“Time. Space. Reality. There are countless stories throughout this Multiverse of Marvels. And countless choices as well. A choice made on one world in one universe can have multiple ramifications. And I have observed them all for I am The Watcher. Case in point: Howard Stark…
It’s the 1970s and Howard Stark is hard at work on his latest project, a new element. Although Howard has all the ideas in place to create it, he finds that he is limited by the technology of his time…but wait, is Howard trying again? This isn’t how it’s supposed to go…’
Fifteen years later the doors to a Shield facility open to an Iron Man suit rocketing in from space. A Shield agent looks on and says, “alrighty Mr. Stark, how’s your new, what did you call it? Silver Centurion armor holding up?” Iron Man lifts his helmet up to reveal an aged Howard Stark inside. “She’s really a beauty isn’t she? I promise, this is the last one I’m making.”
As the two walk further into the facility, Howard enters a machine that slowly takes each piece of armor off of his body. The two walk up to a debriefing room where an elderly Peggy Carter is waiting. “How’s it going, Peggy? No warm welcome for your man in the iron mask I see,” says Howard. “Of course not, and not to correct you for the upteenth time, but it is Director Carter to you.”
As the two start to reminisce over their time in the war, remembering their friend Steve Rogers, an alarm goes off and Peggy says, “Howard, go get back into that tin can of yours, it sounds like you and your friends may need to kick some more ass.” “Well ‘Director,’ not to correct you for the… upteenth time, but we call ourselves The Ultimates.”
Cut away to a jungle where a man is running. “You’ll never get away, Klaue, we’ve got you,” a man in a panther suit exclaims. Ulysses Klaue then flies into the air as Ant-Man appears before him, “I’m getting too old for this, T’Chaka. Any chance you can stop these guys before calling in us fogies?” “Speak for yourself, Hank, when you have a twenty-one year old son you have to learn to keep up,” says Howard as he flies in.
The three heroes arrive back at their plane with Klaue, regrouping with their pilot, Edwin Jarvis and newest recruit, Maria Rambeau, Captain Marvel. As the crew begin to fly back to Shield, a mysterious call comes through in the plane’s overhead speaker. “Howard? Howard, can you hear me? It’s Director Carter… if you get this… they… trust… one… Hydra.” As the sound goes dead, Howard and the rest of The Ultimates look at one another quietly, watching the plane land on the runway. As The Ultimates leave the plane, Howard tells a Shield ground advisor that he is going to check on Peggy. as he attempts to fly away a hangar door opens. Out walks Alexander Pierce, a high ranking official within Shield. “Thank goodness you have returned… it all happened so fast… Howard… Hank… I’m so sorry, Director Carter has been killed.”
The next week Howard attends the funeral. As Peggy’s family gives their eulogies, he thinks back on Peggy’s message. Before the end of the ceremony, Howard is flying away in his armor, “Hank, can you hear me? Gather The Ultimates, we have work to do.”
As the team regroups in a secret Wakandan embassy, they start discussing Peggy’s last message. Clearly something big went down, and Shield is covering it up for some reason. Hank and Maria start investigating Peggy’s flight records to see if she had been on any unexpected missions lately, but everything appears normal except for her last stop, at a seemingly random military base. Howard takes one look at the base and sets course, revealing that this was the facility where Peggy and he first met Steve Rogers.
As the plane lands, Howard receives a call from Pierce. He rejects the call, following The Ultimates into the base. T’Chaka notices that the entire base is outdated except for one building that looks newer. Hank tries to open the door by shrinking into the control panel but fails, leading to Maria blasting it open with her powers. Inside they find an elevator that takes them to a bottom floor full of computers. Howard starts clicking buttons and the computer’s wake up, revealing Arnim Zola. Zola begins speaking about his grand plans to overtake Shield from the inside as T’Chaka discovers Hydra symbols on some of the technology.
The Ultimates return to ground level where they regroup on the plane to discuss what they can do to take down the Hydra cells within Shield. Jarvis runs out from the cockpit yelling, “we’ve got company.” The Ultimates come outside to an army of Shield agents with Pierce on a loudspeaker saying, “The Ultimates have committed seditious acts against the United States. This act of war is the exact reason we were weary of conspiring with a Wakandan and a Skrull sympathizer. If you do not stand down, we will kill you all.” Maria begins to power up but then Howard walks up to the front of the pack saying, “ok guys, you got us,” before falling to his knees.
The team sits in individual holding cells as Pierce walks up to Howard. “Oh how the mighty have fallen, you couldn’t just leave it alone, could you?” Hank starts yelling from across the room as Pierce walks out. As The Ultimates sit in silence, a small explosion can be heard outside the room. Before they know it, Wakandan soldiers storm in, freeing The Ultimates and bowing to their king. As the team boards a Wakandan plane, Howard steps back. “Guys, you need to go and come up with a contingency plan, I’ll be in contact.” Suddenly, the briefcase he is holding opens up into an Iron Man suit, morphing over Howard’s body. He flies away.
Days later the news is reporting a brewing war, possibly the next world war, as Shield spreads lies about The Ultimates and by extension, the Wakandans. At this point it is just T’Chaka and Hank left as they reveal that Maria disappeared shortly after they arrived. Hank expresses gratitude that T’Chaka also picked up his daughter but laments the state of the world. Meanwhile, Howard and Jarvis are lying low in a hotel room when Howard makes a discovery. “You know, Jarvis? Part of this whole hero job may be getting to be too much for me. But, I said it before and I will say it again, having a twenty-one year old son has kept me feeling young. It’s also kept me on my toes… like it or not, Tony Stark may have just ended Hydra’s reign of terror for the last time.”
T’Chaka’s young son runs in the room with his new friend, Hope. “Father, my King… the men you were expecting have arrived… and they have a lot of weapons… I’m… scared.” T’Chaka tells his son that he will take care of it as he and Hank travel to the Wakandan borders to see an army of Shield agents and U.S soldiers standing amongst tanks and other large weapons. The voice of Pierce comes on a speaker, “King T’Chaka, you have performed seditious acts against the U.S, a country to which you had sworn allegiance to. You are harboring a fugitive and have let one of the most dangerous humans on the earth escape my custody. I understand your technology is vast, but thankfully Stark left behind some toys when he went off with your lot.” All of the soldier’s weapons start to glow with energy as a modified Iron Man suit flies down from above revealing a holographic face in the abdomen. “Remember me? Arnim Zola! Look, I finally have a body again after all these years.” The two sides jump into battle with T’Chaka taking on Zola, and Hank using a modified, Wakandan Ant-Man suit to try and disable as many Stark weapons as possible.
The battle rages and it clearly is a war of attrition until an explosion goes off in the south and a Skrull ship flies in. “Alexander Pierce, the Skrulls have grown weary of those who wish to commit genocide. If you wish to continue this battle, Wakanda is not your only enemy,” says Captain Marvel as she flies in with her army.
Suddenly, Captain Marvel falls to the floor, screaming. The Skrulls and Wakandans alike are shocked to see someone so powerful in so much pain as Arnim Zola returns to the fight with a briefcase. “In my travels, I have encountered many artifacts, one of which has gone by many names, such as the Tesseract, but I like to call it my Cosmic Cube.” Captain Marvel then disappears into a portal as Zola laughs. The cube starts to shake and then goes dormant, “well I was hoping this would work for more than one shot, but that’s what you get when you play with the gods.”
The battle continues to rage on with the Skrulls providing substantial assistance; however, the Shield forces appear to be nonstop. As the Wakandan forces consider retreating, Shoot to Thrill by AC/DC starts blasting out of nowhere. “My son loves this song, I hope you all do too!” Howard flies in, landing in a heroic pose and quickly presses a button on his suit. Suddenly, all of the Stark powered weapons power down. “It’s over Pierce, Hydra has lost. See, my son can kind of be a pain in my ass, but he has taught me to always stay on my toes. Because of that, I never go anywhere without mapping out my surroundings first. You probably shouldn’t keep your secrets all under one roof. Come on out, old friend.” From the crown of Wakandans walks out Bucky Barns.
Flash back a couple of days. Howard discovers a secret log from his map of the secret Hydra base that housed Arnim Zola. As he digs deeper he learns of the mysterious Winter Soldier, a Hydra weapon that never seems to age. Following this trail while Hydra forces are distracted with the coming war, he locates and frees Bucky, secretly bringing him to Wakanda where King T’Chaka has his scientists work on deprogramming his mind control and restoring his memories.
“Do you think this changes anything?” Screams Arnim Zola, who flies in with his suit malfunctioning. “Seems like you are relying on my technology too, Zola.” Stark prepares a repulsor blast but Bucky walks up and puts his arm on Stark’s shoulder, “I’ve spent enough time watching death and destruction at my hands and the hands of others. Let’s take these guys down the right way.”
With the army lacking any of their enhanced weapons, the Wakandans and Skrulls easily push back their forces ending that day’s conflict. In the coming days, Alexander Pierce is apprehended. Bucky appears in court with evidence of his brainwashing showing Pierce’s leadership and involvement in the Hydra conspiracy. As Shield begins to be shut down, Howard takes the Zola program and places it in a file titled “The Ultron Project.”
Months later Howard arrives in Wakanda with Jarvis, Hank, and Bucky. “Thank you for coming, my friends. I wanted to present something to you that may change the course of our planet, but in a good way. In our journeys to locate Monica wherever she was sent in space, I have realized that Wakanda may be doing too little here on earth. In partnering with Howard, I have developed a plan, I call it, the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda.”
In the first post credit scene Monica is being carted through a desolate planet by Kree soldiers. They approach a door where a soldier yells, “Thanos, we have an offering.”
The second post credit scene shows a young Tony Stark opening “The Ultron Project” file smiling, “looks like it’s time to have some fun!”
“These are my stories. I observe all that transpires here in the Multiverse, but I do not, cannot, will not interfere. For I am…The Watcher.”
