James "Rhodey" Rhodes Is a United States Air Force colonel and a personal friend of Tony Stark, former CEO of Stark Industries, and co-Avenger. As a military man, James was well-respected by his fellow soldiers.
Due to his friendship with Tony Stark, James was also closely associated with Stark Industries, Tony's business partner Obadiah Stane and Tony's secretary Pepper Potts.
James aided Tony in taking down Stane after he betrayed Tony in an attempt to take over Stark Industries. The next year, James took one of Tony's Iron Man suits after they got into an argument over Tony's usage of the suits, and took it to his Air Force base, where it was upgraded using Hammer Industries technology. With this upgraded suit, James became a superhero known as War Machine.
Biography[]
Journey to Afghanistan[]
James at the award ceremony.
In 2009, James was privileged with nominating an Apogee Award to his friend Tony Sark in Caesars Palace, Las Vegas to nominate. When it became clear that Tony had not attended the nominations, Tony's business partner Obadiah Stane stepped in to accept the Award on Tony's behalf. James later found Tony at the palace's casino, where he handed Tony the Award and told him to not be late the next day.[1]
The next day, James prepared for their flight to Afghanistan to present Stark Industries' latest weapon. Having waited for three hours, James saw Tony and his personal driver Happy Hogan arriving at the airport and the three of them entered the plan. After some squabbling between James and Tony, Tony asked for hot sake from a stewardess, to which James disagreed. Nonetheless, the two of them ended up getting drunk and holding a party inside the plane.[1]
Tony held a presentation to show the Jericho, Stark Industries' latest weapon, to the United States Army in Afghanistan. Before James could speak to Tony again, he had already entered another wagon in the convoy back to base. James commented Tony on the presentation and returned to his wagon. The convoy was ambushed before reaching the base, and while James remained unharmed, Tony was kidnapped by their ambushers, the Ten Rings.[1]
The Iron Man project[]
James and Tony reunite in Afghanistan.
Three months later, James and a handful of other soldiers found Tony in the Afghan desert after scouting the area by helicopters. Tony and James returned to the United States together, and Tony requested a press conference upon his return. James attended the conference, where he heard Tony make the statement that he was shutting down Stark Industries' weapon manufacturing business, to James' disappointment.[1]
James later met with Tony at a United States Air Force base, where Tony asked James to help him out with a project that he was going to start. When James heard that the project was not for the military, James ignored the idea, and told his friend to take some time off to get his mind right.[1]
James calling with Tony.
The US Air Force later called James in to look at an unidentified object traveling over the Afghan areas. With nobody being able to make out what it was, James suspected Tony to have something to do with it and called him. Meanwhile two Air Force jets pursued the object to take it down. Tony, who was secretly testing out his new Iron Man suit, initially denied involvement. After shaking off the two jets, Tony called James again and revealed it was him inside a suit. After Tony rescued one of the jet pilots by manually activating his parachute after he accidentally blew the pilot's jet up, James called Tony, thankful for saving the pilot, but clarified that he wished to know as little as possible about the project.[1]
Struggle against Obadiah Stane[]
James later got a call from Tony's assistant Pepper Potts, telling him that Obadiah paid to have Tony killed in Afghanistan and that Obadiah was building his own mechanical suit. When asked where Tony was now, Pepper answered that he was not picking up his phone, and James rushed towards Tony's Malibu residence.[1]
James looking at the Mark II.
James entered the mansion, but only found Tony nearly passed out in the garage, where he helped Tony get inside his Mark III armor, amazed by how it worked. Tony hurried off to rescue Pepper from Obadiah, and James took a peak Tony's Mark II armor, but decided to leave it alone for another time.[1]
Once he returned to the Air Force base, he noticed that the Air Force had noticed Tony Stark and Obadiah Stane on their radar, but notified the soldiers that it was "just a training exercise" before they could take action.[1]
James later gave an official statement about the battle between Tony and Stane at the Stark Industries arc reactor facility. Afterwards Tony followed James by also making a statements about the events, where he eventually ignored the alibi he had been given to by admitting that he was the Iron Man mentioned in the press.[1]