If you pause the movie Iron Man 2 at a certain point, you can discover an exciting detail.
What was Howard Stark researching? If you pause the movie Iron Man 2 exactly at 1:13:55, you can see that Tony Stark’s father, Howard Stark, was already researching an Infinity Stone, albeit without knowing it. The still image shows Tony Stark flipping through his father’s notes. There are notes about the Tesseract, in which the Space Stone is located.
Howard Stark was dealing with the cube, could not detect the Space Stone within it, but realized that it was something more complex than a simple cube. Howard Stark also understood that the Tesseract was a sort of container.
However, he could not progress further, which is why he ultimately passed his research on to his son. Tony Stark was able to create a new element with the Tesseract and use it for his suits.
Here you can watch the trailer for Iron Man 2:
Howard Stark discovers the Tesseract
How did Howard Stark obtain the Tesseract? Captain America crashes with a plane powered by the Tesseract at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger in the North Atlantic. Howard Stark is involved in the search for Steve Rogers. Although the superhero is not found, the Tesseract is discovered on the seabed.
It is brought to the USA by Howard Stark, and thus he begins his research on it. However, Howard Stark does not know that the Space Stone is inside it. He wants to use it as an energy source and thus lays the foundation for its further use in the MCU.
Without Howard Stark’s recovery, the Tesseract likely would not have fallen into the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D. Thus, Tony Stark’s father is indirectly the trigger for Loki being able to steal it in the movie The Avengers and for the Avengers to be formed at all.
Tony Stark’s father is thus an important key figure within the MCU. If you are planning another rewatch of the Marvel series because of this detail, we have the perfect article for you on MeinMMO: MCU: Order – All movies and series from Marvel at a glance
