War Machine

the term War Machine is also used to refer to the Military Industrial Complex

War Machine is a superhero in the Marvel Universe. War Machine's abilities came from an advanced suit of armor, designed using technology from Stark Industries, and later from an alien-built suit. He is well-known as the accomplice of Iron Man.

Origins

James Rupert Rhodes first met billionaire industrialist Tony Stark while flying combat missions in Vietnam. Rhodes' helicopter had been shot down by Viet Cong rocket fire, and while trying to get the aircraft airborne again, he encountered Stark, who had just escaped from the prison camp of the Vietnamese warlord Wong Chu in a bulky prototype suit of powered armor. At that moment the Viet Cong attacked, and Stark, in his suit, helped to drive them off. Together, Rhodes and Stark made their way to a nearby enemy base where they stole 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, offered Rhodes a job as his personal pilot, and Rhodes soon became one of Stark's closest associates and confidants as well as Stark Industries' chief aviation officer. As a result, he had numerous adventures with his employer where his daring and skills were valuable assets.

When Stark lost his company to Obadiah Stane and relapsed into alcoholism, Rhodes took over the armor and role of Iron Man in Stark's stead. However, he began to experience headaches while using the armor, and over time, his behavior began to grow more erratic and aggressive, prone to violent solutions to given problems. Rhodes's manic mental state was later revealed to be the result of his using armors whose cerebral interfaces were calibrated for Stark's brain, leaving any other long-term user disoriented and confused. When Stark was on the road to recovery, he helped Rhodes maintain the armor, but Rhodes became increasingly paranoid, believing that Stark meant to retake the armor.

Rhodes went on a rampage, and Stark was forced to don a crude, prototype suit of armor much like his original suit to stop him. Rhodes came to his senses and the two fought together for a time until Rhodes was injured by Obadiah Stane and Stark took the new armour.

Birth of the War Machine

Stark also subsequently designed a heavier-armed version of the Iron Man suit, the "Variable Threat Response Battle Suit" to battle the Masters of Silence, and it became known as the War Machine armor. Rhodes used the War Machine armor as Iron Man when Stark faked his own death while recovering from a life-threatening illness. When the ruse was revealed, it damaged the friendship between the two men, and they went their separate ways.

Rhodes, however, continued to use the War Machine armor in a solo superhero career, and it eventually was replaced by a symbiotic alien suit, known as the Eidolon Warwear. When Stark died during a battle with Kang the Conqueror, Rhodes rejoined 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 used the abilities of his alien armor to erase all trace of Stark's designs from the Fujikawa systems, but the armor was destroyed in the process. Rhodes gave up his superhero career and started his own salvage company.

Later, perhaps unsurprisingly, Stark once more returned from the dead, forming a new company, Stark Solutions and taking up the Iron Man identity once more. The two men were reconciled and Rhodes and Stark teamed up again to stop a new villain (also calling himself War Machine) who was wearing what looked like a version of the old War Machine armor, including a heavily-gunned exo-suit, but was in fact not based on Stark technology.

Most recently, Rhodes has appeared as one of the main characters in the comic series The Crew. In the series first issue, his sister, Jeanette, died and he was declared bankrupt, while avenging her murder he becomes one of the driving forces that brings the team together.

Jim Rhodes is now 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 that role, he wears an armour derived from the Sentinel technology, and painted in the same colour scheme as the larger Sentinels.

U.S. War Machine

In the non-canon Marvel MAX miniseries U.S. War Machine, Rhodes is fired by Stark after War Machine kills two hostage takers on national T.V., 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.

Armament

War Machine Armor

Repulsors: Laser-guided particle beam emission units mounted in the palm of each hand.
Unibeam (Rhodes model): Multi-band light and force beam emitter. Can be adjusted for a variety of effects such as search light, heat beams, tractor beam, lasers, image inducers, ultraviolet light, and electromagnetic pulse.
Pulse Bolt Generators: Plasma discharges that build in intensity as they travel through the atmosphere, picking up static and ambient energy.
Force Shield: A focused photon emitter on the back of his left wrist that shapes into a shield.
Electromagnetic Pulse.
Gatling Gun: Shoulder mounted. This is a state of the art gatling machine gun. It can be loaded with a wide array of various bullet types including stun and armor piercing.
Laser Blade.
Micro-Rocket Launcher.
Particle Beam Discharger.

Eidolon Warwear

Drone Remotes: The Warwear can "unskin" or "morph" remote drones. Drones are capable of the following functions:
- Discharge various types of energy and concussive force.
- Act as sensors and as infiltrators of various electronic/computer systems.
- Create defensive energy shields virtually instantaneously.

Left Arm Cannon: Fires destructive blasts of energy.

US War Machine

Gatling Gun: This shoulder mounted Gatling gun is presumed to be a M201.
Gauntlet Guns: Twin barreled wrist mounted machine guns. The gauntlet guns are presumed to use 9mm Luger/Parabellum rounds.
Micro-Rocket Launchers: Miniature shoulder mounted rocket launchers.
Long Barrel Machine Guns: A shoulder mounted long barrel machine gun presumed to use .22 LR rounds.

Ultimate War Machine

Ultimate War Machine made his first appearance in the Ultimate Marvel continuity in Ultimate Iron Man #3 where he is the product of bullying from a number of peers at his school for his African American ethnicity. He finds an unlikely friend in a young Iron Man who is seemingly indestructible and defends him against the bullies to his dismay.

Stark allows a teenage James Rhode, affectionately nicknamed "Rhodey", a chance to wear some of the armour he and his father have innovated and this is where James Rhode has his first experience as a superpowered War Machine. Even through, he is seen making another armor titled 'War Machine', and is going to trade with Stark's 'Iron Man' armor when both are fully developed. Also, the two form a close bond throughout the remainder of the limited series representing their youth. War Machine's status after this series is currently unknown.

Appearances in other media

War Machine has appeared in the Iron Man animated series, as well as guest starred in the The Animated Series, Hulk, and X-Men animated series played by James Avery in Season 1 and Dorian Harewood in Season 2.

In Marvel vs. Capcom, he was originally a palette swap of Iron Man from Marvel Super Heroes with an additional Super, and also as a hidden character known as "Mega-Armor" War Machine, which 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, War Machine could fire a missile from a shoulder-mounted gun, while Iron Man fired a short beam). In Marvel vs. Capcom 2, he had the switched beams and missiles of his Mega-Armored form.

External links

James Rhodes - Marvel Database Project

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