The strange case of Lila Rhodes, Jim Rhodes niece created by Ales Kot and Garry Brown

[ijacksparrow]

Very few people know about Lila Rhodes. She was created by Ales Kot and Garry Brown, her first appearance was in Iron Patriot #1, a comic book that very few people read or are even aware about.

Here's her Marvel wikia entry:

History:

Lila Rhodes was the niece of James Rhodes, also known as Iron Patriot. She was a prodigy child who helped her uncle with any modification his armor needed.

After a congressman was blackmailed into denouncing Rhodes, Lila recorded a video which went viral in which she defended her uncle.[1] For it, she and Terrence were kidnapped by the same men who were targeting Rhodey.[2] As they were being held in a warehouse, Lila managed to escape and get to a city nearby, where she got hold of a computer and hacked into one of the spare Iron Patriot Armors. The armor was sent to save Terrence, who wore it to prevent his son from being forced to kill the ex-President as his armor was being controlled.

The villain who was controlling Rhodey's armor was defeated, and the murder prevented. However, Terrence sacrificed himself in the process. Lila was present in Terrence's burial, where she talked to Tony Stark, who offered her to train her programming abilities.

Powers and Abilities:

Gifted Intelligence


Trivia:

Lila is a fan of Miss America.

As most everybody around here knows, Jim Rhodes was infamously 'killed' by Brian Michael Bendis in Civil II: Electric Boogaloo. On a recent interview to CBR, Bendis had this to say about the death of James Rhodes:

I did wrestle with that, but when we came down to it, the story dictated Rhodey [dies]. But at the same time, I already, regardless of Rhodey, had been down a road with our new character, Riri Williams. I didn't create her to replace Rhodey, but in some karmic way, it does balance. I hope I put something in the toy box that one day might end up being of equal or greater value. I don't know.

The only thing that annoys me when people criticize stuff like this is, they think I'm sitting here full of whimsy and arrogance, and Marvel lets me do whatever the Hell I want. They think that I don't answer to anybody. I don't know what kind of job that is. The president answers to people. Who do you think doesn't answer to people? And what kind of whacked out creative relationship would I have with the universe if I was putting myself in a position where you couldn't speak to me? That's not what I want. The reason I signed up with Joe [Quesada] is, he told me my art sucked.

I want people to tell me the truth. Just yesterday, we were arguing about something unrelated to this. As frustrating as it is to be creatively battling with people, I'm so relieved that I have people I can trust to tell me that something doesn't work, or, "That's not the best idea you've ever had." And of course, on a big event I'm being vetted by everybody. Everyone has read this, up and down. It's been discussed from every angle, and I truly listen to good arguments everywhere I can get them.

It seems that Bendis is talking about the whole debacle about him wanting to kill Peter Parker (again) in Civil War II, reported by the NY Daily News here. It's no secret that Marvel seems to understand "big sagas" with killing off their characters. Unlike the acclaimed by the public and the critics Marvel Studios Captain America: Civil War, killing off characters is already a Bendis trope staple: he killed Hawkeye, Vision, Ant Man (Scott Lang) and Jack O Hearts in Avengers Disassembled, turning Scarlet Witch into a villain. He also killed Ares and Sentry in Under Siege, made the Spider-Woman that he had with the New Avengers a Skrull queen all along and killed Wasp in Secret Invasion. He's also the guy who wrote House of M, creator of Miles Morales and now Riri Williams, the character that first appeared in Invincible Iron Man #7 and judging from the "Divided We Stand" teaser and Bendis interview, the 15 year old teenager is getting poised to replace James Rhodes at some capacity with gray armor.



The curious thing is why. Why Marvel Comics is so welcome to Bendis creating new characters to replace previously established ones? Is it for diversity? Or is there something else going on? Jason Aaron made Jane Foster Thor, and she seems popular, with an origin story quite rooted in Marvel's and Thor's mythology. As far as I'm concerned and regardless how much I love how Aaron is writing her, I'd like to see her getting to stick around and that means that inevitably Thor is going to go back to be Thor, but this is another whole thing. My point is why Marvel Comics is always letting Bendis to create new replacement characters to replace previously established ones like Spider-Man and War Machine, instead of creating brand new characters like Mosaic? Why Jim Rhodes needed to die instead of they going with the route the Russo Brothers went with the character, poising him as the first Marvel Studios superhero with a disability? If Jim Rhodes had to die, why Bendis needs to create a character that uses an armor quite similar to his, when he has a super genius niece that could easily take over the mantle? Is this really about creating a new diverse Marvel or just creating new characters so Marvel Studios can eventually get interested if Marvel Comics hype it hard enough? Why?

I say this because as a black man that was once a black kid that had and still has Spider-Man as his favorite character in fiction, as someone that gets sickened to see people spewing racist arguments here on the boards, I need to acknowlege that at least quite a big part of the "diversity" initiative that Marvel Comics is employing on their comics is with pardon of my French, merde. There're some very valueable excessions: Wilson's Ms. Marvel is amazing; Thompson's Silk is a great riff on Spider-Man's mythos completely rooted in the Peter Parker mythology and not an alternate Earth Spidey; Ta-Nehisi Coates Black Panther is brilliant; the whole premise around Mosaic has me very intrigued. But all in all, I feel mostly underwhelmed. While some see Marvel doing something great, I see Marvel selling diversity and using that to justify things that aren't really what me as a Marvel fanboy wanted. I love X-23. Love her, I have loved the character since her Nyx days. But I hate her as Wolverine. It lessens her impact to me, she and old school Death of Superman Superboy are the single cases of a clone of a character done right from the big 2 in my opinion, and yet I can stand her book. Would she be able to carry her own book without the Wolverine name? I sincerely don't know. What I know is that making her Wolverine or anyone else but Wolverine (Logan, not the old man one) is something of a disservice to a character that I really like. Same goes for Sam Wilson. Nick Spencer is writing my favorite Captain America storyline since Ed Brubaker's Cap, and that isn't really Hydra Cap, but his Sam Wilson's storyline. I love that, really bold choices and touching sensitive topics in a way that makes me care about Sam as much as I did with Bucky back when he was Cap, but at the same time what I really would love to see is the Captain America family books expanding to Captain America, Falcon and Winter Soldier, three separate books. With Marvel Studios making them stars, I fail to understand why that isn't possible.

[ijacksparrow]

My whole point is that I love when Marvel creates new characters with interesting premises. Getting Geoffrey Thorne to create Mosaic is a stroke of genius, I'm more interested in that than anything Inhumans related right now, but at the same time what I'd like to see is Marvel going epic and getting the classic characters back into the fold. I'd like to see Marvel doing more than Civil War Part II and Dark Reign Part II and Norman Osborn taking over an Iron Man suit, I mean, Victor Von Doom. I'd like to see Marvel Comics tapping into the success of Marvel in the world right now because of Marvel Studios and getting truly "all-new, all-different", and correct me if I'm wrong, but "all-new, all-different" back then didn't mean to make every character interchangeable, did it? No, Marvel created new ones, like they are doing with Mosaic right now. Creating replacement characters for the sake of "diversity" or for the sake of copyright money for Marvel Comics favorite creators isn't the way to go, that's what I'm saying. If they needed to kill Jim Rhodes so bad and get someone else in the gray War Machine armor, do it like James Aaron and use the in continuity characters. Like the Russo Brothers said, they didn't kill War Machine and tried their hardest to make every character shine in Captain America: Civil War, because anyone of them is someone else's favorite. It's a very difficult balance, it's obviously way hard in serialized storytelling, but if death in comics has become a joke, why to keep doing it? Why not make Rhodes a mentor to his niece genius? Why to take away a piece of the table if eventually you'll bring it back like it always happens in comics? DC Rebirth is all about celebrating what is the best about DC Comics. Marvel seems to going the opposite and for what the CBR poll says and several other articles talking about Marvel Comics direction, it's backfiring it. The most emotional moment I had with comics this year was when Wally West came back in DC Rebirth. They have a new Wally West in New 52 that happens to be a black kid and the actual Kid Flash. He isn't from a parallel Earth. His origin story isn't contrived. He isn't called Wawa Williams, he's deeply rooted in DC Comics continuity and he doesn't look or sounds like a gimmick. He's Wally West, the Kid Flash, and it's great. And then there's the other older Wally West, which is also great. Get creative, Marvel. And by creative I mean ask Wanda Maximoff to say "no more replacement characters". Create new ones. If you're going with legacy characters, make their origin to actually make sense, don't create another one out of the blue air when there's already one with the exact same attributes like the one you are creating that could make for an actual legacy character if done right. Think things through and not just throw them at us with a neat marketing campaign. We all know that you can do better than this.

[Sasquatch by Night]

Man, you are on point with absolutely everything you said. I'm trying to be optimistic about the whole thing, but this just stinks. I would easily put Rhodey into my top 5 of Marvel heroes; I collected Iron Man comics as a kid, mostly the back issues of the Layton/Michiline run, where Rhodey was depicted as more than Tony's "sidekick". He was his friend, the guy who always had his back, & IMO more of a man than Tony. & while I wasn't a huge fan of the Iron Patriot, I thought the character of Lila was a great addition. I honestly thought they would go the MCU route, & have him paralyzed. He then could mentor Lila. & honestly, no one knows what to do with Rhodey anyway, so having him as a mentor to a young legacy character would breath new life into him. But nope, a blood sacrifice was required for the event, & Rhodey unfortunately fell under the gaze of Bendis.

[skyvolt2000]

The curious thing is why. Why Marvel Comics is so welcome to Bendis creating new characters to replace previously established ones? Is it for diversity? Or is there something else going on

Because it's easier to credit and compensate ONE person versus a lot.

It's easier to do this with him versus guys like Hickman who have other projects at different companies.

It's easier to have him on YOUR side versus you battling him. Remember Powers didn't need Marvel to be a show or a comic series.

Remember they gave up on Robert Kirkman after axing his Jubliee comic. You think they want a redo on that now? You think they enjoy seeing Walking Dead under Image and a show on AMC with better ratings than all the Marvel shows?

If you are Marvel you are going to do whatever it takes to keep folks who you view as threats on your side.

[Michael Watkins]

Because it's easier to credit and compensate ONE person versus a lot.

It's easier to do this with him versus guys like Hickman who have other projects at different companies.

It's easier to have him on YOUR side versus you battling him. Remember Powers didn't need Marvel to be a show or a comic series.

Remember they gave up on Robert Kirkman after axing his Jubliee comic. You think they want a redo on that now? You think they enjoy seeing Walking Dead under Image and a show on AMC with better ratings than all the Marvel shows?

If you are Marvel you are going to do whatever it takes to keep folks who you view as threats on your side.

do people actually watch Powers? it seems like kind of a garbage show; like not even on 'Arrow's level. but that's just my take on it. if Marvel's going to give someone carte blanche, I'd rather it be someone like Hickman or Brubaker. Bendis hasn't created anything that I want to read, yet. :shrugs:

[ijacksparrow]

Because it's easier to credit and compensate ONE person versus a lot.

It's easier to do this with him versus guys like Hickman who have other projects at different companies.

It's easier to have him on YOUR side versus you battling him. Remember Powers didn't need Marvel to be a show or a comic series.

Remember they gave up on Robert Kirkman after axing his Jubliee comic. You think they want a redo on that now? You think they enjoy seeing Walking Dead under Image and a show on AMC with better ratings than all the Marvel shows?

If you are Marvel you are going to do whatever it takes to keep folks who you view as threats on your side.

Well then they are literally shooting themselves on their own arm and ruining their continuity over keeping Bendis happy? Because if that's really the case, they are keeping the wrong guy. They should do whatever they could to keep Mark Millar or Jonathan Hickman around instead, at the very least the first one is a marketing genius that created his own universe and Hickman could literally architect the whole Marvel Universe by himself. He's that good. Bendis? Not so much, obviously by almost twenty years of him writing Marvel Comics. What I'm saying is that they are keeping the wrong guy happy, if that's the case. With the rumors that Hickman is about to get announced for a DC project at SDCC, possibly Justice League related, then it'd become brutally obvious they are keeping the wrong guy happy.

Also, Ales Kot and Garry Brown created Lila Rhodey, Bendis and Deodato created Riri Williams. They are virtually the same characters, but one is obviously a legacy character that could be used like Jason Aaron did, the other was created by Bendis because ~special treatment~. Seriously, I'd take ANY other of Marvel architects any day of the week if I was the Marvel EiC. Dan Slott created Cindy Moon and it's just genius and not contrived at all, if you don't mind the whole Watcher's eye thing. It's deeply rooted in Spider-Man mythology and the character as concept is brilliant. Marvel should get a guy like Dan happy and creating new characters, not Bendis.

[ijacksparrow]

do people actually watch Powers? it seems like kind of a garbage show; like not even on 'Arrow's level. but that's just my take on it. if Marvel's going to give someone carte blanche, I'd rather it be someone like Hickman or Brubaker. Bendis hasn't created anything that I want to read, yet. :shrugs:

I daydream with Ed Brubaker working on Captain America books again.

[Michael Watkins]

now I really want Lila as Rhodey's mechanic. it's too bad that he's so entrenched in military stuff, nowadays. I kind of miss Rhodey being a freelancer.

[Johnrevenge]

Well then they are literally shooting themselves on their own arm and ruining their continuity over keeping Bendis happy? Because if that's really the case, they are keeping the wrong guy. They should do whatever they could to keep Mark Millar or Jonathan Hickman around instead, at the very least the first one is a marketing genius that created his own universe and Hickman could literally architect the whole Marvel Universe by himself. He's that good. Bendis? Not so much, obviously by almost twenty years of him writing Marvel Comics. What I'm saying is that they are keeping the wrong guy happy, if that's the case. With the rumors that Hickman is about to get announced for a DC project at SDCC, possibly Justice League related, than it'd become brutally obvious they are keeping the wrong guy happy.

Yeah I agree, but Marvel shouldn't only keep one guy happy. They have some writers that have proven to have much more potential than Bendis and their ideas could be amazing (G. Willow Wilson, Al Ewing, Charles Soule or Cullen Bunn for example). If they allowed more writers to have more freedom and chances to develope their ideas instead of spoiling and pampering only one writer, then Marvel wouldn't struggle too much and wouldn't have to resort to constant changes of status quo and radical changes in an attempt to appeal readers.

[Michael Watkins]

I daydream with Ed Brubaker working on Captain America books again.

he got me to read the title and I'm not even a Cap fan.

[ijacksparrow]

Yeah I agree, but Marvel shouldn't only keep one guy happy. They have some writers that have proven to have much more potential than Bendis and their ideas could be amazing (G. Willow Wilson, Al Ewing, Charles Soule or Cullen Bunn for example). If they allowed more writers to have more freedom and chances to develope their ideas instead of spoiling and pampering only one writer, then Marvel wouldn't struggle too much and wouldn't have to resort to constant changes of status quo and radical changes in an attempt to appeal readers.

Hell, look at Dan Slott. The man created Silk, Clash, Alpha, helped with Spider-Gwen and I'm not even talking about the brand new villains and support characters. The guy lives and breaths Marvel Universe. Has their best selling Marvel comic book title. Wrote two, not one, but TWO of their most positively viewed superhero sagas of the century. Critically acclaimed with Silver Surfer. And yet he has to argument with Bendis over not killing Peter Parker, again. Bendis wants New York for Miles Morales because he wants him to not be Spider-Man* but ~the~ Spider-Man and there off Spider-Man goes in a storyline where Slott is doing the best he can, but isn't really as good as his previous stories. Why the hell Dan Slott isn't writing an Avengers book again? Why the hell Bendis is writing a Marvel event after pretty much everything else he worked on was heavily criticized and still is to this very day? Why isn't Dan Slott the guy writing this year's Marvel event? Or Al Ewing, the new up and coming? Hell, isn't Jason Aaron good enough to write this? Why the hell Bendis is still writing Marvel Comics and Jonathan Hickman, Rick Remender, The Fractions and Ed Brubaker aren't? I couldn't agree more with you.

[Johnrevenge]

Hell, look at Dan Slott. The man created Silk, Clash, Alpha, helped with Spider-Gwen and I'm not even talking about the brand new villains and support characters. The guy lives and breaths Marvel Universe. Has their best selling Marvel comic book title. Wrote two, not one, but TWO of their most positively viewed superhero sagas of the century. Critically acclaimed with Silver Surfer. And yet he has to argument with Bendis over not killing Peter Parker, again. Bendis wants New York for Miles Morales because he wants him to not be Spider-Man* but ~the~ Spider-Man and there off Spider-Man goes in a storyline where Slott is doing the best he can, but isn't really as good as his previous stories. Why the hell Dan Slott isn't writing an Avengers book again? Why the hell Bendis is writing a Marvel event after pretty much everything else he worked on was heavily criticized and still is to this very day? Why isn't Dan Slott the guy writing this year's Marvel event? Or Al Ewing, the new up and coming? Hell, isn't Jason Aaron good enough to write this? Why the hell Bendis is still writing Marvel Comics and Jonathan Hickman, Rick Remender, The Fractions and Ed Brubaker aren't? I couldn't agree more with you.

I liked some of Dan Slott work, there are a couple of things that I didn't like but he had done more things that I liked and I think he is doing a good job with Peter. It would be good to see Hickman again but I doubt that he will work with Marvel for a while (after all Secret Wars was the epic conclussion of all his stories since he started working in Marvel), he probably needs a time to take a break and reorganize and search for new ideas and inspirations before returning to Marvel (in an interview near the end of Secret Wars, he confirmed that someday he will return to Marvel).

Marvel has two big problems: the first one is the constant change of status quo every five or six months, so readers barely have time to get used to the new titles and status quo and it ended becoming something exhausting and tiring. The other second problem is Bendis who has too much power and freedom in Marvel and he can practically do whatever he wants (he is one of the big responsibles of the constant changes of status quo, as events of Secret Invasion, Siege, Age of Ultron or AvX and status quo like Dark Age, Heroic Age, Shattered Heroes were done by him).

Look at DC rebirth for example, they are returning to the classics, but with some mix of the new elements of the new52 (practically the few that worked well) and giving power to other writers (Dan Abnett for example). With this All-marvel-now they have announced this fall, it looked like Marvel is doing their own version of new52 and by the looks of it, it will obviously blow up in their faces. They need to give more chances to the other writers they have or they are going to be in serious troubles.

[ijacksparrow]

I liked some of Dan Slott work, there are a couple of things that I didn't like but he had done more things that I liked and I think he is doing a good job with Peter. It would be good to see Hickman again but I doubt that he will work with Marvel for a while (after all Secret Wars was the epic conclussion of all his stories since he started working in Marvel), he probably needs a time to take a break and reorganize and search for new ideas and inspirations before returning to Marvel (in an interview near the end of Secret Wars, he confirmed that someday he will return to Marvel).

The argument you mentioned between Bendis and Slott, reminds me to the arguments Bendis had with Geoff Johns, back when Johns wrote the Avengers (Bendis wanted to kill Scott Lang in his ongoing of Jessica Jones while Johns was in the Avengers, and he finally got his wish when he took over the group ).

Marvel has two big problems: the first one is the constant change of status quo every five or six months, so readers barely have time to get used to the new titles and status quo and it ended becoming something exhausting and tiring. The other second problem is Bendis who has too much power and freedom in Marvel and he can practically do whatever he wants (he is one of the big responsibles of the constant changes of status quo, as events of Secret Invasion, Siege, Age of Ultron or AvX and status quo like Dark Age, Heroic Age, Shattered Heroes were done by him).

Look at DC rebirth for example, they are returning to the classics, but with some mix of the new elements of the new52 (practically the few that worked well) and giving power to other writers (Dan Abnett for example). With this All-marvel-now they have announced this fall, it looked like Marvel is doing their own version of new52 and by the looks of it, it will obviously blow up in their faces. They need to give more chances to the other writers they have or they are going to be in serious troubles.

Agree on all accounts, even though it's obvious that Bendis is their "yes man" as well. I just wish that other writers like Slott had their fair share. I'd love to see Marvel keeping Jonathan Hickman around and no, I don't think it was about getting burn out, just not getting paid enough, most of Hickman tweets indicate he just wasn't happy enough when he was writing for Marvel, and I'd easily take his comics over anything Bendis writes any day of the week.

Also, Geoff Johns, Scott Snyder and Tom King that Marvel just lost are three of the best writers at DC Comics right now, but my favorite comic from Rebirth so far is Titans, by Dan Abnett and Brett Booth. This guy with Andy Lanning "just" paved the way for Marvel to make the Guardians of the Galaxy stars, his Hercules run is nothing short an epic story of redemption that could easily translate beautifully as an worthy entry for the Marvel Studios films and yet, Marvel Comics completely ignores the book and leave it to its own devices. Marvel just promotes stuff that they can make a splash page in some news website, when great gems like Abnett's Hercules get lost in the shuffle, while the guy gets to write both Titans and Aquaman for DC Comics. Marvel Comics situation when it comes to dealing with their talents and giving them opportunities to shine is just sad really. Abnett should be the one writing the Guardians of the Galaxy comic right now, not Bendis. But the guy is literally everywhere.

[Johnrevenge]

Agree on all accounts, even though it's obvious that Bendis is their "yes man" as well. I just wish that other writers like Slott had their fair share. I'd love to see Marvel keeping Jonathan Hickman around and no, I don't think it was about getting burn out, just not getting paid enough, most of Hickman tweets indicate he just wasn't happy enough when he was writing for Marvel, and I'd easily take his comics over anything Bendis writes any day of the week.

Also, Geoff Johns, Scott Snyder and Tom King that Marvel just lost are three of the best writers at DC Comics right now, but my favorite comic from Rebirth so far is Titans, by Dan Abnett and Brett Booth. This guy with Andy Lanning "just" paved the way for Marvel to make the Guardians of the Galaxy stars, his Hercules run is nothing short an epic story of redemption that could easily translate beautifully as an worthy entry for the Marvel Studios films and yet, Marvel Comics completely ignores the book and leave it to its own devices. Marvel just promotes stuff that they can make a splash page in some news website, when great gems like Abnett's Hercules get lost in the shuffle, while the guy gets to write both Titans and Aquaman for DC Comics. Marvel Comics situation when it comes to dealing with their talents and giving them opportunities to shine is just sad really. Abnett should be the one writing the Guardians of the Galaxy comic right now, not Bendis. But the guy is literally everywhere.

I didn't know about Hickman not getting paid enough (he deserved a great payment for his work at Marvel), I just thought he mainly quit to take a break from Marvel as Secret wars was the epic conclussion of all his work. Hope to see him again in marvel.

And yeah, Marvel doesn't know how to treat well the great writers and they move to DC or start working in independet editorials like Aftershock. Abnett was the one who should have returned writing Guardians of the Galaxy, he was the one alongside Lanning who rose the Marvel cosmic to it's glory. Bendis wanted to get the book just to get advantage of the success from the movie. With Bendis, Guardians of the Galaxy lacks of direction (the new 52 Teen Titans and new 52 suicide squad had more sense of direction than Bendis' Guardians). Abnett had done a terrific work with Hercules and it's a shame that marvel didn't appreciate it (at least they allowed him to finish what he started with Hercules), but luckily DC knew how to treat Abnett better and he is doing a great job with Titans and Aquaman.

Marvel must change their way to treat their writers and artists.

[Michael Watkins]

Agree on all accounts, even though it's obvious that Bendis is their "yes man" as well. I just wish that other writers like Slott had their fair share. I'd love to see Marvel keeping Jonathan Hickman around and no, I don't think it was about getting burn out, just not getting paid enough, most of Hickman tweets indicate he just wasn't happy enough when he was writing for Marvel, and I'd easily take his comics over anything Bendis writes any day of the week.

Also, Geoff Johns, Scott Snyder and Tom King that Marvel just lost are three of the best writers at DC Comics right now, but my favorite comic from Rebirth so far is Titans, by Dan Abnett and Brett Booth. This guy with Andy Lanning "just" paved the way for Marvel to make the Guardians of the Galaxy stars, his Hercules run is nothing short an epic story of redemption that could easily translate beautifully as an worthy entry for the Marvel Studios films and yet, Marvel Comics completely ignores the book and leave it to its own devices. Marvel just promotes stuff that they can make a splash page in some news website, when great gems like Abnett's Hercules get lost in the shuffle, while the guy gets to write both Titans and Aquaman for DC Comics. Marvel Comics situation when it comes to dealing with their talents and giving them opportunities to shine is just sad really. Abnett should be the one writing the Guardians of the Galaxy comic right now, not Bendis. But the guy is literally everywhere.

yeah, I'm (surprisingly) loving Hercules. it's a great comeback story for Herc. it's kind of what they tried to do with Carol Danvers post-House of M. loving his landlord and Gilgamesh as supporting characters.