Iron Man #28 (1970)

1st slab to sport the label

Watched the latest Agent Carter episode last night.  Love, love, love Howard Stark.  Loved him in the first Cap movie, loved him in the Agent Carter short, love what they've been doing with him in the comics.  As a fan of Marvel stories based in WWII and the 1950s, he's one of my favorite characters.  He's grown from just being part of Iron Man's back story to being one of the most important characters in Marvel's history, up there with Nick Fury and Captain America.  He was portrayed by Gerard Sanders in Iron Man 1, Dominic Cooper in Cap 1, then again in the Agent Carter short and TV series.  John Slattery played him in Iron Man 2.  He'll appear yet again this summer in "Ant-Man", in what will be his fourth big-screen appearance.

In the comics, he first appeared in a one-panel flashback in Iron Man #28.  CGC notes it on the label now because I requested it on a submission form last year.  His next appearance isn't until 7 years later, in Iron Man #104, where he is pictured in a portrait hanging in Tony Stark's house.  In the next issue, he appears in a hallucination.  He appears in Avengers Annual 9 in 1979, but I'm not sure how - my guess is it's a flashback image having to do with some robots the Avengers were fighting.

Iron Man #28, 1970

2nd appearance (Iron Man #104, 1977)

3rd appearance (Iron Man #105, 1977)

5th appearance (New Warriors #4, 1990)

It is established that he had an adventurous past in what is his first significant story role in my opinion, in the 22-page "A Soldier's Story" from 1990's Captain America Annual #9.  This relates a Howling Commandos mission to save Howard and his wife Maria from the Red Skull during World War II.  This story also establishes that Howard Stark met Captain America during World War II.  I could only find an image of Howard punching out a Nazi thug, but this issue should have been on my pull list as a young collector.  I'm going to dig it out to read first chance I get!

Captain America Annual #9, 1990

Attached are images from some of Howard's early appearances, plus the cover of Operation: SIN #1 which came out just this month.  Here's a good article about his film and comic appearances.

A recent appearance