Even though Jim Rhodes was introduced as far back as 1979, the character did not wear the Iron Man armor until much later in 1983 and received his own signature War Machine armor later still in 1992. A former US Marine, Jim Rhodes has known Stark almost as long as the billionaire playboy has been Iron Man. In fact, the two met in Vietnam just after Tony escaped from his captor Wong Chu’s camp.
Initially a supporting cast member that made the series feel more like Miami Vice than anything else, Rhodey stepped into the role of Iron Man when Stark’s alcoholism became too much of a liability. He even served in the Secret War! After Stark gained control of his affliction, Rhodey got another role, that of War Machine. Designed to deal with threats that were immune to Iron Man’s traditional repulsor technology, War Machine’s armaments were much more in tune with military-grade weapons. While he may appear to be just another version of Iron Man, the War Machine armor is built for one purpose only, to destroy.
More recently, War Machine has starred in his own monthly series by Planet Hulk and Incredible Hercules writer Greg Pak. Rhodey had disappeared from the pages of Marvel Comics for some time only to return as a man that was barely human. In the pages of Avengers: The Initiative, James Rhodes was shown to be a part of his armor. His battle-scarred face covered in cybernetics, the truth behind his condition was only just revealed in this month’s issue of the character’s comic. During the Skrull Secret Invasion, Rhodey discovered that his armor was built not on the Stark tech (useless during the invasion since the Skrulls hacked it) but on Staneware. This allowed him to function as a one-man retaliatory strike team against the Skrull fleet by hooking up with a battle satellite hovering in Earth orbit (apparently Stark plans for most every eventuality).
War Machine concept drawing by Iron Man movie artist Phil Saunders
The Skrull threat extinguished, Rhodey feels that his work has just begun. When he connected to the satellite, he became aware of multiple war crimes occurring across the globe. Even more so, he was emotionally affected by this knowledge due to the discrete connection to the intel feed. As such he is now a one man response team against these acts. As his humanity diminishes at an alarming rate, Rhodey’s abilities as War Machine grow. Now armed with the ability to incorporate any hardware he encountered into his armor, he is forever losing limbs only to replace them with the very tanks and jets that took them away in combat. This ability to rebuild on the fly makes him a formidable opponent in the field.
Is this the movie version of War Machine?
In film, War Machine is a rumored co-star in Iron Man 2. Even though the sequel is already full of characters from Nick Fury to Black Widow, fans have been chomping at the bit for a little armored Jim Rhodes action ever since Terrence Howard glanced at the discarded Mach II armor in Stark’s lab and mutter, ‘next time, baby.’ With Don Cheadle playing the part of Rhodey in the second film it is unclear where they are taking the character but Marvel EIC Joe Quesda hinted that there will be ‘more than one armored character’ in the second film.
(Click here for the updated image of War Machine in Iron Man 2)
Recommended:
Secret Invasion: War Machine
War Machine 1: Blood Money
Iron Man: Armor Wars
The Many Armors of Iron Man
Iron Man (Two-Disc Special Collectors’ Edition)
