History
Howard was the father of Tony Stark, his wife Maria's status is unknown. Howard turned over control of the company to Tony when he turned sixteen. Although officially listed as retired, he worked with Tony to build an armor capable of taking on the Sentinels and powerful mutants during the conflict.
They began to work on the Sentinels with Forge and Henry McCoy after being awarded them an exclusive contract. They planned to incorporate a "Vision Project", although there were problems with the control scheme. The two also competed with the widely popular "Sapien Deathmatch" television show.
When Tony investigated a resistance group as Iron Man, Sentinels attacked. One, remotely controlled by Howard, scolded him for getting involved. Howard was secretly plotting against Magneto with Hank Pym.
"Genome bomb" locations were discovered by Tony as Iron Man and the House was notified. However, Howard had programmed the Visions and Sentinels to serve him. He said this had all been part of a plan to make the mutants respect Tony for saving them. Tony would then use that as a chance to directly strike against Magneto. Tony refused to go along. Magneto suddenly appeared and personally dealt with Howard, killing him.[1]