War Machine
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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.
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Character history
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.
Image:Iron170.jpg 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.
Birth of the War Machine
Rhodes went on a rampage, and Stark was forced to don a crude, prototype suit of armor he was designing as the next generation Iron Man armor to stop his friend. Rhodes gave up the Iron Man identity, and Stark went on to complete the next generation armor, defeat Stane and regain his company. 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 Stark revealed his ruse, it damaged the friendship between the two men, and they went their separate ways.
Image:War Machine (Eidolon Warwear).png
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, Jeanett, died and he was declared bankrupt.
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 the process of reverse engineering the Stark technology. Nick Fury planned to field a squad of War Machines commanded by Rhodes.
Powers and abilities
Among the armor's abilities, many of which were shared by that of the various Iron Man armors, were flight, the ability to project solar energy and "repulsor beams", vast superhuman strength and endurance. He also has many conventional weapons mounted on his armor, such as a chain gun, rocket pods, and his ultimate weapon, 8 low-radiation mini-nukes.
Appearances in other Media
Image:The Hands Of The Mandarin, Part One - Iron Man & War Machine.jpg
War Machine has appeared in the Iron Man animated series, as well as guest starred in the Spider-Man, Hulk, and X-Men animated series played by James Avery in Season 1 and Dorian Harewood in Season 2. Template:Wikibooks In Marvel vs. Capcom, he was originally mostly a palette swap of Iron Man from Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter 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, and was one of the few characters, if not the only one, in the game capable of inflicting (horrendous) block damage on Iceman with his missiles.
In the Ultimates, Black Widow has received a suit of armor from Tony as a wedding present. It is entirely black, and resembles War Machine. As well as this, a group of the Ultimate Reserves uses modified Iron Man suits, with additional weaponry. They are called the 'Rocketmen'.
External links
- MDP: War Machine (James Rhodes) - Marvel Database Project