Hero Profile: War Machine

Tony Stark has always been very protective of his Iron Man armors. He does everything in his power to ensure those wonders of technology are always under his supervision. He doesn’t trust SHIELD with them, or any law enforcement agency. He acts like they are an extension of him, a part of his flesh and blood. So, it’s pretty safe to say that he trusts anyone that he gives an armor to with a lot more than his life. He trusts them with his legacy. Which leads us into our next hero of this patriotic theme week, James Rhodes, War Machine. Let’s get to it.

They may bicker like an old married couple, but there are only
a few teams that work better together.

James “Rhodey” Rhodes’ life began simply enough. Born in South Philadelphia, great now I have the Fresh Prince theme song stuck in my head, he joined the Marine Corps pretty much as soon as he was legally able to. He served in Southeast Asia as a combat pilot and achieved the rank of lieutenant, all before his life started getting weird. During his tour of duty his plane was shot down behind enemy lines by the Viet Cong. He survived the crash, and as he tried to evade capture he came across Iron Man. Mr. Stark had just finished his original prototype and escaped the prison camp that he’d been held at. The two teamed up, first to defeat the Viet Cong chasing both of them and then to destroy the enemy basecamp. They lit the place up with a stolen helicopter and prototype Iron Man tech before escaping. At the base hospital in Saigon, Rhodes was formally introduced to Tony Stark. Tony thanked Rhodes for helping out Iron Man, whom he claimed was his bodyguard, and offered Rhodes a job as his personal pilot as his reward. Remember, Stark pays extremely well. Rhodes initially declined the offer, wanting to first serve out his tour of duty and then try to make his own way, but after a few failed career paths that included mercenary work, he took Tony up on the offer. While working for Tony, he became a chief aviation engineer for Stark International, and also one of Tony’s closest friends. A short time after that, Rhodes was let in on the “big secret” that Tony Stark and Iron Man are one in the same.

Rhodes was forced to step up a few years later. Tony was in deep trouble. Obadiah Stane, corrupt businessman, corporate shark, and just all around bad man, had spent several months and his own group of lackeys to ruin Tony’s life. He ruins Tony’s business with shady deals, stealing foreign contracts, and sabotage. He also ruins Tony’s personal life by having one of his lackeys date Tony and use that connection to ferret out his secrets. Stane also starts using mercenaries to attack those closest to Tony, like Rhodes. Tony was in a bad way, and finally relapsed into alcoholism. He still tried to be Iron Man, but was badly beaten by a supervillain known as Magma. After that, Tony knew he couldn’t keep up as Iron Man. He turned over his suit to Rhodes and asked him to take Tony’s place as Iron Man. Rhodes agrees, and with the help of a Stark Industries scientist, Morley Erwin, becomes Iron Man. The two quick Stark International, and sent the majority of Iron Man armors to the bottom of the ocean to protect Tony’s tech from Stane’s greed and SHIELD’s… misguided maneuverings. Rhodes did well as Iron Man, he battled most of Tony’s most recognizable foes, and took up mercenary work to help maintain the Armor. He also joined the Avengers a short time later. Rhodes, Morley, and Morley’s sister formed a new electronics firm to try and provide additional revenue. And, Tony even joined them to help out as an engineer after he started to recover. Together they formed the company Circuits Maximus and everything was looking well. Unfortunately, there were a few weird side effects to Rhodes using Tony’s armor. The armor’s helmet interface was keyed into Tony’s brainwaves, which made Rhodes more aggressive and paranoid as time went on. Things came to a head when Rhodes went on a rampage to capture a villain, and Tony was forced to use a new armor prototype, based on his original design, to stop Rhodes and talk him down.

I can't think of a more appropriate name for this armor.
Other than, maybe, Silver Death.

Rhodes resigns from the Avengers after this, and asks Dr. Henry Pym (Ant-Man, but I think he’s going by Yellowjacket by this point) for help with his headaches. Pym sends Rhodes to see Shaman from the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight. The two go on a spiritual journey through a place called “The Gorge” when Rhodes faces his inner demons, the worst of which was the fear that he wasn’t worthy of the mantle of Iron Man. Rhodes continues as Iron-Man, with Tony serving as his backup/sidekick, until he’s critically injured by a bomb sent by Obadiah “Asshole” Stane. While Rhodes recovers, Tony takes up the role of Iron-Man once again. Rhodes and Tony take turns as Iron-Man for a while until Tony comes up against “The Masters of Silence” a group of Japanese warriors. The Masters were tricked by rival CEO Justin Hammer into attacking Iron-Man. The Masters had their own crazy advanced tech, the most dangerous of which made them immune to the effects of repulsors and unibeams. Not quite sure how that works, but role with it. Tony is forced to develop a new armor, which he dubs the “Variable Threat Response Battle Suit, Model XVI, Mark I” or War Machine for short. The suit basically has every sort of weapon imaginable jammed into it. Tony beats back the Masters, and the War Machine armor is added to the Armory. Tony is apparently killed a short while later. In his will he names Rhodes as CEO of Stark Enterprises, and asks him to take up being Iron Man again. This time with a new and improved version of the War Machine armor specifically designed for him. Rhodes agrees. Things go well for a while until Rhodes’ discover Tony was alive, apparently having faked his death. Rhodes quits Stark Enterprises, turning it over to Tony again, and their friendship is pretty strained at this point. They’re forced to fend off some battledroids sent in to kill Rhodes, which helps them patch things up. Tony insists that Rhodes’ keeps the armor, as it was designed for him. Rhodes eventually takes up the offer, and dons the moniker War Machine. Since then, Rhodes has been an on again off again superhero. While he has tried to leave the life behind on more than one occasion, he always finds a reason to come back. Whether it’s a desire to watch Tony’s back, or a feeling of duty towards his country, we’ll always have a War Machine looking out for us.

As a man, James Rhodes doesn’t have superpowers. He is a highly trained veteran of the US Armed Forces, a skilled pilot and aviation engineer. Basically he flies really well, and he can design things that fly really well. These skills do help in the maintenance of the various Iron Man armors. He’s also skilled in hand-to-hand combat and your standard military weaponry, though he seems to have a preference for smaller caliber weapons, which is kind of odd given his favorite armor.

I think when Captain America saw this he was like
"Rhodey, you're kind of stealing my theme."

Rhodes is one of the most experienced users of Iron Man armors in the world, second only to Tony Stark himself. He has a few different suits for different situations, but he’s most well-known for the Variable Threat Response Battle Suit Mark I and its successors. These gray and silver armors house more weaponry than your standard armory. They have a shoulder mounted minigun, flamethrowers and double barrel cannons on each arm, a plasma blade on his left gauntlet, rocket launchers, and repulsors and a unibeam, to name a few. The War Machine armor also has a superior auto-targeting feature than most of the other Iron Man armors, to help Rhodes use his weaponry to the fullest without risking civilians. The suit is also capable of flight, has a basic force-field, and has a self-contained breathing system. His suit also uses a number of different types of ammunition, such as rubber bullets for non-lethal situations. Like a good solider, he’s always prepared.

Rhodes has appeared in a number of Marvel series, always as Tony’s closest friend, backup and partner.

He featured in a few episodes of The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. He first appears in “Alone Against Aim.” Rhodes was trying to help Tony and the Avenger’s ship the Iron Man Armors out of Stark Tower, in the hopes that the building would be less of a target without them. Unfortunately the Advanced Idea Mechanics decide that this is the perfect opportunity to attack Stark Tower. They unleash a technology devouring machine known as Technovore along with their usual troops. Tony is without his armor and yet still defends himself quiet well. Rhodes dons his armor towards the episodes end to kick some AIM butt. He appears again in “New Avengers.” In this episode, the main Avengers are all taken out by Kang the Conqueror during his latest bid for conquest. They aren’t killed, but basically frozen in time. Tony, being a genius, planned for this eventuality and had Jarvis rig up a backup plan. A new Avengers team consisting of Spider-Man, War Machine, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Wolverine, and the Thing are called upon to fix things. While the team is far from perfect, they are able to stop Kang’s plans and free the main Avengers. War Machine is called in one final time in “Avengers Assemble,” where the Avengers call in every superhero they can think of to help fight off Galactus. He’s pretty useful, as always.

Call him a sidekick. I dare ya.

James Rhodes was initially portrayed by Terrence Howard in Iron Man. Like with Bucky in Captain America Rhodes is reimagined as Tony’s friend from before he starts doing the superhero thing. He’s the military liaison for Stark Industries. After Tony is captured by the terrorist group the Ten Rings, Rhodes spends most of that time scouring the desert for him. When Tony returns, Rhodes is upset when Stark shuts down the weapons division of Stark Industries, and even madder when he learns that Tony built a battle suit to dowel out vigilante justice in his warzone. He’s largely support in this movie.

Don Cheadle takes over as Rhodes for the rest of the Iron Man films, and in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Which is a good change, I have nothing against Terrence Howard, but Don Cheadle just seems better suited to the part for some reason. In Iron Man 2, Rhodes is being pressured by the government to get Tony to turn over the Iron Man armors. He’s reluctant at first; that is until Tony gets drunk in the suit and endangers a bunch of people at his birthday party. Rhodes take the silver Mark II Iron Man armor, and the two duke it out. After fighting for a few minutes, the both fire a repulsor blast that destroys much of Tony’s mansion. Rhodes recovers first and flies off with the suit. Justin Hammer, one of the films villains, upgrades the armor with various weapons at the base. Later on at the Stark Expo, Hammer shows off the various armored drones designed for him by Ivan Vanko, the other antagonist, and the War Machine armor piloted by Rhodes. When Tony arrives, Vanko takes control of the Drones and Rhodes’ suit. Rhodes is forced to watch in horror as the suit hunts Tony down, until Black Widow reboots the system, giving Rhodes control again. They team up and destroy the Hammer Drones and Vanko, who had his own Crimson Dynamo/Whiplash armor.

If he was anyone else, I'd say he was
compensating for something.

Iron Man 3 has Don Cheadle return as Rhodes, but his suit is given a makeover by AIM. Apparently the government wanted to be seen doing something, and altering the War Machine Armor into the Iron Patriot Armor just made sense. Rhodes excels as Iron Patriot, but clearly misses his old suit. Heck, his password for all military stuff is “WarMachineRox.” The Iron Patriot suit is stolen by AIM and used by villain Eric Savin as part of a plot to kidnap the president. Rhodes recovers the armor a short time later, and gets the president to safety while Tony and his House Party Protocol took care of AIM.

He appears briefly in Avengers: Age of Ultron. He’s one over various party guests at a victory party. He sees something of a Heroic divide between himself and the Avengers, highlighted by a story he tells about dumping a tank on some dictators door step that “kills” with most folks, but leaves guys like Thor going “and?” He tries to help Tony lift Thor’s hammer as the party winds down, but to little effect. He returns in the film’s climax, in full War Machine armor, and helps the Avengers fight off the horde of Ultron Drones. He’s really cheerful at “having a great story” when all is said and done. War Machine joins the Avengers at the end of the movie.

Rhodes will return for Captain America: Civil War. If it stays in line with the comic story, Rhodes will side with Tony and the US government against Captain America and his team. We’ll just have to wait and see.

I enjoy War Machine. Rhodes’ life as a superhero has been bumpy, but he is a much better character for it. He started off as a sub, a guy to be Iron Man when Tony Stark was otherwise occupied, but has since grown to a character that is just as popular as the original armored superhero. I’d say most folks would recognize his silver suit as much as they would Tony’s red and gold. Like the Winter Soldier and Captain Atom, one of his most defined character traits is his loyalty. Which does have its problems, as some times his loyalty to Tony and the US government are in conflict. Don’t envy him when those situations pop up. His codename is aggressive, but Rhodes seems to do his best work watching someone’s back, be it Tony, or another Avenger. Like Captain America, he’s first and foremost a guardian. Another metal sentinel to protect the US and the world from threats. He’s the other invincible armored hero, the always prepared War Machine. 

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