Howard Anthony Walter Stark was an inventor, scientist, engineer, businessman and movie director. The founder of Stark Industries, Stark worked on various government projects during World War II, including the Manhattan Project and Project Rebirth, the latter of which resulted in using the Super Soldier Serum to create Captain America. Presenting Rogers with his vibranium shield, Stark aided him, as well as the United States Army and the Strategic Scientific Reserve, in the fight against HYDRA.
Following the end of World War II, Stark was framed for distributing weapons to enemies of the United States. He put his friend Peggy Carter in charge of the effort of finding proof of his innocence. Eventually, his name was cleared when it was proved that Johann Fennhoff was framing Stark in an attempt to gain revenge for the Battle of Finow. He later founded Stark Pictures while assisting Carter research and understand Zero Matter, and following the dissolution of the Strategic Scientific Reserve, co-founded S.H.I.E.L.D. along with Carter to be its successor.
Later in life, Stark married a woman named Maria Johnson and had a son, Tony. He also co-developed the Arc Reactor with Anton Vanko and worked alongside Hank Pym during the Cold War. Eventually, Stark would push his son away, but did care for Tony and had high hopes that he would change the world. After managing to recreate the Super Soldier Serum, Stark and his wife were targeted by HYDRA and assassinated by the Winter Soldier. Posthumously, Howard became a grandfather after his son married Loki Laufeyson and had four daughters; Sophia, Lily, Jane, and Renesmee Stark.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Poor Upbringing[]
- "I grew up on the Lower East Side. My father sold fruit. My mother sewed shirtwaists for a factory. Let me tell you, you don't get to climb the American ladder without picking up some bad habits on the way."
- ―Howard Stark to Peggy Carter
Howard Stark was born on Wednesday, August 15, 1917 in Richford, New York to a father who sold fruit and a mother who sewed shirtwaists for livings. Whilst growing up in the Lower East Side of New York City, he became good friends with Joseph Manfredi. Growing up, he learned that society puts limits to success based on ones' economic status or gender, so he became good at lying to get what he needed. He became an industrial genius, multi-millionaire, inventor, and businessman, attending multiple international conferences, such as the one where he met Abraham Erskine in Geneva, Switzerland, in May 1934.
Fatherhood[]
Howard, his wife, Maria, and their infant son, Anthony.
Howard, despite being a womanizer in his youth, eventually settled with a young woman named Maria Elizabeth Johnson and together they had a son, Anthony Edward Stark, who was hailed as a child prodigy. However, Tony, as his son preferred to be called, didn't feel as close to his father as he was with Maria. Howard was often callous and civil at best to the child, but it was this nonchalant attitude that gave Tony the idea that his father didn't love him.
During Tony's infancy, they were a happy and loving family, with the couple doing their best to make time for Anthony.
Winter Soldier's Attack[]
- "Help my wife... Please... Help... Sergeant Barnes?"
- ―Howard Stark to the Winter Soldier
One Christmas, Stark and his wife prepared to go away for a few days and leave their son alone, although Stark remained highly skeptical about how responsible Tony would be while they were gone. Eventually, Howard managed to recreate the Super Soldier Serum. Unfortunately for him, HYDRA learned about his success.Howard and Maria were killed in an automobile "accident" secretly arranged by Vasily Karpov on Long Island in 1991.
As the Winter Soldier attacked his car and made it crash against a tree, Stark managed to get out and call for help for his wife Maria. He recognized the Winter Soldier as Bucky Barnes but the Winter Soldier attacked Stark by repeatedly punching him in the face with his metal arm and cracked his skull, so Stark would appear to have died by his head crashing into the steering wheel - and then he placed the deceased body back in the seat before strangling the horrified Maria to death and stealing the serum from the car.
Legacy[]
Funeral[]
Directly after Howard's death, his body was escorted in a funeral procession that started with thousands in attendance in Manhattan, and stopped at the White House, nearby his burial ground. Accompanying his casket was a fourteen-man joint service drum corps. At his funeral, Obadiah Stane reflected on his passing, quoting that it was a "truly sad day in history", according to a paper posted by The Washington Post.
It was left to speculation as to who would take over as the CEO of Stark Industries, a position that would initially be filled by Stane as interim president, and later procured by Howard's son Tony Stark.
Tony Stark's Struggles[]
- "There's questions I would've asked him. I would've asked him how he felt about what his company did, if he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch of man we all remember from the newsreels."
- ―Tony Stark
Tony Stark inherited Stark Industries becoming, at age twenty one, the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company.Nearly twenty years after becoming CEO, Stark watched the 1974 message video and examined the Expo model, helping him discover the new element, noting that his father was still teaching him even after being dead for nearly two decades. The new element was the key to a safer and more powerful Arc Reactor, which Stark needed to power the electromagnet protecting his heart without poisoning his blood.
Creating a miniature Particle Accelerator in his basement lab, Stark was able to synthesize the new element, upgrade the design of the Arc Reactor to clean his blood, and create the Mark VI armor. Captain America was happy for his old friend that had a successful life and raised a family, seeing a lot of him in his son. Unfortunately, Rogers would later have to fight Stark after they discovered that Stark's parents were assassinated by Bucky Barnes. After defeating Stark, Rogers gave up his shield when Stark told him that it belongs to Howard as he helped make it, out of sympathy for both Starks. Loki, who was Tony's boyfriend at the time, punched Steve in the face.