Morgan Stark

Morgan Stark is a Marvel Comics character.

Publication history

Morgan Stark first appeared in Tales of Suspense #68 and was created by Don Heck and Al Hartley.

Fictional character biography

Morgan Stark is the son of Edward Stark, the nephew of Howard Stark and Maria Stark, and the cousin of Tony Stark and Arno Stark. Growing up, Morgan Stark believed that his uncle Howard Stark cheated his father Edward Stark out of the Stark company fortune. In truth, Edward asked Howard to be bought out because he didn’t want a part in the family business. Because of that, Morgan has always tried to take Stark Industries from his cousin Tony.

Morgan Stark first appeared in Tales of Suspense vol. 1 #68 (August 1965),^[1] a joint venture issues with Captain America. Having returned from Ireland, Happy Hogan resumes work at Stark Industries, and Tony Stark gets a letter from his cousin Morgan asking for help. What Tony doesn't realize is that his cousin Morgan is under the employ of Count Nefaria who is hoping to use Morgan in a plot to destroy Tony Stark, although Morgan would do it "for free". First traveling to the States to pretend to seek Tony's help, Morgan is introduced to the Stark Industries staff and shown around the building. That night as Tony is on his way to a party, he happens to spy a rocket and decides to investigate it as Iron Man. Finding there's a bomb inside, Iron Man rushed back to Stark Industries and calls a bomb squad as Tony Stark. Arriving on the scene, they find the field empty. This whole episode is part of Morgan's plan, and Morgan (hiding in the bushes) uses a visio-projector to make Stark hallucinate and think he's seeing aliens. Using the device on Tony, Morgan begins to make everyone doubt Tony's sanity, and causes Senator Hamilton Byrd (a skeptic who accused Stark deliberately of being a Communist spy) to begin demanding that Stark be stripped of his defense contracts with the US army for fear that he may become a threat to national security. Believing that he is not insane, Stark returns to the original location where he started seeing aliens as Iron Man and begins scanning the area, unaware that Morgan has followed him there as well. Just before Morgan can blast Iron Man with the visio-projector, real aliens from the planet Froma arrive to investigate Earth. They spot Iron Man and begin attacking him, and during the battle discover Morgan as well. Iron Man fights off the aliens and saves Morgan's life.

Afterwards, Morgan is forced to tell everyone that Stark is sane, and Senator Byrd retracts his demands as well. After everything is sorted out, Morgan is taken back to Europe to get punishment for failing Count Nefaria.

Good as Gone

Iron Man I#327 (Iron Man I#327, 330-331) A physically decrepit Morgan Stark hires the mercenary team Stockpile, composed of Joust (Boudica Gorman), Unicorn (3rd, Aaidan Blomfield), Calico (Pania Panapa), Sunstreak (Andrea Roark) and Brass (construct, under the control of Morgan Stark) to seize control of Tony Stark's Armory. Iron Man and War Machine succeed in defeating Stockpile, but not before destroying Brass and causing Morgan Stark to suffer traumatic sensory feedback. Fearing death, Morgan Stark links with every suit currently stored in the armory and uses them to attempt to destroy Iron Man, as War Machine was occupied getting Joust and Sunstreak to a safe location for medical treatment, Unicorn has escaped on his own. As Morgan Stark was about to achieve his goal of killing Iron Man, he chooses to unmask him first, revealing the face of the younger Tony Stark that the Avengers has only recently retrieved from an earlier alternate timeline. The pause gave Tony enough time to override Morgan's link to the suits, cutting his control of them and setting them to self-destruct. Morgan Stark dies on the floor of his Helicon facility.

Dark Reign

During the Dark Reign storyline, Morgan Stark (posing as his renegade cousin "Tony Stark") turns up alive where he was the CEO of Stark Solutions. Morgan (accidentally) converted Ultimo into an "Ultimo Virus" capable of bestowing enhanced strength, speed, regeneration, and optic blast abilities to its victims. It is revealed that the virus was engineered from Ultimo himself by the Human Engineering Life Laboratories, which was acting on the commission of the Stark Solutions corporation, which itself had been contracted by H.A.M.M.E.R. to study Ultimo's potential as a weapon. Having destroyed Ultimo's body, War Machine sets out to destroy the brain, which had been split up into three discrete units, stored at separate locations. Two of the units are destroyed by War Machine's allies, but the third is ingested (in the form of a crystalline liquid) turns out to be Morgan Stark. Stark is transformed by the liquid into a giant, humanoid robot, a quicksilver-like attempt at being Ultimo, and possessed of the Doomsday Machine's programming to destroy all life, and fights War Machine. However, the third component is destroyed when Rhodes uses Ultimo's own weapons technology - which he obtained when he destroyed the robot's body - against it. Stark then self-destructs, scattering Ultimo's liquid body all over the landscape, where it soon merges with the plant life. It was Ultimo's/Morgan's plan to convert all vegetation on Earth into metal, which would suffocate all life within two weeks. Rhodes was able to render Ultimo docile by forcing the Iron Patriot into showing his memories of his happiest moments. However, Norman Osborn (who was operating as Iron Patriot at the time) then took advantage of this to take Ultimo for himself. Ultimo, having had his core programming erased, turned into a giant, floating ball of liquid metal that was essentially awaiting instructions. Morgan was ejected from the Ultimosphere and hasn't been found after the Ultimosphere was defeated.^[2]

Other versions

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Universe, Morgan Stark was first seen in Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, again as Tony Stark's cousin (although not as villainous as his Mainstream Marvel version) where the story is depicted on an alternate version of Earth-1610. He was present when he and Tony were taken hostage along with other civilians by Guatemalan guerrilla terrorists run by the "Red Devil" (Jesus Hayek). Their captors demanded Stark's technology in exchange for the hostages' freedom. They killed Morgan when Tony refused to cooperate, much to Tony's shock. Pretending to acquiesce, Stark built makeshift armor, including his first Repulsar Ray, and defeated the terrorists with it, freeing the hostages.^[3]

In other media

Video games

• Morgan Stark is a boss in The Invincible Iron Man for the Game Boy Advance.

References

1. ↑ Tales of Suspense # 68
2. ↑ War Machine #6-12
3. ↑ Ultimate Marvel Team Up #5

External links

• Morgan Stark at Marvel.com
• Morgan Stark at Marvel Wiki
• Morgan Stark at Comic Vine
• Morgan Stark at Ironmanarmory.com