Top 10 Alternate Iron Man Facts – War Machine Facts
Hey guys!
Welcome back to Top 10 Nerd, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
War Machine is one of the most popular Iron Man characters ever; some fans even prefer
him to Tony.
We’ve gotten to see two takes on Rhodey in the MCU, but there’s still a heck of
a lot that many people don’t know about the guy.
So let’s fix that.
I’ll talk mostly about comic stuff, and throw in a few real life tidbits just for
giggles.
If you finish this and want more, check out our video on the Top 10 Superhero Assistants
next!
But first, get ready, it’s time for Top 10 Facts about James Rhodes, aka, War Machine!
Also, in case you were wondering, we had to word the title strangely because YouTube gets
all sensitive if you have War in the title even in this context.
It’s annoying, but it’s not our fault.
C’est la vie.
(Editors, remove this if the title has War in it, we don’t know if it will be as of
now) Number 10: He was the second Iron Man.
At this point, most people know that James Rhodes wears Iron Man armour from time to
time as War Machine.
But what some don’t realize is that he got his start as a replacement for Tony.
Rhodes became close to Tony when he was working as his pilot, and when Stark’s alcoholism
stopped him from being Iron Man, good ol’ Jimmy stepped in, becoming the second Iron
Man.
It wasn’t until later, when Tony was back in action, that he created the heavily-armed
black War Machine suit we all know and love.
Nice.
Number 9: Don Cheedle’s anxiety.
Many of us may have imagined how claustrophobic we’d be in an Iron man suit, but Don Cheedle
experienced it first-hand.
Apparently it was really distressing to be unable to lift your arms, or touch your face,
or do much of anything.
Don Cheedle has said that he took, in his words, All kinds of things to deal with the
claustrophobia, and frankly, I don’t blame him.
Number 8: He lost his suit after fighting Nazis.
Yep, not only has Rhodey seen success in both the military and heroics, he’s gone back
in time to do it even more during World War 2.
When a group of Neonazis was trying to send weapons back in time to help the Nazis win
the war, War Machine went back to help Cap and Bucky defeat the baddies.
However, Rhodey created a paradox of sorts when he killed the father of the Neo-Nazi
from present time, and the resulting time reset caused him to lose the War Machine armour.
But he wasn’t without a suit for long…
Number 7: Alien Armour.
(Eye-DOLE-en) Soon after the time traveling shenanigans, Rhodey ends up putting on an
alien suit in order to defeat a dangerous alien called a Lictor.
It turns out that the suit was Warwear made by the Eidolon race.
It was a sentient suit that could adapt itself to meet the needs of the wearer, rather like
the Venom symbiote that you guys know all about by now.
It could even summon drones to help him in battle, and would revert back to a chest tattoo
when not needed.
And this armour came in handy when he came up against an old friend…
Number 6: He fought against Tony Stark.
Tony found himself under the influence of Kang the Conqueror, who was actually Immortus,
and Rhodey was tasked with stopping him.
He fought his mind-controlled friend alongside a teenage version of Tony, and in the end,
Stark broke the mind control long enough to sacrifice himself, allowing his teenage self
to take his place as Iron Man.
Some time after this, Rhodey used the alien armour to prevent Stark’s armour research
from being stolen, and he lost access to his warwear, but it was fun while it lasted.
Number 5: He was part of The Crew.
Here’s one part of War Machine’s story that a lot of people are totally unaware of.
After pissing all his money away from his business, Jim heard that his sister had been
murdered.
This was the last straw for him, and he ended up going to The Mog, a crime-riddled area
of Brooklyn.
He joined other heroes, including Josiah X, White Tiger, and Junta, to fight against the
66 Bridges gang.
Sadly, the series was cancelled after just 7 issues, which is part of why so few people
know about it.
But the crew got pretty sick as time went on, later including Luke Cage, Black Panther,
and Storm, among others.
Number 4: He was the second Iron Patriot.
Comic fans may know Iron Patriot as the Iron Man armour used by Norman Osborne, but he
wasn’t the last person to use the name.
After AIM stole a bunch of Iron Patriot Drones and used them to frame the US for international
attacks, SHIELD learned that these sentient drones could actually be reasoned with.
And due to Rhodey’s time with the suits, the drones respected him as “The Pilot”,
and allowed him to teach them the proper way to act.
Donning a new Iron patriot armour, Jim went on to attack AIM with his badass army of Patriot
drones.
So.
Sick.
Number 3: The Terence Howard situation.
I’m sure a lot of you know SOMETHING about the recasting, but there are a lot of misconceptions
so I thought I’d clear it up.
Some people think it was him getting too greedy, but that’s not quite the case.
It turns out, he was already supposed to be making 8 million dollars for the second film,
but when it came time to film, they only offered him an eighth of what he was originally promised.
So you can’t really blame him for being pissed.
Now, the offer was still a million dollars to pretend to be someone on screen, and frankly
there isn’t much I WOULDN’T do on screen for a million dollars, but it definitely makes
sense that he wasn’t keen on being lowballed by the studio.
Number 2: He became a Cyborg.
While testing fighter jets in Dubai, Rhodey was set upon by a terrorist group, resulting
in the loss of his arms, legs, and half his face.
Thankfully, Tony saved him, using bleeding edge technology to turn him into a totally
awesome cyborg.
And I’m calling it now, we’re gonna be seeing Cyborg Rhodes in Infinity War.
You heard it here first.
Anyway, he stayed a Cyborg for a while, until his consciousness was transferred into a clone
body.
And he stayed in the clone body, until, well…
Number 1: The death.
Yep, this list would not be complete without discussing the death of Jim Rhodes.
In Civil War 2, Rhodes became the US Secretary of Defense.
He went on to help the Ultimates and iNhumans fight Thanos at Project Pegasus, hoping to
ambush him to keep him away from the cosmic cube.
Sadly, during the fight, Thanos punched clean through the armour and killed War Machine,
which led to some pretty serious tension between Tony Stark and Captain Marvel.
With War Machine and Thanos both slated to appear in Infinity Wars, we may see a repeat
of this, but that’s a story for another day.
That’s it for today!
Hope you guys enjoyed, if you did please smack that thumbs up button and subscribe to Top
10 Nerd for more videos!
Let me know if you want a part 2 for this, there’s so much to talk about I had to leave
a bunch out!
And if you want a sweet playlist to watch so you can just relax and let the nerdiness
wash over you, check out our Top 10 Alternate Versions playlist on the channel!
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Top 10 nerd.
Later nerds!
He pissed his money away.