Darren Franich over at PopWatch has an interesting article on James Rhodes, aka War Machine. He mentions how during the time he was reading Iron Man, Rhodes was actually under the armor and he thought that Tony was his replacement. I can empathize with his confusion since during that time, a lot of heroes were being replaced with more (at the time) interesting looking costumes. Batman became Mecha-Batman, aka, Jean-Paul Valley. Superman had Steel, Superboy, Cyborg Superman, and the “Eradicator”. Kyle Rayner became the new, and at the time, last Green Lantern.
Though of course Rhodes’ gig as Iron Man didn’t last, and Tony Stark donned the armor again, but Franich gives Rhodes some serious character props and runs down some highlights in the character’s history including his MAX series U.S. War Machine and his playability in the “Marvel vs Capcom” video games.
I believe my first experience with War Machine was more than likely him being on the Iron Man cartoon. I’m currently not reading any Iron Man books, but I keep being told I’m an idiot for passing up what’s going on in Invincible Iron Man. I love both Don Cheadle and Terrance Howard as actors (namely Cheadle’s portrayal as Sammy Davis, jr from The Rat Pack and Howard as Dee Jay in Hustle and Flow).
The reveal of the Iron Man 2 poster has me terribly excited and I’ve heard rumors that the trailer will be attached to Sherlock Holmes, which opens up on Christmas Day.
December 1st, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Actually Rhodey took over as Iron Man for almost 2 years in the early 80s a good decade before Knightfall, Kyle Rayner and the various Supermen. Denny O’Neil had Stark go on a bender & literally ended up on Skid Row. then they hit the status quo button.
December 1st, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Looking forward to the movie although it will be hard to duplicate the success of Iron Man
December 1st, 2009 at 7:35 pm
You’re not missing much with Invincible Iron Man’s current title. The first arc, the Five Nightmares or whatever was great and promising stuff, but World’s Most Wanted was decompressed and only decent imo. The current arc has sweet covers though and it’s kinda soon to tell whether it will awesome or just ok.
December 1st, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Rhodey’s always going to be my Iron Man, since my first real time with the title in the Secret Wars era was his hey-day.
December 2nd, 2009 at 4:06 am
You got your eras mixed up. Marvel did its replacement hero stuff in the 80′s, while DC did theirs in the 90′s.
As far as Invincible Iron Man–fantastic stuff, so you’re missing out.
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:28 am
Rhodey was Iron Man during the Secret Wars, which I always thought was interesting. He was essentially new to the role, and suddenly, here he is in the middle of one of Marvel’s biggest events ever.
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Lan, as someone not reading too many comics any more I’ll say it too. You’re an idiot for not reading Invincible Iron Man.
I’m kidding about the idiot part, but not about “Invincible”… One of the few comics out there giving me regular enjoyment, month in and month out, anymore. In spite of IM’s success on the big screen, it’s been a real sleeper book for Marvel (as was “Director of SHIELD” prior to that).
And, yes… All that DC replacement stuff was in the 90′s. And again now, alas.
April 7th, 2010 at 4:27 am
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April 7th, 2010 at 5:01 am
see iron man 2 online at http://movies.neverseen.net
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