Stark Industries Stark Industries Stark Industries (NYSE: SIA, NASDAQ: STRK, fictional), later also known as Stark International, Stark Innovations, Stark/Fujikawa, Stark Enterprises and Stark Resilient, is a fictional company appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The company is depicted as being owned and run by businessman Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark, also known as Iron Man. It first appeared in "Tales of Suspense" #40 (April 1963) and was founded by Tony's father, Howard Stark. According to Forbes 25 largest fictional companies it had an estimated sales of $20.3 billion, ranking it at number 16. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Stark
Fictional country and some thrillers also use fictional countries on Earth as backdrops. Most of these countries exist only for a single story, a TV-series episode or an issue of a comic book. There are notable exceptions, such as Qumar and Equatorial Kundu in "The West Wing", Marvel Comics Latveria and DC Comics Qurac and Bialya. Fictional countries often deliberately resemble or even represent some real-world country or present a utopia or dystopia for commentary. Variants of the country's name sometimes make it clear what country they really have in mind. By using a fictional country instead of a real one, authors