Why Captain America is Howard Stark’s true successor in the MCU (not Iron Man)

Tony Stark used his father’s resources to create Iron Man, but Steve Rogers honored Howard Stark’s legacy with his accomplishments as Captain America.

Tony Stark might have inherited and enhanced Howard Stark’s with his next-generation arc reactors and Iron Man suits, but Steve Rogers truly honored the scientist’s legacy with his achievements as Captain America. Howard Stark was, chronologically, one of the first characters to reveal that the MCU’s version of Earth was far more advanced than real life. He developed impressive technological advancements such as flying cars, Captain America’s vibranium shield, and the first attempts at clean, renewable energy through the Tesseract. Unfortunately, his career was cut short by Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier, on December 16, 1991, but not before creating the world’s two greatest heroes.

Howard Stark watched Steve Rogers go from a sick and skinny recruit to the only perfect Super Soldier who managed to defeat the Red Skull before disappearing into the Arctic Ocean. While searching for his body, Stark found the Tesseract and retrieved it to exploit its unlimited power. This was one of her favorite experiments, one that took her several years to research while raising her son Tony. However, Howard was never able to harness the power of the Tesseract or witness Tony become the richest (known) person in the world, a warmonger, and the savior of the universe.

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The first true step in honoring Howard Stark’s legacy in the MCU was in Iron Man 2, where Howard’s recorded message to Tony gave the hero the last push he needed to create a new element to power Iron Man’s new arc reactor, which was precisely the power source that Howard Stark knew Tony would eventually refine. Tony’s second arc reactor would be the gateway to increasingly complex inventions like augmented reality and nanotechnology, but Steve Rogers used Howard Stark’s experiments much more directly. Howard provided him with both the Super Soldier Serum through Project Rebirth and the vibranium shield, the only two weapons Captain America used to become a legendary hero.

Howard Stark behaved like a cross between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. Like Tony, he used his genius mind to develop ambitious technology and consequently instigate war. However, he used the only known vibranium reserves in the world to make a defensive weapon. He could have planned for Captain America to be much more aggressive, but he still shared Cap’s willingness to fight through preventive measures rather than Tony’s trademark hostility. Additionally, Captain America kept Howard Stark’s inventions to the end, unlike Tony, who constantly manufactured his weapons in his own distinctive style.

It’s not like Steve Rogers to forget Howard Stark after Captain America the First Avenger. Of course, Tony had a naturally stronger bond with his father after several years of regret over his death and the mission was much more important, but Steve Rogers might have shown a bit of appreciation from afar when he saw Howard Stark in 1970 during Avengers Endgametime heist. Howard Stark was key to the birth of Iron Man and Captain America – and thus many other heroes like War Machine and his own executioner, the Winter Soldier – but only Captain America preserved his military legacy.

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