Marvel: A Lazy-Ass Superman

Chapter 269: Chapter 269 — Stark Pictures

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Henry didn’t quite know how to judge Tony Stark’s mysterious confidence. Tony, unperturbed, chatted on and laid out his thoughts as if discussing weather.

”Wall Street on the East Coast and Hollywood on the West are the two easiest reaches for that echelon,” Tony said. ”I’m watching the East myself. On the West, I need someone I can trust to keep an eye on things.

”The main reason I came to you is because you don’t fear them sending people to clean things up.

Unless you want to tell me your turtle-shell body can be pierced by a single RPG.

”Of course, that’s no excuse for carelessness. I trust you’re not stupid enough to provoke them to the point they decide to remove you.

”But the spots I want you to watch are invisible until you reach a certain level. So naming you CEO of Stark Pictures is both my offer and the price I insist you pay to do this job.”

Henry shrugged in an easygoing way. ”So basically I’m just a figurehead CEO, huh?”

”Of course not,” Tony said generously. ”Stark Pictures is one of the few companies I still wholly own. If I appoint you as CEO, you’ll have all the authority that comes with it.

”You won’t need to deliver yearly dividends to me—just don’t run the company into insolvency. Right now the company’s main business is equipment rental and sales, plus R&D, manufacturing, and repair.

”If you have spare time, watch the equipment for opportunities to improve it. Judging by that little gadget you made—” Tony nodded toward the tiny Bluetooth earpiece Henry designed for Audrey Hepburn at the New York fundraiser, ”—I believe you’ll have lots of ideas. The company will reward technician-level improvements with bonuses.

”If you need to file patents, you can use the company’s legal team; that should avoid most of the trouble you mentioned.

”Beyond machines and patents, if you want to restart the film production wing, funds are available. Again: just don’t bankrupt the company. How’s that sound?”

”Wow.” Henry had trouble finding words. He asked bluntly, ”If I’m parachuted in as CEO like that, will the people at Stark Pictures accept it?”

Tony explained, ”The CEO slot was my father’s name on paper for years. After he died the seat remained vacant; I never filled it. Right now the business is mostly equipment-related. R&D has fixed funding and production investment for film projects requires separate approval.

”So managers run day-to-day operations as they always have. Since the 1950s my father didn’t put much thought into this side; most of the time the business ran itself.

”Whoever I appoint as CEO—no matter what people think—has to be accepted. At worst there’ll be private resistance. That’s a small problem you can handle; I can step in if needed.”

Remembering the public lists of listed companies on Wall Street, Henry asked, ”You own the company outright? No other shareholders?”

”At the start my father had some partners,” Tony answered. ”But as the company pivoted, many shareholders lost interest or considered the returns tiny; I bought many stakes back. Older partners were bought out by exercising priority purchase rights so their shares didn’t become inheritances. By the time it reached me, Stark Pictures was a wholly private company again.”

Henry asked, ”I heard you sold many valuable assets to fund the estate tax. People called you reckless. Didn’t anyone in Hollywood want Stark Pictures?”

”How could they not?” Tony said proudly. ”All the capable film companies at the time tried to buy it. Outsiders even approached, wanting an entry into Hollywood. But every bidder’s offer included a requirement: I’d have to head the equipment R&D department, or supply a set amount of equipment improvements annually to keep the tech advantage.

”They thought, ’He’s young and easy to use.’ They expected me to hand over billions to essentially work for them. Ridiculous. They refused to budge; I refused to sell. After I handled the tax problem, there was no reason left to sell. By then, we’d missed the window to IPO the company.

”Now Stark Pictures is one of the few wholly-owned private companies I keep. It’s profitable—certainly not a worthless piece of junk no one would take for free.”

Henry considered this. From Tony’s vantage, if Stark Industries—the military-industrial behemoth—were a limited-production supercar, Stark Pictures was a toy car. That’s why Tony dared to play with it; even if he wrecked it, it wouldn’t matter much—he’d only lose a foothold on the West Coast.

And Tony truly seemed to hand over authority. He didn’t want anything to slow him down.

Thinking about Stark Industries, about Obadiah Stane and Virginia ”Pepper” Potts—those two generations of lieutenants—Henry imagined whose shoulders must have carried the real burdens. One rebelled, another rose to run the house. If Pepper hadn’t become Mrs. Stark, who knows whether she might have done something more drastic to Tony?

Henry’s thoughtful face made Tony misread hesitation for doubt. Tony added: ”If you worry about the FBI or certain lists, rest assured. Once you’re my employee and part of this circle, people will back off. Unless you walk up to an FBI agent and murder them in public—become a flagrante felon—no one’s going to move against you lightly.”

After thinking it over, Henry said, ”Do you know I’m also doing work for the Continental Hotel?”

The two men fell silent for a moment.

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