Howard Stark is an American fictional comic book character who appears in
books published by Marvel Comics, usually as a background character in
stories featuring his son, Tony Stark. He is the founder of Stark Industries.
The character was created by writer-editor Archie Goodwin and
designed by artist Don Heck. He made his first appearance in Iron Man #28.
Described as a brilliant scientist and ruthless businessman, Howard Stark
worked alongside his father on various projects, and later founded Stark
Industries. Howard was an inventive mechanical engineering prodigy,
constantly creating new technology and looking for ways to improve it. He
designed and built weaponry and devices that have revolutionized the industrial
world, such as various technologies used by S.H.I.E.L.D. and its allies. Howard
later met and married a young woman named Maria Carbonell. They had a child
named Anthony Edward Stark. Like his father the boy was a genius, gaining
admission to MIT at the age of 15. Howard's relationship with Tony was a
difficult one, however, with Howard rarely expressing affection for the boy.
Howard's one major weakness was his severe case of alcoholism, a problem
Tony himself would inherit. In the comics, Howard and his wife Maria
died in a car crash, as the result of faulty brakes arranged by either
business competitors Republic Oil & Gas or by the V-Battalion. In the Marvel
Cinematic Universe, the accident that killed Howard and his wife was caused by
Hydra infiltrators within S.H.I.E.L.D. In the comics, his parents' death
inspired Tony to take both business and engineering seriously, later becoming
Iron Man. Throughout the character's publication
history, Howard Stark has been featured in several incarnations of comic book
series. He has also been adapted for several animated TV shows and films. The
character was portrayed by John Slattery in the 2010 live action film Iron Man 2
and 2015 Ant-Man, and as a young man by Dominic Cooper in the 2011 film Captain
America: The First Avenger and the 2015 TV series Agent Carter.
Fictional character biography The son of Howard Stark, Sr., Howard
Stark was born in Richford, New York. An avid and brilliant inventor from a young
age, he was a brilliant scientist throughout his life. He and his father
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. During the 1950s, Stark was an agent of the secret
science organization known as The Shield, partnered with Nathaniel
Richards. Stark 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. Howard was capable of devotion and
respect towards machines, but he appeared to have little to no interest
towards his son. Due to his power as a businessman, Howard was offered
membership to the exclusive Hellfire Club, but Stark seemed uninterested in
anything other than the lavish parties the club threw. It is believed Howard
was also a member of the V-Battalion. He was targeted by the Red Skull, 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 car 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. When Iron Man was briefly trapped in
Hell by Doctor Doom, Iron Man faced what appeared to be Howard Stark as one of
Mephisto's torments. The spirit "wore" a demonic version of Iron Man's armor and
taunted Iron Man about his emotional weaknesses. Iron Man rejected the
spirit's reality when it claimed that he had been a disappointment to his mother
as well as whatever problems he had with his father, as he knew that his mother
loved him unconditionally. During the Original Sin storyline, a
flashback revealed that Howard Stark first met Nick Fury following the death
of Woody McCord during the fight against the Tribellians. Howard decided to show
Nick Fury the work Woody McCord had been doing as defender of Earth, neutralizing
any potential threat for the planet, and offered him Woody's job. Nick Fury
accepted and over the next years would secretly fight different superhuman
threats from aliens to Subterranean monsters and extra-dimensional beings,
and those had been the corpses the different parties had found.
Other versions = "House of M" =
In the alternate reality seen in the 2005 "House of M" storyline, Howard
Stark was alive while Maria Stark's status is unknown. Howard turned over
control of the company to Tony Stark 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.
Howard and son Tony 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 Stark, 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 Marvel =
The Ultimate Marvel version of Howard Stark is shown dealing with his second
wife Maria Cerrera suffering 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, his
business rival Zebediah Stane kidnaps and tortures 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. This leads to Tony developing a prototype power-armor and
befriending fellow student James Rhodes. After finding out that bullies were
ordered from an unknown individual to kill Tony, Howard decides to enroll his
son Tony, Rhodes, and Nifara into the Baxter Building, where Obadiah Stane was
also enrolled. Shortly after their arrival, Tony and Howard witness Obadiah
murdering a pair of students and make it look like an accident. Howard sees Tony
make his first Iron Man armor with the intent to punish Obadiah.
Sometime later, Howard was arrested based on planted evidence for Zebediah's
murder. While the elder Stark was wrongly imprisoned for Zebediah's
murder, his teenage son is forced to run Stark Enterprises. When Obadiah drugs a
prison guard with a "hypnotizing bio-drug", the guard tries to kill
Howard but fails. Howard is shot in the process and ends up in ICU.
While his son Tony is trying to fix all of his current problems, Howard
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 thinks Loni is the mastermind behind the scenes trying to
kill them all. Tony, Rhodes, Nifara, Howard, and Obadiah set off to Utah to
find Loni. They arrive and their chopper explodes injuring Rhodes. Obadiah falls
off a cliff, but Tony catches him as terrorists arrive on the scene. Tony
flees, but follows them as they take Obadiah to Loni Stark and their hideout.
Tony breaks into the compound and Loni floods it with poison gas trying to kill
him, abandoning Obadiah. Tony saves Obadiah, but Howard and Nifara are taken
captive by Loni. After Loni kills Nifara, she confesses to Howard that all
she ever wanted was power, hence why she married Howard, divorced him, remarried
with Zebediah, had Obadiah, and later had Zebediah killed.
Tony 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 Iron Man 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.
This version 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 the Ultimate version of Howard Stark is told in Ultimate
Comics: Iron Man. The retconned version is the founder of Stark Enterprises but
sought help from Chinese conglomerate Mandarin International. While his son
Tony Stark is trying to start a company of his own along with his girlfriend
Josie Gardner, Howard continually tries to persuade to take his place as the CEO
which he eventually does after Josie's death.
= 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 that reality's version of 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 Walter Stark appears in the
animated series Iron Man, voiced by Neil Ross in season one and by Peter Renaday
in season two. Howard Stark appears in Iron Man:
Armored Adventures, voiced by Fred Henderson. In the series, Howard is
supposedly killed in the airplane crash but was eventually revealed to have been
abducted by the Mandarin because his company had uncovered what they supposed
to be a Chinese temple on American soil, which turned out to be a tomb for one of
the Mandarin's Makluan Rings; Stark was supposed to help Mandarin in recovering
the other nine rings from across the world. Near the end of the series, Stark
is found and freed by his son Tony, whom he knows to be Iron Man, and proves
instrumental in thwarting the Makluan invasion of Earth and reforming
Mandarin. Howard Stark is mentioned and is seen in
a photo in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes episode "Living
Legend". Captain America mentioned to Iron Man that he knew Howard Stark back
in World War II. Howard Stark appears briefly in a
magazine cover along with Tony Stark and Obadiah Stane in the introduction
sequence of Marvel Anime: Iron Man. Howard Stark is featured in Avengers
Assemble, originally voiced by Stephen Collins but later dubbed over by Troy
Baker for re-airings. In "The Arsenal," Howard Stark is mentioned to have built
Arsenal as his greatest invention. In "Thanos Rising," Howard Stark was seen
in a hologram transmission asking if he would enjoy Arsenal since he created
Arsenal to protect him. Howard Stark's hologram states that Arsenal can absorb
anything into an alternate dimension with a chance to self-destruct. Of
course some of Howard Stark's hologram messages have corrupted over the time as
Arsenal revealed to Iron Man. Dominic Cooper reprises his role as
Howard Stark from Captain America: The First Avenger in the TV series Agent
Carter. He enlists Peggy Carter to help him find out who has been framing him
for selling weapons on the black market while he goes incognito. Howard even
enlists his butler Edwin Jarvis to help Peggy in her mission. Peggy and Edwin
discover that the culprits are the mysterious organization Leviathan.
Unbeknownst to Peggy, Jarvis has been secretly keeping Howard Stark posted on
the happenings in their mission. = Film =
Howard Stark appears in the 2007 animated direct-to-video film The
Invincible Iron Man, voiced by John McCook.
Howard Stark is shown in the live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe movie series
produced by Marvel Studios. While portrayed by Gerard Sanders in a
brief memorial slideshow presentation in the beginning of Iron Man, Howard is
played by John Slattery in Iron Man 2 where it is revealed that he is one of
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s co-founders. Having placed a message for his son in a film
reel, Howard gives Tony closure in their strained relationship while providing
him a diorama of the 1974 Stark Expo to perfect the Arc Reactor.
In Captain America: The First Avenger, Dominic Cooper portrayed a younger
version of Howard Stark who aided in the Super Soldier Project and then the
Strategic Scientific Reserve. His contributions include providing Captain
America with both his costume and his shield. After the Hydra battleship that
Captain America raided crashed in the ocean, Howard made attempts to find him
before his expeditions led him to the Tesseract. In the Marvel One-Shot film
Agent Carter, Peggy Carter helps Howard in the formation of S.H.I.E.L.D.
In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it is heavily implied that the car crash
that killed Howard and his wife was caused by Hydra infiltrators within
S.H.I.E.L.D. John Slattery reprises his role in a
flashback as Howard Stark in Ant-Man. In the 80s, he witnesses Hank announce his
resignation from S.H.I.E.L.D. after discovering they were trying to
replicate Pym's formula for Pym Particles. While objective of Pym's
actions, he felt that Mitchell Carson did deserve to be punched by Hank
following Mitchell's cruel and inappropriate comment on Hank's wife.
In Iron Man: Rise of Technovore, Tony Stark named a satellite after his father
called the Howard Satellite. = Video games =
Howard Stark is featured in the game Captain America: Super Soldier, voiced
by Liam O'Brien. Howard Stark appears in Lego Marvel
Super Heroes. References
External links Howard Stark at the Marvel Universe wiki
Howard Stark at the Internet Movie Database
Howard Stark at the Comic Book DB