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. Tony ran his father's company, started a charity in his mother's name, and later became Iron Man.
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