Ultimate Invasion#3(2023)

Howard and Tony attend the funeral of Obadiah Stane. After Obadiah's burial, Tony asks his father of what happened in Latveria as he had seen the attack on the newsfeed before it was blackout. Two days ago... Howard is in the Maker's castle along with the other world leaders who are waiting for the Maker for answers on the future assassins and how to proceed against them. He becomes acquainted with Emmanuel Da Costa, who helps him to feel comfortable with the others such as the Hulk and Henri Dugarry. Howard expresses his confusion over seeing the Rasputins being in the same room with them, as they are currently seen as enemies of the European Coalition and their allies. After Howard explains to Da Costa and the others that he was never really interested in the world leaders' affairs and in turn Obadiah Stane never told him much, Da Costa and Hulk reveal to Howard that the seven major power blocs are never enemies at all. They are running a decades-long facade in which each nation takes turns assuming as a "rogue state" to make the world's citizens focus their attention on manufactured external threats away from any internal problems from their home nation. In short, they are maintaining the "illusion of peace in an illusionary time of war," which is fully supported by the Maker as part of the greater good. Da Costa and Hulk tries to reassure Howard that what they are doing has good reasons: the Maker had previously run several iterations of experimental societies inside the City and has shown the results that world peace, whether it is achieved, coerced, or enforced, is never a successful long-term strategy. In essence, humanity is incapable of accepting true peace. Hulk further elaborates that they did not assume that all of humanity rejects peace, but it is most people who cannot handle peace. The Maker then finally makes his appearance and voice another reason why he is maintaining this status quo: the "little people" hate the powerful and rich who rule over them. While he and the world leaders could rule the world through outright violence no different from how powerful nations and empires ran down powerless states in the past, but in the modern day the people are a collective who are uniformly opposed to that. Which is why the Maker necessarily gave them something else to focus on and preventing them from starting uncontrolled wars, and allowing the Maker and the world leaders to focus on the "real work." In the present... Howard had told Tony about his meeting with the Maker and the others. Both father and son are left equally aghast of the conspiracy maintained by the Maker and his collaborators. They are also deeply disheartened to know that Obadiah was a part of this. Tony then tells his father that what the Maker and the world leaders are doing are wrong, and they must stop them. They return to Stane/Stark Industries HQ and Howard tells his son that he may have some ideas before sending him away for a few weeks until he needs him. One day ago... The Maker takes Howard inside the City, to its deepest section where "some truly genius work is done," to construct the Immortus Engine. He then introduces Howard to an assistant who will help him build the device: the Earth-6160 Reed Richards, who wears a metal mask that resembles to Doctor Doom's.