THE Big Gun: James "Rhodey" Rhodes AKA War Machine Appreciation

[Hypestyle]

so what happened to the Rae Lacoste character?

[Michael Watkins]

so what happened to the Rae Lacoste character?

once they didn't pull the trigger on her being Madame Masque, she was good as limbo-bound.

[Anthony W]

Maybe it's time to consider giving James superpowers when he finally returns from the dead. It feels like he has gone as far as he could wearing armor.

[chamber-music]

Rhodey did have the weird singing alien symbiotic bio-armor Eidolon Warwear in the nineties for a period.

[SuperiorIronman]

The Warwear was kind of cool. The design is weird but it's a freaking alien, it's not supposed to conform to humans so I was totally behind the weird design. I kind of wish it stuck around to further differentiate Warmachine from Iron man. It certainly looked different enough, but its one of those times the 90's did something right. It's one of those times that the next logical upgrade would be going to space.

[DragonsChi]

I like the idea of the Iron Patriot Fleet. Where he controlled multiple suits at a time.

If that concept was extended a little further Rhodey would have been a serious threat.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Iron Man #288 Jan 1993
"Ground Zero!" Part 2 of 2.
Atom Smasher is giving Iron Man all he can handle and then,

the new and improved Firepower shows up.

But, is the behemoth weapon of war here to fight Iron Man or help him?

Story by Len Kaminski. Art by Kevin Hopgood and Mike DeCarlo.

[XPac]

The Warwear was kind of cool. The design is weird but it's a freaking alien, it's not supposed to conform to humans so I was totally behind the weird design. I kind of wish it stuck around to further differentiate Warmachine from Iron man. It certainly looked different enough, but its one of those times the 90's did something right. It's one of those times that the next logical upgrade would be going to space.

Though part of me was sad to see the classic War Machine armor go, I do agree that differentiating between War Machine from Iron Man was a good idea. It was a good idea on paper.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Iron Man #289 Feb 1993
"The Light at the End!"
The Living Laser has returned for revenge against Tony Stark. Problem is, Stark is dead.


Luckily, Rhodes has a new Prismapolymer Reflective Coating for his armor to take down this dangerous adversary.

Story by Len Kaminski. Art by Tom Morgan and Brad Vancata.

[The Dying Detective]

You know you have to wonder are all those weapons on the War Machine armour pointless?

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Iron Man #290 Mar 1993
"This Year's Model!"
Tony Stark lives!

And, James Rhodes is not happy about being lied to by his best friend.

They don't have long to discuss it because cybernetic assassins attack Stark Enterprises.
While the new Iron Man tries to stop them, James is targeted for termination!

Story by Len Kaminski. Art by Kevin Hopgood and Steve Mitchell.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Why would all those weapons on the War Machine armour be pointless

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

X-Force #20 Mar 1993
"Assault on Graymalkin"
Earth Orbit
A new Stark Enterprise satellite is about to be launched and turned online.
As the shuttle sends the satellite into orbit, it suddenly hits an unseen object in space and ricochets into space.
The shuttle team is astonished to see a gigantic ship uncloak in front of them.

Washington, D.C.
Henry Gyrich meets with Val Cooper and asks for her help in dealing with the appearance of this new ship.
She tells him that this is way out of the jurisdiction of X-Factor.
He tells her that it is believed to be Cable's ship and she immediately tells him to get SHIELD involved.

SHIELD Helicarrier
Bridge demands to be brought back in now that this ship of Cable's has appeared. Fury wonders why he left SHIELD in the first place.
He also makes a deal to give SHIELD something for allowing him to be brought onto the team. Fury contacts James Rhodes at Stark Enterprises.
He tries to demand that SHIELD be allowed to enter the ship but Rhodey tells him that the ship was discovered by taking out his satellite in space.

This allows him the salvage rights and he wants to tag along to enter the ship along with SHIELD.

Camp Verde
X-Force tries to get adjusted to their new base. Lila Cheney has brought them a communication array and they are working on fixing it.
When they finally do they hear a report of the discovery of this ship.
They immediately believe it is Graymalkin, Cable's ship and want to get to it quickly to try to salvage what they can from it. Lila teleports them onto the ship.

Graymalkin
X-Force arrives and Sam is greeted immediately by the Professor, who he recognizes as "Ship".
He tries to find out what he can but learns that Ship is now called Professor and seems to not know of any of the occurrences while they knew it as Ship.
They also learn that it was created years into the future.

Norwell, Massachusetts
Tina tries to convince Vanessa to finally leave her room. She tells her that her hiding has gone on for too long and she needs to come out.
Vanessa finally agrees, but tells her that she will not like what she sees. Vanessa walks out the door and Tina is surprised to see that Vanessa has morphed into an image of her.

Australian Outback
In an Australian bar, Domino enters and finds Grizzly drinking alone. She tells him that he needs to help her find Cable's "brat-pack".
Grizzly tries to tell her no, but Domino persuades him to change his mind and he finally agrees.

Graymalkin
A SHIELD team is assembled and about to dock with Graymalkin. They suit up and step out of the ship. Bridge immediately gets to work on getting them aboard Graymalkin.
Inside, X-Force is looking around the ship for weapons and resources. Suddenly, there is a security breach and the team learns quickly that it is SHIELD.
They confront them and take each of them out. They try to get what they can before reinforcements arrive.

They turn to find that War Machine already is there...

Script by Fabian Nicieza, pencils by Greg Capullo http://facts.be/guest-archive/greg-capullo/, inks by Harry Candelario.

[Hypestyle]

So, based on the July solicits. Is there something going on with Rhodey that hasn't been announced yet?

[The Dying Detective]

Why would all those weapons on the War Machine armour be pointless

Well for one thing the repulsors themselves outclass any standard and above average firearms and it could feel like they should just shoot repulsor blasts instead.