodes injuring War Machine. Obadiah falls off a cliff, but Iron Man catches him as terrorists arrive on the scene. Iron man flees, but follows them as they take Obadiah to Loni and their hideout. Iron Man breaks into the compound and Loni floods it with poison gas trying to kill him, abandoning Obadiah. Iron Man saves Obadiah, but Howard and Nifara are taken captive by Loni. After Loni shoots and kills Nifara, she confesses that all she ever wanted was power, hence why she married Howard, divorced Howard, remarried with Zebediah, had Obadiah, and later had Zebediah killed.

Iron Man shows up, and Loni shoots Howard in the chest, threatening to shoot him again if he doesn't take the suit off. Tony takes off his armor, and Loni shoots him in the head, not knowing that his entire body is a brain and will heal itself. Tony fights Loni, beats her, and tends to his father. Obadiah, mad that his mom abandoned him for dead with the poison gas, enters the room and kills her. Tony, Obadiah, and Howard are all picked up by the feds and go home.

Ultimate Howard Stark's true history has yet to be revealed as facts about his life which were depicted in the Ultimate Iron Man series have been retconned as an in-universe fictional TV show about Iron Man's life.

The real history of Howard Stark is told in Ultimate Comics: Iron Man. Here is seen as the founder of Stark Enterprises, although it is revealed that Howard sought help from a Chinese conglomerate, Mandarin International. While Tony is trying to start a company of his own along with Josie Gardner, his then-girlfriend, Howard continually tries to persuade to take his place as the CEO, which he eventually does.

Howard Stark Sr.

The retconned Ultimate Marvel shows Howard Stark Sr. in Ultimate Comics: Armor Wars. He is the one who hired a thief named "The Ghost" to steal Stark Industries's covert tech piece "Remnant 242". He sends his ARSENAL cyborgs to kidnap Iron Man and his cohort Justine Hammer to his base "Project Tomorrow", a former military area which specialized in Man/Machine fusion tech, were he reveals himself to be Tony's grandfather that was believed to be dead in his grandson's youth. The grandfather Stark's been trying to use his Grandson's armor tech to upgrade his rusted green, body armor to achieve immortality. Ghost gives the elderly Stark "Remnant 242", where it's revealed to be an alternate version of Tony, found dead in a barren wasteland (Earth-242) during Tony's research with Reed Richards. Tony explains that the head has advanced armor failsafes that kills technology, which sends out a massive pulse that kills Howard, Ghost, the ARSENAL drones, and unfortunately Justine.

In his first (and only) appearance within any continuity of Marvel, the Man/Machine fusion appearance of Howard Sr. is a hybrid of Iron Monger and Titanium Man.

Marvel Noir

In the Marvel Noir miniseries Iron Man Noir, set in the 1930s, Howard Stark is believed to have been killed by Nazi agents. It is eventually revealed that he was subjected to chemical brainwashing by the Nazis, and became Baron Zemo. Under this guise, he builds war machines for the Nazis based on original designs he shared with Tony at a very young age. He dies when Iron Man destroys Baron von Strucker's airship.

In other media

Television

• Howard Stark (identified as Howard Walter Stark) appears in the animated series Iron Man, voiced by Neil Ross in season one and Peter Renaday in season two.
• Howard Stark appears in Iron Man: Armored Adventures, voiced by Fred Henderson.
• Howard Stark is mentioned in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes episode "Living Legend". Just as in the comics, Howard was involved in the Super Soldier project in the WWII era, and was a good friend of Captain America. His son Tony reminisces about him telling stories about Captain America. At the end of the episode, Howard appears together with Captain America and Bucky Barnes in a photo from the 1940s, given to Captain America by Tony as a memento of Howard.

Film

Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark as depicted in the 2011 film Captain America: The First Avenger.

• The character, voiced by John McCook, appears in the animated direct-to-video film The Invincible Iron Man.
• Howard Stark is shown during a brief slideshow presentation in the beginning of the film Iron Man, portrayed by Gerard Sanders.
• Howard Stark appears in a film reel within the film Iron Man 2, played by John Slattery. Near the beginning of the film, during the revival of his father's technology expo, the Stark Expo, Tony Stark plays an introduction that Howard Stark had recorded for the original presentations. Later in the film, another reel is part of a collection of scientific data, technology, and other assorted items entrusted to SHIELD to give to Tony Stark at the right time. The film reel appears to contain outtakes of Howard Stark's presentations for his Stark Expo, and displays his similarities to his son, such as a crass attitude, impatience, and propensity to consume alcohol. When he watches it in its entirety, Tony discovers that it contains a message to him from his father, informing him that Tony is his greatest creation and that it will fall to Tony to complete the work which the limitations of his time will prevent him from completing himself. The message not only provides Tony with closure over the strained relationship he had with his father prior to his death, but also provides Tony with the final information he needs to replace the device which is both keeping his heart from failing and poisoning his blood.
• Dominic Cooper portrays a younger Howard Stark in the film Captain America: The First Avenger. He is one of the chief scientists on the Super Soldier Project, and builds the original version of Captain America's trademark shield and uniform. The film portrays Stark as sharing even more of his son's traits; egotism over his abilities and accomplishments, fondness for attention, and lecherous attitude towards women. Towards the end of the film, during his search for the plane that Captain America crashed in the arctic, Stark is shown retrieving the Tesseract, which fell from the plane prior to its forced landing.
• Howard's past association with Captain America is briefly mentioned in The Avengers when Tony Stark, exasperated over Captain America's clean-cut good guy attitude exclaims "THIS is the guy my dad never shut up about?"

Video games

• Howard Stark is featured in the game Captain America: Super Soldier (based on The First Avenger film), voiced by Liam O'Brien.

External links

• Howard Stark at the Marvel Universe wiki
• Howard Stark at the Internet Movie Database
• Howard Stark at the Comic Book DB