AHAHAH. I think I just replied to you above about this. very. thing.
The "O lost his goddamn mind" theme is probably the one that coheres the best with movie canon (and the scatterbrained ???? PROFIT model you posited up above), but man. I have to say it doesn't offer much meat for writing.
Though, OK. I totally dig your idea that Stark Sr. blew as a businessman and that the firm didn't really take off until Obediah stepped in. The novelization suggests that Stark Sr's major contributions were manufacturing, not in R&D, so it makes sense that they might struggle to redefine themselves. And it explains why Stark Sr. might mount a full-court press of OMG MY SON IS A GENIUS as a PR kinda thing as part of re-trenching. And coheres with that line about how nobody has made advances in arc reactor tech since the 1970s.
And it's been pointed out among the original participants o' doom that maybe, Daddy Stark and Obediah had been dealing under the table together.
Re: second time through = golden. i'm thinking about going time #3.
The "O lost his goddamn mind" theme is probably the one that coheres the best with movie canon (and the scatterbrained ???? PROFIT model you posited up above), but man. I have to say it doesn't offer much meat for writing.
Though, OK. I totally dig your idea that Stark Sr. blew as a businessman and that the firm didn't really take off until Obediah stepped in. The novelization suggests that Stark Sr's major contributions were manufacturing, not in R&D, so it makes sense that they might struggle to redefine themselves. And it explains why Stark Sr. might mount a full-court press of OMG MY SON IS A GENIUS as a PR kinda thing as part of re-trenching. And coheres with that line about how nobody has made advances in arc reactor tech since the 1970s.
And it's been pointed out among the original participants o' doom that maybe, Daddy Stark and Obediah had been dealing under the table together.