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rhodey
STOP MUSIC4 In the first issue we meet RHODEY, towards the end of his WAR MACHINE
days. His WM experiences has changed him a bit from the more adventurous
guy from Michelinie/Layton to a more composed, steely-eyed poker-faced
George Clooney type.
There's this part of town, these few square blocks of Brooklyn, called
Hell Town. Rhodey is brought to Hell Town when his sister, whom he
hasn't spoken to in years because she's a junkie or some such, gets
killed. Rhodey, who has been jet setting with Stark and having
adventures as WAR MACHINE and, I suppose, setting up his own business,
experiences the impact of his neglect.
Rhodey, a little in denial about his own familial neglect, channels his
grief and guilt into anger. A furious Rhodey declares something must be
done about this.
By Issue Two some time has passed. Josiah
“X” al hajj Saddiq— a Muslim minister— is the dominant voice of social
activism in the Little Mogadishu area.
GRACE & TUMBALT, a largely black-owned corporation, has
developed a high-end subdivision there called Princeton Walk.
Princeton Walk is, officially, an oasis of sorts: a DMZ where absolutely
no crime whatsoever exists. It is, literally, the crime-free world
super-heroes have been battling to create. It’s a completely Bill Cosby-esque
gentrified and exclusive Brooklyn neighborhood. This idea is modeled
largely on what’s happened to Atlanta’s upper middle class black
neighborhoods.
But the Disneyesque oasis has created a larger, much worse Hell Town
around it. Surrounding Princeton Walk is LITTLE MOGADISHU: a lawless no
man's land where even police fear to tread (we even call it, "The
Mog"). Cops patrol The Mog in platoons, at times escorted by National
Guard troops and Black Hawk choppers. It is a *really* hostile hot zone.
WAR MACHINE HOLO ARMOR Mk I To: Tom Brevoort
From: Priest
Subject: Rhodey's New Armor
This is a version of the Iron Man armor that is composed
entirely of hard light. In its inactive state, the armor exists
entyirely inside a SINGLE gauntlet— an articulated metal
gauntlet in classic Iron Man design. Rhodey will often wear this
single gauntlet on missions, and will activate the Holo Armor
from a stud in the metal glove.
When
activated, there's this light show (a la Havoc of the X-Men),
and the suit forms some extrapolation of the Iron Man suit
completely out of force fields and energy photons.
When first introduced, the Holo Armor does not work well at all.
Mid-way thru the first arc, Danny "Junta" Vincent will give
Rhodey a tiny quantum singularity: a little gravity well no
bigger than a thimble. A human trapped in a gravity well, Danny
is slightly out of phase with our plane of existence. The
quantum singularity will stabilize the force fields employed by
the Holo Armor (holograms are created by force fields and
light). Thus, ONLY Rhodey's Holo Armor will function properly.
The quantum singularity cannot be reproduced (at least not by
anybody short of Dr. Doom, Ultron, Annihilus or other characters
we're not supposed to mention).
The down side of this armor is it is extremely energy hungry, a
gas guzzler if you will. It is not for casual walking around
use, like the Stark armor. Rhodey will always wait until the
VERY last and most desperate moment to fire it up, and there'd
be this, literal, ticking clock— an extrapolation of the old
Gene Colan days— where the Holo Suit would be functional only
for a set amount of time, say 1 hour or less.
Firing repulsors, flying, or creating tractor beams DRASTICALLY
shortens the life of the suit.
Once the suit's power is gone, it changes back into a glove
(Cinderella's slipper), and it takes X-Hours to recharge (solar
cells or similar).
I'd like to lose the shoulder mounted gatling gun and rocket
launcher and such. I never liked them, they were just dumb to
me.
In design the suit should remind us of Iron Man armor. Sleek,
translucent, streamlined. War Machine is no longer the
over-blown juggernaut but is now a much more stealthy character.
WAR MACHINE An Overview by Tim Rassbach
THE IRON MAN ARMORY The true original, always best, most imitated, even downright
plagiarized, Shellhead page
FIRST APPEARANCE:
Iron Man #281, 1993
War Machine #1 - April, 1994
No true Iron Man fan should be without knowledge of this
dimension of the Marvel Universe. Although War Machine was a
rather uneven comic at best, it rounds out the Shellhead legend
and spotlights one of Marvel's greatest supporting characters:
Jim Rhodes.
A muchly anticipated Iron Man spin-off, War Machine ran for only
25 issues. Though it often showed potential, the magazine was
held hostage to stupid and long cross-overs that didn't allow
War Machine, or his supporting cast to develop on their own.
(Almost half the issues are in service of Marvel cross-overs.)
In the end, even the introduction of a new alien armor didn't
prevent the War Machine title from stumbling and dying in #18,
although no one informed the creators for another seven issues.
If the cross-overs had been good stories, maybe War Machine
would've survived. Unfortunately the title had one more bad
strike against it. War Machine suffered the curse of ever
changing writers/artists during its short life. When a permanent
crew (Abnett/Haynes) finally settled in, things didn't get any
better. While writer Dan Abnett's stories were good enough
(excluding Cross Overs), what killed War Machine was the art.
Certainly writing is the most important thing in comic
storytelling—but no matter how good the story is, you've gotta
be able to look at it. I'm
quite sure that the title would have endured longer had the
artistic quality been even just average.
Although War Machine started out as just another one of Tony
Stark's armor upgrades, he soon became a full-fledged alter-ego
in the hands of James Rhodes.
Built as an all-out offensive armor by Stark just before his
"death," a modified version of the War Machine armor was left to
James Rhodes so that he could continue the Iron Man legacy while
Stark was gone. Upon Stark's return, an infuriated Rhodey gave
up being both Iron Man and Stark's friend, taking the armor as
he went to search for something to believe in.
Rhodes found something to believe in and, not coincidently, his
own monthly title, in War Machine #1 (April, 1994). A pilot,
sometime super hero and former CEO, Jim Rhodes believed that he
could help make a difference in the world if he could just find
the right way. Vincent Cetewayo, a visionary man of peace known
the world over, offered Rhodes just such a chance. Soon, a
brutal thug of a dictator captured the peaceful Cetewayo. When
no one, including SHIELD and The Avengers, would help Cetewayo,
Rhodey was forced to make a choice.
Every super hero since Spider-Man has had to live with the
knowledge that with great power comes great responsibility.
Rhodey was no different. He could not sit by while heroes and
nations did nothing to alleviate suffering and oppression. James
Rhodes put on the War Machine armor to act where others had
failed to, to right the wrongs others refused to. In the face of
world-wide condemnation, War Machine took an active role in
maintaining human rights around the globe. He began by going to Imaya to free Cetewayo. While the journey would not be entirely
successful, War Machine struck a blow against oppression and
complacency, freeing a nation in the process.
James Rhodes returned to America, settled in L.A., and became
the Executive Director of WorldWatch International, the Human
Rights group Vincent Cetewayo had founded. As War Machine he
became the world's number one human rights advocate, while
alienating even his closest of friends. Rhodey's penchant for
confrontation, along with his by-any-means-necessary approach,
soon put him on a collision course with the law and other super
heroes, culminating in his first battle royale with his former
friend Tony Stark (as Iron Man).
During his first solo outing in Imaya, Rhodes had his first
encounter with The Advisor, a devil that walked the earth in
human form and promised to be his most sinister foe. Although
The Advisor seemed an ideal arch-nemesis, nothing much would
come of him in the end as the creators just seemed to forget
about him.
War Machine really picked up in #12 where Rhodey encounters the
Rush Club. A clichéd premise produced some pretty awesome
armored villains.
But #15 is where the title really started cooking as War Machine
entered the Time War. Of course, I've always been a sucker for
Nazi bad guys. And they prove their evilness again with a time
traveling saga that really delivers story and art-wise. The Nazi
V3 armor is awesome!
War Machine also took on the many lives of the psycho hit man
Deathtoll, battled the Cold Warrior, and fought against the
Mandarin and his minions, the Avatars.
A dramatic shift in Rhodes' life was the introduction of a new
armor. Departing from Stark's designs was a daring, yet
necessary, step if Rhodes was to ever become a fully developed
hero in the Marvel Universe. After losing his Stark-designed
armor, Rhodes looked forward to returning to civilian life. But
unknown aliens had other ideas. Enter the Eidolon Warwear
System, the pinnacle of xenotechnology. Rhodes was fused to the
suit, a sentient being in its own right, at the genetic level.
The result was a cross between Venom and Spawn, tempered with
Rhodey's new outlook on life.
In the first issue we meet RHODEY, towards the end of his WAR MACHINE
days. His WM experiences has changed him a bit from the more adventurous
guy from Michelinie/Layton to a more composed, steely-eyed poker-faced
George Clooney type.