Howard Stark (Earth-199999)

Howard Stark was an American scientist, inventor, and founder of weapons manufacturer Stark Industries. He was also a critical factor in the creation of the Strategic Scientific Reserve in 1940, and one of the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D. after World War II. He was the husband of Maria Stark and the father of Tony Stark, also known as the hero Iron Man. Howard was an integral figure in 20th-century science, helping create many remarkable innovations—he described himself, "speaking modestly," as "the best mechanical engineer in" the United States. Howard and Maria were killed in a car accident in 1991, when Tony was 21 years old.

Biography

Project Rebirth and the fall of Hydra

By 1940, Howard Stark was a renowned scientist and weapons manufacturer, known for being a charismatic and carefree bachelor besides being an unparalleled technological genius. He was approached by Colonel Chester Phillips of the United States Army, who warned him of the increasingly large threat posed by the Nazi weapons research division known as Hydra. Phillips told him that President Roosevelt was starting a new organization known as the Strategic Scientific Reserve to defend American interests using the country's "greatest minds." The two had this conversation while driving in Stark's car. Stark was largely uninterested, but as if on cue, the two were attacked by Hydra agents in another car nearby—Stark managed to use a rocket launcher equipped to his car to take out the Nazis. Stark changed his mind and agreed to join the SSR, saying that it was "the most fun [he'd] had in months."

Phillips and Stark were soon joined by British spy Peggy Carter and scientist Abraham Erskine in the upper echelons of the SSR establishment, and they established Project Rebirth, an effort to use Erskine's super-soldier serum for good. Stark wanted to call it the "Brooklyn Project" as a way of sticking it to the Manhattan Project. Erskine had previously been forced by Hydra leader Johann Schmidt to use the serum on him, making him much more powerful but horribly disfiguring him in the process. Erskine was adamant that the serum merely amplified what was inside someone, meaning that any potential candidate for its use must be benevolent at heart. While the others narrowed down candidates, Stark was responsible for securing the technology necessary to execute the project to Erskine's specifications. After a rigorous testing process with several strong but ultimately unfit candidates, the choice was Steve Rogers, a small, sickly young man with boundless courage and valor. In June 1943, Rogers was led to an underground facility in his home borough of Brooklyn, where the experiment went perfectly and Rogers emerged dramatically taller, stronger, and faster. Unfortunately, a Hydra spy named Heinz Kruger had infiltrated the proceedings, and shot and killed Dr. Erskine, preventing the serum from ever being recreated. Rogers gave chase, but the spy committed suicide before he could be taken into custody. Kruger had attempted to flee in a submersible vehicle, which the SSR took for examination. Even with his great knowledge, Stark had never seen anything like it—a testament to Hydra's technological advances. With the Hydra threat suddenly much more pressing, President Roosevelt ordered the SSR to take the fight to Hydra in Europe. Phillips pushed Rogers out of the fold, not believing in the ability of one "super soldier" to turn the tide in the war. Instead, having garnered media attention chasing Kruger through the streets, Rogers found himself touring the country as a mascot for war bonds and general patriotism dubbed "Captain America."

That November, Agent Carter contacted Stark to request his help. Rogers had learned that his best friend, Bucky Barnes, was either dead or imprisoned after a battle with Hydra in Italy—if he was alive, he would be at a camp in Krausberg, Austria, too far from the front lines for a feasible rescue mission. Rogers was determined to save Barnes one way or another, and Carter saw fit to help him. Stark agreed to fly them to Krausberg, and air-dropped a parachuting "Captain America" over highly hostile territory. The mission would prove to be a success, as Rogers recovered Barnes and the rest of the living 107th, forcing Schmidt to self-destruct the base and make his getaway. After singlehandedly saving hundreds of lives and dealing a significant blow to Hydra's manufacturing line, there was no more denying "Captain America's" enormous value to the Allied war effort.

The 107th also recovered some Hydra weaponry, which Stark got to work studying. He isolated a glowing, blue, pea-sized catalyst from one weapon, which seemed unremarkable until it violently exploded as he handled it through safety glass. Later, Stark gave Rogers a rundown of potential equipment as he prepared to set out on a mission to take down other Hydra weapons facilities with the newly formed Howling Commandos. Rogers took interest in a vibranium shield, despite the fact that Stark insisted it was only a prototype. Rogers would go on to use the shield as both an irreplaceable defense and a versatile weapon. Stark continued to advise the SSR in the battle against Schmidt; eventually, in 1945, Captain America led an assault on Schmidt's base, defeating him aboard the airship Valkyrie and sending him into space with the Tesseract, the immensely powerful source of Hydra's weaponry. The Tesseract itself burned through the hull of the Valkyrie and fell into the sea below, while Rogers was forced to crash the Valkyrie to keep it from catastrophically harming its target of New York as Schmidt had intended. Stark later scoured the area for Rogers's body, but couldn't find him. He did however find the Tesseract, and took it into the SSR for study.