Every MCU Dad - Ranked From Worst To Best

Just one above Odin seems like harsh placements for Howard, but there’s a considerable leap up in fairness.

While Avengers: Endgame does give Tony some closure with his father (as does his earlier BARF re-enactment), it doesn’t entirely wipe the slate clean. It shows that fatherhood is a complex thing, especially for pioneers, and that Howard Stark was under a lot of that pressure.

Unfortunately though, more often than not he would succumb to that pressure while raising Tony. It’s clear the two did not have the most loving relationship, and that’s part of the reason Tony is such a poorly adjusted, chauvinistic manchild at the start of Iron Man 1.

In Iron Man 2, Tony talks in depth about his father’s perceived coldness, and we even see an old home movie of Howard dismissing Tony and drinking. Of course, in the end Howard loved him and the video was something of a will left for Tony to carry on his legacy, but that all relies on Tony turning out alright.

Something which frankly, it doesn’t seem like Howard Stark had that big of a hand in anyway.