War Machine
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| War Machine | |
 War Machine featured on promotional cover art to "Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D" #33 Art by Adi Granov. |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Iron Man #118 (January 1979) |
| Created by | David Michelinie Bob Layton |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | James Rupert "Rhodey" Rhodes |
| Team affiliations | The Initiative Avengers Office of National Emergency Sentinel Squad O*N*E The Crew West Coast Avengers Force Works Stark Enterprises United States Marine Corps |
| Notable aliases | Iron Man |
| Abilities | None, Power suit grants:
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War Machine (James Rupert Rhodes) is a fictional character, a comic book superhero from the Marvel Comics universe. The character first appeared in Iron Man #118 (January 1979), and was created by David Michelinie and Bob Layton. Initially a supporting character, Rhodes later assumed the mantle of Iron Man after Stark's lapse into alcoholism.[1] The character would continue in a supporting role, and later resume the role of Iron Man, following Stark's purported death.[2] After Stark's return to the role of Iron Man, Rhodes continued as a superhero and received a spin-off titled War Machine. In addition to being an accomplished pilot, mechanical engineer and businessman, Rhodes derives multiple abilities from various hi-tech powersuits, either designed by Stark Industries or extraterrestrial in nature. Rhodes and Stark are often portrayed as devout friends, though the relationship is strained by Rhodes' continued doubts over Stark's questionable ethics. In addition to being a supporting character in Iron Man and his own eponymous title, Rhodes has been featured in a self titled MAX series and ensemble titles: Force Works; Sentinel Squad O*N*E; The Crew; and Avengers: The Initiative. War Machine has been a featured character in the Iron Man animated series and The Invincible Iron Man.
Actor Terrence Howard portrays James Rhodes in the 2008 live-action film, Iron Man.
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[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Origins
James Rupert Rhodes was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He first meets billionaire industrialist Tony Stark while flying combat missions in Vietnam. Rhodes' helicopter is shot down by Viet Cong rocket fire, and while trying to get the aircraft airborne again, he encounters Stark, who has just escaped from the prison camp in a bulky prototype suit of powered armor. Together, Rhodes and Stark make their way to a nearby enemy base where they steal another helicopter, flying it back to the American lines.
After the end of the Vietnam War, Stark, who had secretly become the superhero named Iron Man, offers Rhodes a job as his personal pilot, and Rhodes soon becomes one of Stark's closest associates, confidants as well as Stark Industries' chief aviation officer.
When Stark loses his company to Obadiah Stane and relapses into alcoholism, Rhodes takes over the armor and role of Iron Man, even fighting in the Secret Wars. He begins to experience headaches while using the armor, and his behavior began to grow more erratic and aggressive. Rhodes's manic mental state is revealed to be the result of the armor's cerebral interfaces, which are calibrated for Stark's brain, leaving any other long-term user disoriented and confused. The recovering Stark helps Rhodes maintain the armor. Rhodes continues as Iron Man but his increasing paranoia causes him to believe that Stark means to retake the armor.
Rhodes goes on a rampage, and Stark is forced to don a crude, prototype suit of armor to stop Rhodes. Rhodes comes to his senses, and the two reconcile. The two fight together until Rhodes is injured by Stane, and Stark assumes the role of Iron Man again. In the aftermath of Stane's suicide, Stark rebuilds his company. Rhodes and Stark continue to work together, Rhodes even risks his life and career to aid Stark during the Armor Wars.
[edit] War Machine career
Stark also subsequently designed a heavier-armed version of the Iron Man suit, the "Variable Threat Response Battle Suit," or "War Machine," to battle the Masters of Silence. Rhodes uses the War Machine armor as Iron Man after Stark fakes his own death. Upon the revelation that Stark is alive, the relationship between the two is fractured and they go their separate ways.
Rhodes continues to use the War Machine armor in a solo superhero career, occasionally fighting alongside Stark and Force Works. The "Variable Threat Response Battle Suit" is destroyed and replaced by a symbiotic alien suit, known as the Eidolon Warwear. After Stark dies during a battle with Kang the Conqueror, Rhodes rejoins Stark Enterprises (which was bought by Fujikawa Industries) to protect his old friend's legacy. To prevent Stark's armor technology from being misused, he uses the abilities of his alien armor to erase all trace of Stark's designs from the Fujikawa systems, but the armor is destroyed in the process. Rhodes retires from superheroics and starts his own salvage company.
[edit] Post War Machine
Stark once again returns from the dead, and forms a new company, Stark Solutions, and takes up the Iron Man identity once more. The two men reconcile, and Rhodes and Stark team up again to stop an armored villain coincidentally named "War Machine" (whose armor resembles the old War Machine armor). Rhodes becomes bankrupt while avenging the murder of his sister, and assembles a team, which becomes known as the Crew.[3].
Jim Rhodes later becomes the commanding officer and head combat instructor for Sentinel Squad O*N*E, and a key member of the Office of National Emergency (O*N*E). In the role, he wears armor derived from the Sentinel technology.
[edit] Return of War Machine
Rhodes once again becomes War Machine, with a new suit of armor resembling Tony Stark's, to help train the new recruits of The Initiative program. [4] He fights alongside new superhero Komodo to depower Spider-Man.[5] During World War Hulk, before Stark's confrontation with the enraged behemoth, Rhodes is thrown off by Stark's talk of the Hulk's threat reuniting the splintered hero community. It is shown that Rhodes has been severely injured and part of his face is now covered in cybernetic implants.[6]
[edit] Powers and abilities
[edit] War Machine Armor
The "Variable Threat Response Battle Suit" is a carbon-composite-based armor which provides its user with superhuman strength and durabilty. The armor has an improved tactical computer systems and automatic targeting and weapons including: Repulsors; multifunctional Unibeam; Pulse Bolt Generators; gatling gun; double-barreled cannon; flamethrower; Plasma Blade; Micro-Rocket Launcher; and Particle Beam Discharger. The suit also includes a Force Shield, forcefield-based stealth technology, boot-jet propulsion and self-contained breathing system.
[edit] Eidolon Warwear
The armor is of alien origins, and provides the user with superhuman strength and durability. It can be concealed into "mandala" or tattoo-like mark on Rhodes chest. The left arm is capable of firing destructive energy blasts, while the right arm is able to morph in a blade. The armor has Drone Remotes, which can "unskin." The remotes are capable of discharging various types of energy, infiltrating various electronic/computer systems, creating energy fields, and completing basic tasks. The armor can morph into "full battle mode," which provide unspecified enhancement to both the armor and user.
[edit] Other versions
[edit] 1602
In Marvel 1602: New World, there is a character named Rupert Rhodes, hinting at a War Machine in that universe and he is an accomplice of Lord Iron, a version of Iron Man. The Rhodes in 1602 has yet to get his War Machine armor, although he is the engineer of Lord Iron's suit.
[edit] Marvel Zombies
In Marvel Zombies: Dead Days, War Machine is seen amongst the crowd of heroes who have survived the Zombie plague so far. It is unknown if he was transformed into a zombie or if he was eaten by the infected heroes.
[edit] MC2
In the MC2 alternate future, Rhodes gained superhuman powers after exposing himself to experimental microscopic robots. While Tony Stark had intended to test them on himself, Rhodes did not feel it would be right for Stark to unnecessarily risk his life. Although now-blessed with exponentially-increasing invulnerability and an impressive array of energy-based attacks, the nanites slowly corrupt Rhodes' mind, eventually destroying his personality and leaving him as little more than a very powerful, humanoid robot. He eventually works as a personal bodyguard for Tony Stark, and although he adopts a super hero uniform (vaguely reminiscent of Superman, though with a different color scheme and no chest insignia) neither he nor Stark bother to come up with a moniker for him. Spider-Girl refers to him as "Fred" for most of her series, for simple lack of anything else to call him.
[edit] U.S. War Machine
In the non-canon MAX miniseries U.S. War Machine, Rhodes is fired by Stark after War Machine kills two hostage takers on national TV, one in cold-blood. After his dismissal, Rhodes is attacked by former War Machine pilot Parnell Jacobs in an attempt to recover the War Machine armor. The two are picked up by Nick Fury and taken to the Helicarrier. It is revealed that Jacobs had sold his stolen War Machine to HYDRA for money when he learned his wife was pregnant. S.H.I.E.L.D. was able to recover the armor and was in the process of reverse engineering the Stark technology. Nick Fury planned to field a squad of War Machines commanded by Rhodes.
[edit] Ultimate War Machine
James Rhodes first appears as a prep school student, the victim of frequent bullying at the school due to his ethnicity. [7] He finds an unlikely friend in a young Tony Stark who is seemingly indestructible and defends him against the bullies, to his dismay. Stark allows a teenage James Rhodes (affectionately nicknamed "Rhodey"), a chance to wear some of the armor he and his father have innovated. Later, Rhodes is seen making another armor titled 'War Machine' and is going to trade with Stark's 'Iron Man' armor when both are fully developed, and develop a lasting friendship. Later, Tony and James team up as "Robots" to take out a terrorist group for the government.
[edit] Other media
[edit] Television
- War Machine has appeared in the Iron Man animated series played by James Avery in Season 1 (as well as on Spider-Man), Jim Cummings in a few episodes, and Dorian Harewood in Season 2 (The color scheme of the War Machine armor, as well as the colors of other Force Works members' uniforms changes without explanation between Seasons 1 and 2 of Iron Man).
- War Machine made a cameo in X-Men.
- James Avery reprises his role of War Machine in the Spider-Man episodes "Venom Returns" and "Carnage". Rhodes was supervising the inter-dimensional travel experiment before he and his men where attacked by Venom, and later Carnage. He helps Spider-Man fight Venom and Carnage when Baron Mordo targets an interdimensional transporter. When Baron Mordo makes off with the device, War Machine prevents J. Jonah Jameson from unmasking Spider-Man and lets Iron Man help Spider-Man stop Baron Mordo.
- Dorian Harewood reprises his role of War Machine in The Incredible Hulk episode "Helping Hand, Iron Fist". He stops Rick Jones when he comes to seeing Tony Stark. James also alerts Tony about the arrival of General Thunderbolt Ross, Gabriel Jones, and the Hulkbusters. War Machine fights some of the Hulkbusters.
[edit] Films
- In the animated Marvel film Ultimate Avengers 2, Tony Stark's Iron Man armor is damaged, so he replaces it with the War Machine armor. Jarvis disapproves of the choice, as the War Machine armor is slow and cumbersome by Iron Man standards, but its durability and heavy firepower prove useful. Jarvis tells him 'It handles like a 10 ton tractor', but Stark responds by saying 'Yeah, but it's got some sweet guns'.
- However, Rhodes does appear in the 2007 animated movie The Invincible Iron Man (which is not in continuity with Ultimate Avengers). Rhodes is voiced by Rodney Saulsberry. In this film, Rhodes is an engineer and former army medic who accompanies Tony to an excavation site in China to unearth a lost city, but having brought weapons to provide security for the site- on the insistence of Tony's father-, they are captured by a group called the Jade Dragons, who seek to sink the city again as its rise is part of a prophecy regarding the resurrection of the Mandarin, here a long-dead Chinese warlord. When elemental spirits are released from the temple to find the rings the Mandarin needs to be reborn, Tony and Rhodes escape using a suit of armor developed to keep Tony's heart beating after it was impaled by shrapnel- Rhodes' experience as an army medic aiding in its creation-, with Rhodes subsequently helping Tony coordinate his attempts to track down the remaining rings before the elementals get them. Towards the conclusion of the film, Rhodes allows himself to be arrested to give Tony time to stop the Mandarin, subsequently being appointed head of the Special Engineering branch after all charges against Tony are dropped. A black suit of armor with many guns, similar to the War Machine armor, is seen in the pan of Stark's arsenal.
- Academy Award nominated actor Terrence Howard portrays James Rhodes in the 2008 Iron Man film[8]. In the film, Rhodes is a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, who serves as the military's chief liaison to Stark Industries. He is also Tony Stark's most trusted ally and best friend. Rhodes is depicted in the film wearing a "Brass Rat", the MIT school ring, indicating that in the film, he and Stark were college classmates[9], though on his other hand he wears an Air Force Academy ring, suggesting that he received his masters degree from MIT after earning a "grad school slot" for high academic achievement while at USAFA. Director Jon Favreau told AintItCoolNews that War Machine would not appear in the first film, but would in the sequels. Howard was supposedly cast with this in mind.[10] War Machine appeared in the toyline as a Wal*Mart exclusive product, (though it is referred to as "Stealth Operations" armor rather than War Machine)[11]. A scene in the film shows Rhodes looking at an unpainted Mark II suit of armor and saying "Next time baby", hinting at the planned appearance in the sequel.
A computer animation of a late model suit can also be seen in the end credits with a minigun attached on its shoulder.
[edit] Video games
- War Machine is a playable character in Capcom's Marvel vs. Capcom series. In Marvel vs. Capcom, he was originally a palette swap of Iron Man as depicted in Marvel Super Heroes with an additional Super, the "War Destroyer," which launches rockets to hit foes from above. There is also a hidden character known as "Mega-Armor" War Machine; this version wears golden armor and couldn't block, but was never stunned by any hits, and switched the beam and missile weapons of Iron Man and War Machine around (for example, when kneeling, Iron Man could fire a missile from a shoulder-mounted gun, while the Mega-armored War Machine fired a short beam). In Marvel vs. Capcom 2, he had the switched weapons of his Mega-Armored form to further differentiate him from Iron Man. The two were also voiced by different voice actors; Iron Man's voice is calm and collected, while War Machine's voice is more gung-ho.
- War Machine is an alternate costume for Iron Man in the games X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. In the former, it is his "Age of Apocalypse" costume, which, when worn alongside three other party members who are in their AoA appearances, will grant a special bonus to all the characters. In the latter, if it is worn along with three other member's "Alternate Identity" costumes, it grants a special bonus to all characters.
[edit] References
- ^ The Invincible Iron Man #170
- ^ Iron Man #285
- ^ The Crew #1
- ^ Avengers: The Initiative #1
- ^ Avengers: The Initiative #3
- ^ Dan Slott & Christos N. Gage (w), Stefano Caselli (p), Daniele Rudoni (i). "Killed In Action part 4: Worst Case Scenario" Avengers: The Initiative #11 (May 2007) Marvel Comics
- ^ Ultimate Iron Man #3
- ^ Newsarama
- ^ Official movie site
- ^ Ain't It Cool News: Quint and Terrence Howard chat about James Rhodes, Marvel and IRON MAN!!!
- ^ Iron Man: Stealth Operations Suit exclusive
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