Iron Man 2 For the continuity geeks: Howard/Tony Stark's age?

[fixxxer]

Legitimate sources (read: the internet) confirm that Tony Stark was 42 at the time of the Battle of NY. So lets say he was born in 1970.

Assuming Howard Stark was 25 during the events of Captain America: The First Avenger, that would mean he was born in 1917, which would make him 53 when Tony was born. Kind of an old pops, but not unreasonably so.

Howard Stark's archival video has Tony looking around 6-8, so lets put him at 7.

1917: Howard Stark born
1942: 25 y.o. Howard Stark depicted in CA:TFA
1970: Tony Stark born (Howard = 53 y.o.)
1977: 60 y.o. Howard Stark on film
2008: "I am Iron Man"
2012: 42 y.o. Tony Stark battles aliens with an assist from a few buddies

Plenty of folks bring up Howard Stark's age as a 'continuity error', but the timeline above looks about right to me. Also, do we know when Howard Stark died?

 

[Duran Man]

I think Howard Stark died in 1991.

 

[fixxxer]

I think Howard Stark died in 1991.

Interesting. So that would make Tony 21 at the time of Howard Stark's death? Does that contradict anything else from the movie?

 

[A Necessary Evil]

I don't think so. Iron Man 2 takes place 6 months after Iron Man, which means that it's either early 2009 or september of 2008, and there's a comment Tony makes in IM2 that enforces stark has been dead for 20 years ("Been dead for 20 years and you're still taking me to school). Therefore, Howard Stark died either in 1988, or 1989, depending on wether IM2 takes place in 2008/2009.

 

[Silvermoon]

Someone is free to correct me if I'm wrong.

The archival footage of Howard in IM2 that has little Tony in the background I believe is supposed to be from 1974 (I'm at work so can't check the film myself, but I want to say there's a clapper board used that has this year on it?) - not 1977 - so Tony would've been 4-ish (granted, the kid playing him is probably older than that...but given that it's such a short scene, I think that can be forgiven).

We do know Tony was born in 1970 or 1971 - the year on his SHIELD file from the Captain America deleted scene where Steve is looking at his file in Avengers has a 197? year but I can't recall if you can tell if it's a 0 or a 1 on the end (like I said, I'm not at home and so I can't check).

Howard's file in the same deleted scene also has his birth-year, which is listed as 1917 - so you're right on that one. I believe that file also has his death year which is listed as 1991 (same as the newspaper in the 'award' montage from the beginning of the first Iron Man movie)

edit: I know this is a fan made timeline, but they really have tried their best to take first information found in the films found in the tie-in materials as a secondary source and tried to make sense of it all:
http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/5395/A-Marvel-Cinematic-Universe-Timeline

 

[NewYorkSpider]

You look at how successful Howard was back in the day, he probably just didn't have time for kids until a later age.

 

[S. Grundy]

And he was probably giving it to a much younger woman.

 

[TheFanGuy]

Howard's and Maria's funeral was on December 16, 1991 according to the newspaper clip in IM1. I believe during that same montage it was said that Tony couldn't inherit Stark Industries until he was 21 which means he wasn't 21 at the time of his parents death.

 

[Hypestyle]

eh.. sliding timeline, as with all things Marvel-ish. I just try to enjoy the story.