ME AND THE HOMIES HATE HOWARD STARK
(In like a /pos way)
A rant about that bastard- and I’m mainly talking 616- but MCU Howard sucks too.
I want to hit Howard Stark with a brick so much I love his character but I actually hate him. He has essentially an opposite arc to Tony.
In WW2 he’s a hero- friends w Captain America and Peggy Carter, helps found SHIELD, etc etc etc. He was a good man then. But then he ages. He gets cynical. Gets angry. I like to think it’s partially due to the results of his assistance in the Manhattan Project. He saw just what he could do- what people could do to other people- and it made him lose all faith in humanity.
He drinks, he loses himself- loses sight of why he became an inventor in the first place. He remains a “great” man, but he is no longer a good one.
Tony on the other hand starts out like how Howard was when he was older.
He’s an alcoholic, he’s full of himself, he has a naive belief in what he is doing but he’s still extremely cynical about the world as a whole (think about when he mentions the Big Stick stuff in IM1).
But then He nearly dies and is saved by one person. From then on, he realizes the damage he’s done and dedicates his life to undoing said damage. Tony learns empathy whereas Howard lost it.
It’s why seeing Howard- especially young Howard- makes me GRIEVE and it makes me ANGRY. He WAS a good man. And the world lost a good man. He became a terrible father and Tony his entire life was told how incredible of a man his father was- how much he did for the people- how many people he saved- the good he did And his father never even told him he loved him. The only “good” thing Howard Stark ever did for Tony was leave him his fortune. No love. No warmth. Just spite, hateful words and disregard. Not even a trace of that “good man”.
Another note-
Tony IS ADOPTED.
Howard and Maria’s first son was Arno Stark. Before he was born, it was discovered that he was unlikely to survive, so Howard reached out to anyone or anything that may have had an answer. And aliens did. But these aliens had a plan- a kill switch they could activate when Arno reached maturity. So, when Arno was born sickly and weak, Howard essentially left him in an Iron Lung to live out the rest of his life hidden from the world. He and Maria didn’t visit. Didn’t keep contact. Just left him in hospital care. Alone. Howard and Maria then adopted Tony to cover up the “failed pregnancy”. Quite literally using Tony as a decoy. WHICH COMES BACK TO BITE HIS ASS LATER AND ALMOST KILLS HIM!!!!!!!
And? What makes it so ow ow pain?? Tony still looks like Howard. People comment on it all the time. Tony can’t even escape the visage of the man who not only was an abusive asshole, but who wasn’t even his biological father. And Tony struggles with that hardddd.
AND MCU HOWARDDDD HEYYYYY BUDDYYYYYYY DONT THINK I FORGOT ABOUT YOU
Being absent is still not okay!!!! You were still hyper critical of Tony in ways he didn’t deserve!!! Just because you left him a notebook and a video saying you loved him doesn’t make up for the twenty one years of you never having said it!!!!!
