“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. There's a ceiling for certain types of people based on how much money your parents have, your social class, your religion, your sex. And the only way to break through that ceiling sometimes is to lie, so that's my natural instinct to lie. I shouldn't have lied to you. For that, trust me, I am truly sorry.”
―Howard Stark
Howard Stark is a Marvel Comics character who is Tony Stark's father as well as the founder of Stark Industries. He has been an influential figure in the Marvel Universe's history.
Howard Stark was created by Archie Goodwin and Don Heck.
Before Tony is awarded for his work, some pictures of Howard can be seen such as: Howard working with his business partner Obadiah Stane and a newspaper clipping reporting his and his wife's death. Obadiah Stane also mentions that Howard helped in the creation of the atomic bomb.
Iron Man 2
“Tony, you are too young to understand this right now so I thought I would put it on film for you. I built this for you, and some day you'll realize that it represents a whole lot more than just people's inventions. It represents my life's work. This is the key to the future. I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world. What is, and always will be, my greatest creation... is you”
―Howard Stark
While Nick Fury and Tony talked at Randy's Donuts, Fury reveals to Tony that Howard was one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s founders. Fury gives Tony a trunk that belonged to Howard. Inside the trunk, Tony finds several items, including a notebook with data about the Tesseract and two Captain America comic books.
Later, Tony sees a video of his father talking about the discovery of a new element that he hadn't been able to synthesize. At the end of the video, Howard says that Tony is and always will be his greatest creation.
Captain America: The First Avenger
A young Howard Stark in 1943
In 1943, a young Howard Stark presents a new hover car at the Stark Expo to the audience and is later seen when Steve Rogers is chosen to be the candidate for the Super Soldier Serum program. Howard activates the chamber that turns Rogers into Captain America. Following the success, Abraham Erskine is killed by an assassin. Several days later, Stark gives Rogers a shield made purely out of vibranium, which can be used during battle. Once Red Skull is defeated, Steve flies the aircraft into the ocean that is full of bombs on board and while the rest of the world believes Rogers is dead, Stark is hesitant to believe the news. Howard spends years looking for Rogers and locates the Tesseract at the bottom of the ocean.
After escaping from the Strike team, Natasha and Steve arrive at Camp Lehigh. There they discover that S.H.I.E.L.D. originated in that place. In that, it is revealed that Arnim Zola even still alive thanks to technology.
Steve asks him how he came to USA and Zola reveals that thanks to an initiative of Howard Stark, which consisted in recruiting repentant Nazi scientists. Arnim Zola reveals to Rogers that HYDRA was involved in the death of Howard Stark and his wife, Maria.
Months after the war ended, Howard is called by Congress to testify because the government believed he was selling weapons to enemies. One night he contacts Peggy asking her to help him recover his stolen inventions and clear his name. After their meeting, Howard went to Europe to reclaim some of his inventions that were already available on the black market.
Stark returned to the United States with the help of smugglers. As he had nowhere to stay, Peggy hides him in the Griffith Hotel. Here Stark has many romances with tenants. Later, he gives Carter a new mission: recover the Blitzkrieg Button from the SSR. When Carter learns that is not a weapon but a container of Steve Rogers's blood, Peggy hits Stark for lying to her. The next morning, Jarvis scolded Stark for having lied to Peggy since this could have cost him his friendship with her.
Days later, decides to surrender after learning that someone had used Item 17. He reveals to SSR agents that General McGinnis had stolen Midnight Oil with the purpose to use it in Russian soldiers. As they did not find Ivchenko, Stark proposes to be used as bait to make the doctor appear. Thompson with Stark gave a press conference to announce that all charges against him had been dropped. Stark annoyed Thompson by making him say a lot of flattering things about him. During the speech, Underwood attempted to kill Stark. However, everything was orchestrated by Ivchenko and Underwood to make Stark moved away from the agents of the SSR. A police offers to take him; Stark accepts, but the police had been brainwashed by Fennhoff.
At the warehouse, Stark asks Fennhoff to kill him, but that was not part of the Doctor's plan. Fennhoff decided to use Stark to deploy Midnight Oil over Times Square and watched as the city was destroyed. Fennhoff hypnotized Stark into believing that he went to rescue Captain America. He regains consciousness before deploying Midnight Oil over Times Square. As reward, Stark give Carter one of his houses to stay in. He also began a legal battle with the United States Government to recover and destroy his inventions.
In 1989, Howard Stark with Peggy Carter and Mitchell Carson were in a meeting at the Triskelion when Hank Pym broke into the room and demanded an explanation of why S.H.I.E.L.D. tried to replicate its formula. Stark said that his invention was a good for humanity and should not be hidden. Pym then submitted his resignation which he did not formally accepted. He saw how Carson insulted Pym which caused the scientist hit Carson against the desk. Carson wanted Pym to be arrested, but Stark advised not to fight against him. He knew that Hank was not a threat to S.H.I.E.L.D., unless they make him one.
When Stark, Cap, and Barnes arrive to Siberia, Zemo shows footage of Howard and his wife being murdered by Bucky Barnes under the control of HYDRA. Towards the beginning of the film, Tony shows an ultra-framing (B.A.R.F) of how he wished he had actually said goodbye to Howard before he died.
When Tony Stark and Steve Rogers travel back in time to Camp Lehigh on April 7, 1970, Howard calls out for Arnim Zola and unknowingly meets his future son Tony and asks if he is lost, after Tony receives the Tesseract. Tony introduces himself as Howard Potts and the two men get chatting, while Tony is shocked to meet his father. Tony learns from his alternate father that his mother Maria is pregnant with him at this time. Tony mentions to Howard that he has a little girl of his own, unknowingly to Howard, his granddaughter. Howard expresses to "Potts" how he is nervous about becoming a father and Tony gives his dad some advice: that he pieced up being a father gradually over time. Thankful for the advice, Howard returns to Edwin Jarvis, his butler, and takes the flowers from Tony. Tony tells Howard that everything is going to be okay and hugs his father one last time, much to Howard's confusion. Tony thanks Howard, then remembers this version has no idea who he really is so thanks him for his service to the United States. As Tony happily smiles one last time at both Howard and Jarvis, he walks off as Howard asks Jarvis if he has ever met this man, to which Jarvis reminds Howard that he has met a lot of people and they leave Camp Lehigh, on their way back to Howard's house.
Similar to Captain America: The First Avenger, Howard was presented to inject Steve Rogers with the Super Soldier Serum. But a HYDRA assassin interrupted their work and wounded Steve Rogers. These leads Peggy Carter to take the serum in his place. He visited Carter at the pub to give her a modified USO costume, as well as her shield made of vibranium. With Zola captured by Carter, Stark uses a Tesseract to build Steve a power armor known as the HYDRA Stomper.
Season 2
Another Howard appears in "What if... Peter Quill Attacked Earth's Mightiest Heroes?", where he and Peggy Carter formed the team of superheroes known as the Avengers to subdue the boy named Peter Quill, in 1988. When the Winter Soldier attempts to assassinate Peter, he hacks to his comm and reach out to him by mentioning his old friend Steve.
California and Paris' Avengers Campuses are set in properties formerly owned by Howard Stark within Orange and Paris respectively. In Disney's California Adventure, a vintage map depicting the "Stark Industries Complex" that preceded the campus is signed by Howard Stark with the quote, "Everything is achievable through technology".
The W.E.B. base is made from a building used by Stark Motors from when Howard developed flying cars. Howard's reserved parking place is located outside of the building alongside the parking for Peggy Carter and Edwin Jarvis. Inside the building, depictions of Howard and references to him can be seen on posters for the Stark 55 flying-car.
Howard is referenced as having been a patron of this bar owned by Jock Lindsey, the aviator to Indiana Jones and member of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers. In the lost & found, keys belonging to Howard are hung along with those of Indiana Jones characters and historic aviators. Iron Man is also referenced in this restaurant where a sign from a plane has a depiction of a man in metal armor that has writing saying, "The Iron Fireman" with the word fire being blotted out so it reads as, "Iron Man".
A section of this attraction's queue is dedicated to teaching the history of Howard Stark. The exhibit goes through the history of Howard's inventions, involvement with Captain America and time at the world's fairs. Amongst these references is a photograph showing him and Walt Disney together, making plans for EPCOT.
Trivia
Howard Stark, like many other characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was played by different actors in different movies. The others are Thanos, Fandral, Bruce Banner, James Rhodes, and Tina Minoru.
However Howard Stark is the only one of these characters to be portrayed by different actors due to different time periods and the character having to fit those specific years those scenes are set. The other characters were recast due to either filming conflicts or had issues on set.
Howard Stark's appearance and personality in Iron Man 2 were based on Walt Disney. His eccentric billionaire aviator persona in Captain America: The First Avenger was inspired by Howard Hughes.
In the comics, Howard and Maria Stark adopted Tony, but in the MCU, they were his biological parents.
His What If...? counterparts are voiced by the two actors that played him at different life stages in live action. (Dominic Cooper voices the young adult version, while John Slattery voices the older version.)
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