Howard Stark was a famed engineer and adventurer who once was associated with a team of "Mystery Men" which included the likes of Doc Savage and The Shadow. It would be ironic that his side-project, a small company called Stark Industries, would blossom into a multi-national corporation due to the looming threat of the Second World War.
Anthony Stark was born into a life of privilege. Stark Industries dominant in post-war America, in no small part due to Howard's involvement with the Strategic Science Reserve. Tony received the best of everything - the best education, the latest entertainment, and unparalleled access to the halls of power. When Howard was killed in a car accident in 1994, Tony was well prepared to take control of the family business.
As the new CEO of Stark Industries, Tony realigned the company away from industrial manufacturing, and conventional weapons sales, turning to the lucrative advanced technology in order to boost the companies revenues. When he was kidnapped while on a field test in Afganistan, he returned with the idea of what would become the War Machine project. Using advanced cybernetics developed for the medical field, he constructed a suit of powered armor powered by an advanced power source. The War Machine was to the United States Military's testbed for a new advanced defense force to deal with the rising issue of metahumans.
Stark's world would change during the Battle for New York when an alien force led by Loki staged an invasion over the United Nations Headquarters. Taking his prototype War Machine suit, he joined an ad hoc group of heroes in defending the city and by extension the whole world. His "Iron Man" identity a house-hold world, and finding the idea of heroism intoxicating, Stark accepted an offer to join The Sword, a Covert Action Team under the control of the Office of National Emergency.
In the years after that, Stark became very busy with his newfound hobby. Now part of The Shield, Tony left the day-to-day operations to his advisor Pepper Potts and Dominique Destine. While Pepper tried to reign in his growing eccentricity, while Dominique encouraged him. At the height of his hubris, Tony moved Castle Wyvern brick-by-brick from Scotland and placed on the top of New York's Stark Tower.
When Tony was listed among the missing during the Watchtower Incident, Stark Industries stock plummeted. David Xanatos, the billionaire financier known his aggressive business practices, staged a hostile takeover over the business, adding the tech giant to his own considerable portfolio renaming it Xanatos Enterprises.
When Tony returned he found the company his father founded now in the hands of another. It was devastating but led to the most interesting business relationships. Batman offered Iron Man control of Kord Omnitech, a company that Bruce rescued when its founder Ted Kord was slain.
With a fledgling but promising company in his control and his genius intellect, Tony seeks to build a new Stark Industries and perhaps find a way of reclaiming what Xanatos has stolen.
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