In "When We First Met", we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.

My pal Fraser wrote in to ask when Howard Stark first showed up in the comic books.

Here is the fascinating thing about Howard Stark. He means a lot more than just "Tony Stark's dad," because the whole concept of his character redefines Stark Industries in the Marvel Universe.

You see, when Tony Stark was introduced in Tales of Suspense #39, he surely was not a guy who inherited his company from his father. No, Tony was very much the definition of the "self-made" man...

Other early issues made it clear that Tony Stark's company was essentially built around Tony's genius. In other words, Tony had ideas and he then had a company that was based around making those ideas a reality and then selling said ideas to the world...

It was lot like Howard Hughes...Sr. While Howard Hughes Jr. is the more famous of the two Howard Hughes and it was the junior who took his small fortune and made it a gigantic fortune, he still started with a small fortune. It was his father, Howard Hughes Jr., that initially built up the Hughes Tool Company based on an invention that the elder Hughes developed to help drills. He would then lease the part to drilling companies while protecting his patent and that was the basis of he Hughes fortune. That is really how Tony Stark was depicted in the early Iron Man stories.

This also went to other areas, like how Tony Stark was depicted as one of the people behind the formation of SHIELD in Strange Tales #135...

Essentially, the agreed-upon depiction of Tony Stark in the 1960s was that of a self-made man, who built a company around his genius and then this serious-minded icon of industry also decided that he was going to be involved in national security, both in the military and also in the spy game, as well. It is fascinating, really, to see how much Tony embraced the military in those days. Marvel, obviously, was very much an Anti-Communist comic book company for most of the 1960s, but while the other superheroes merely dabbled in Anti-Communist stories, Iron Man LIVED in the world of Anti-Communism. That was, like, practically the hook of his series - "Capitalist fights the Communists."

As we have learned a number of times over the years, though, comic book writers are very prone to coming up with retcons that upend our understanding of characters.

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In 1970's Iron Man #28 (by Archie Goodwin, Don Heck and Johnny Craig), we learn that Tony Stark is actually the son of Howard Stark (a somehow even MORE direct Howard Hughes analogue), who Tony inherited his company from. We learn this through a flashback where we see that Tony and an old girlfriend had a little bit of that Romeo and Juliet action going on...

Here's another interesting facet of Iron Man history. I covered this YEARS ago in the first installment of my "Gonna Change My Way of Thinking" feature (which deals with just general retcons that didn't necessarily contradict anything. If Fraser hadn't specifically asked me about Howard Stark for "When We First Met," I would have done this column as a "Gonna Change My Way of Thinking" feature), but it is odd to note that even after introducing Howard Stark, Iron Man comics glossed over Howard Stark for DECADES (that "Gonna Change My Way of Thinking" was about the general retroactive importance of Tony's parents in his life and specifically about how Jarvis retroactively became a father figure to Tony).

After appearing in 1970, Howard next showed up in a comic book in 1979's Avengers Annual #9 (by Bill Mantlo, Don Newton, Jack Abel and Joe Rubinstein), where the Avengers were fighting against a sleeper robot built by the United States government in case they lost World War II...

The guy who was in charge of the project? Howard Stark!

It turned out that Howard was a genius like his son and he even based the computer's personality on his wife, Maria...

Then, a decade later, we first learned that Howard Stark and Captain America and Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos crossed paths when we learned (in a story by Randall Frenz, Mark Bagley and Mike DeCarlo), that the Red Skull captured Howard and Maria Stark in the war and Captain America and Bucky teamed up with the Howling Commandos to rescue them...

Finally, during a period where Tony Stark was believed to be dead (but was really in a weird sort of cryogenesis), Tony finally dealt with his feelings about his father and Howard Stark has been a relatively common presence in the comics ever since.

He even was eventually revealed to have been part of SHIELD before Tony even "founded" the organization, with Howard working as an agent for the group along with Reed Richards' dad, Nathaniel...

Clearly, since Howard Stark became a major player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he has popped up even more than normal in comics set in the past (plus a plotline involving the Starks adopting young Tony, but that's a tale for another day).

Thanks for the suggestion, Fraser!

If anyone else has a suggestion for a notable comic book first, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!