As you’re probably familiar with from the MCU movies, Tony Stark is the son of Howard Stark, right? Well, not quite.
In the comics, it was revealed a few years back that Iron Man was only adopted by Howard and Maria Stark. For a while there, he didn’t know who his biological parents were. After meeting his mother in a previous run, however, Invincible Iron Man #600 has now revealed the identity of Tony’s father.
First off, Tony’s previously-introduced mother is Amanda Armstrong, who was a pop star in her younger days and ended up being contracted by S.H.I.E.L.D. to work for them. Her global tours were the perfect cover for her to carry out her secret agent missions – hide in plain sight and all that. All Tony knew is that she gave her son up for adoption when she became pregnant from a fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who’d died. In the new comic, though, he finally learns his name and the full history between his mother and father.
It’s revealed that Tony’s dad is named Jude, who was actually a double agent for HYDRA, siphoning off key information from S.H.I.E.L.D. to his evil overlords. When she discovered this, Amanda killed him. Naturally, though, she thought it best to leave that and the HYDRA part out when telling Tony about his pa. Unfortunately, the past has now come back to haunt her.
In Invincible Iron Man #600, Jude reveals himself to be still alive and commanding an army of HYDRA footsoldiers. The ensuing battle between Iron Man and his villainous father goes in the hero’s favor, but it’s likely that we haven’t seen the last of Jude. In particular, it’s possible writer Dan Slott – formally of Spider-Man fame – will pick up the character and run with him when he takes over in his upcoming Tony Stark: Iron Man comic, which arrives on June 20th.
