he’s gone from personal assistant of
Tony Stark to successor and member of
the West Coast Avengers welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’ll be
exploring the comic book origin of war
machine as with most comic book
characters there are often reimagine
ations and different versions to a
character’s past we have chosen to
primarily follow the storyline which
unfolded in Iron Man number 144 and was
expanded on in later Iron Man comics
born in South Philadelphia Pennsylvania
James Rupert Rhodes was a lieutenant in
the United States military Corps serving
his tour of duty in Southeast Asia as a
combat pilot his helicopter was shot
down by the Vietcong trapping him behind
enemy lines while struggling to repair
his vehicle Tony Stark happened across
Rosa’s location in his first prototype
version of the Iron Man suit having just
escaped from a prison camp allowing
Stark to drain the remaining power from
his helicopter to recharge his armor the
two work together to uncover and destroy
a hidden enemy rocket base before
leaving Vietnam stark offered Rhodes a
job as a pilot following the conclusion
of his military service initially
refusing he eventually returned to
accept the offer becoming Starks
personal pilot and chief aviation
engineer while working at Stark
International the two men became good
friends and Rhodes stood behind Stark
and his struggles against various
opponents however Rhodes would
eventually dawn the Iron Man armor when
Tony fell into alcoholism offering to
return the suit when he was done it was
instead asked to take on the
responsibility full-time joining the
newly formed West Coast Avengers under
the guise of the original Iron Man he
proved his worth before revealing that
he was a replacement shortly afterwards
he became ill due to the suit
cybernetics not having been calibrated
to his unique brain waves making a
muriatic aggressive and paranoid Rhodes
began to endanger the lives of innocence
this forced Tony to get sober and use
his inferior testbed armor to stop his
friends rampage and reclaim his place as
the true Iron Man unable to use the
technology Rhodes decided to seek out
the help of a mystic shaman who made it
once again possible to operate Starks
armor staying on his Tony’s pilot he was
eventually given his own more heavily
version meant for all-out warfare
finally taking on the role of the war
machine the two friends would
occasionally work together with shield
as Avengers combat an array of
supervillains and threats
Tony Stark to successor and member of
the West Coast Avengers welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’ll be
exploring the comic book origin of war
machine as with most comic book
characters there are often reimagine
ations and different versions to a
character’s past we have chosen to
primarily follow the storyline which
unfolded in Iron Man number 144 and was
expanded on in later Iron Man comics
born in South Philadelphia Pennsylvania
James Rupert Rhodes was a lieutenant in
the United States military Corps serving
his tour of duty in Southeast Asia as a
combat pilot his helicopter was shot
down by the Vietcong trapping him behind
enemy lines while struggling to repair
his vehicle Tony Stark happened across
Rosa’s location in his first prototype
version of the Iron Man suit having just
escaped from a prison camp allowing
Stark to drain the remaining power from
his helicopter to recharge his armor the
two work together to uncover and destroy
a hidden enemy rocket base before
leaving Vietnam stark offered Rhodes a
job as a pilot following the conclusion
of his military service initially
refusing he eventually returned to
accept the offer becoming Starks
personal pilot and chief aviation
engineer while working at Stark
International the two men became good
friends and Rhodes stood behind Stark
and his struggles against various
opponents however Rhodes would
eventually dawn the Iron Man armor when
Tony fell into alcoholism offering to
return the suit when he was done it was
instead asked to take on the
responsibility full-time joining the
newly formed West Coast Avengers under
the guise of the original Iron Man he
proved his worth before revealing that
he was a replacement shortly afterwards
he became ill due to the suit
cybernetics not having been calibrated
to his unique brain waves making a
muriatic aggressive and paranoid Rhodes
began to endanger the lives of innocence
this forced Tony to get sober and use
his inferior testbed armor to stop his
friends rampage and reclaim his place as
the true Iron Man unable to use the
technology Rhodes decided to seek out
the help of a mystic shaman who made it
once again possible to operate Starks
armor staying on his Tony’s pilot he was
eventually given his own more heavily
version meant for all-out warfare
finally taking on the role of the war
machine the two friends would
occasionally work together with shield
as Avengers combat an array of
supervillains and threats
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